Development and Test of a Communication Skills Training for Transplant Providers - Aims 2 & 3

Starting soon · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Kidney Disease, Chronic, End Stage Renal Disease, Kidney Replacement

In brief

The goal of this clinical trial is to understand the communication occurring between Black and Caucasian patients and their transplant providers during transplant evaluation consultations and assess relationships between these communicative elements and patient and provider factors, patient-reported outcomes and living donor transplant outcomes - living donor referrals, evaluations, and transplants. We will use these findings to inform the development of a communication skills training for transplant providers and test the impact of the training on providers' communication about live donor kidney transplants with Black and Caucasian patients and living donor transplant outcomes. The main questions it aims to answer are: * How does the use of the use of instrumental, relational and affective communication by patients and providers during the transplant consultation differ by patient and provider factors, patient-reported outcomes and patient ethnicity? * What elements of instrumental, relational and affective communication will be predictive of live donor kidney transplant (LDKT) process outcomes (LD inquiries and evaluations, and actual LDKTs)? Participants will be asked to complete brief surveys before and after the transplant consultation and to give permission for the consultation to be audiorecorded. This data will be used to develop a training to educate providers on the key communication factors predictive of LDKT process outcomes specific to Black and Caucasian patients, and provide guidance on their application during patient consultations. Researchers will then compare communication and patient-reported and LDKT process outcomes between trained and untrained providers to see whether the training has any effect on living donor inquiries and evaluations, and actual LDKTs.

Key facts

Study ID: NCT06182475
Run by: Temple University
People needed: 70
Starts: 2026-09-01
Expected to finish: 2027-05-01
Last updated by the study team: 2026-06-12

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 80. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

(1) appear for a kidney transplant evaluation at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center (CBMC) or Temple University Hospital (TUH)
(2) speak English
(3) be of self-reported Black or Caucasian ethnicity
(4) be ≥18 years of age.
Including patients who:
have received prior kidney transplants
patients with limited English proficiency, as long as they speak with the physician via a translator
patients evaluated at offsite satellite locations that are not actually at CBMC or TUHS.
All transplant nephrologists, nurses, and social workers employed at the kidney transplant programs at CBMC and TUH who are actively involved in patient evaluations for transplant will be eligible for participation in the study. Providers refusing to permit digital audio recording of the transplant consultation will be deemed ineligible.

You may not qualify if…

(1) are non-verbal or otherwise unable to converse with providers
(2) are already listed for kidney transplant at CBMC or TUHS or at another transplant center
(3) have limited English proficiency and speak directly with the physician in a language other than English.
Patients having (1) received an offer to donate a kidney from a family member or friend, or (2) explicitly asked a family member or friend to consider serving as a LD will be excluded, along with any patients refusing to permit digital audio recording of the transplant consultation will also be deemed ineligible to participate.
The following special populations will be excluded: adults unable to consent, individuals who are not yet adults (infants, children, teenagers), prisoners, and individuals who do not understand English.
It is unlikely that any female patient will be pregnant while awaiting kidney transplant; however, we will not exclude pregnant women.

Where it is running

Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center — Livingston, New Jersey, United States
Temple University — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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