A groundbreaking report from GOLD
Through their lived experience of living kidney donation, GOLD’s peer phone buddies have a unique opportunity to empower, educate, and inspire Black patients. They take the complexity of living donation and explain it in a simple and practical way that gives hope.
The one-year pilot project featured in the report tested the introduction of a tailored community peer-led intervention at the start of the pre-emptive recipient pathway to change how we approach, discuss, and deliver living donation education and information to Black kidney patients.
In this report, you will learn how the groundbreaking pilot project has reshaped the narrative of living donation in the Black community and demonstrated “proof of concept” that it is feasible to embed a cost-saving and sustainable tailored peer-led intervention in the pre-emptive recipient pathway.
We genuinely believe this report will lay the groundwork and transform the landscape for a healthier and brighter future for Black kidney recipients, placing them at the heart of Transplantation.
To tackle the disparity and to work towards equity in LDKT we must understand the systemic barriers across healthcare trusts, healthcare professionals and communities; this will enable us to provide a future of co-production and collaborative partnerships to develop strategies to improve access to LDKT for all community groups. The pilot project will establish a blueprint for clinical and community QI by developing ways of working that allow activity across both sectors to be measured and improved iteratively.
The level of engagement described in the report by patients, peer buddies and healthcare professionals in a powerful triangular collaboration is amazing, and in my view forms the basis for expansion of this approach across the UK and across other ethnic communities facing lower rates of living donor kidney transplantation. I am convinced that community-based interventions will change the way Black patients discuss their illness and share their need for a kidney transplant—ideally from a living donor to avoid dialysis.
FRANK JMF DOR MD PHD FEBS (HON) FRCS, CONSULTANT TRANSPLANT, GENERAL AND DIALYSIS ACCESS SURGEON, CLINICAL LEAD FOR TRANSPLANTATION, IMPERIAL COLLEGE RENAL AND TRANSPLANT CENTRE
This report shares our learning of a community-clinical framework to reduce inequity for Black patients in a specific part of the kidney care pathway; the combined expertise of GOLD and clinical teams across three diverse renal centres is key to this. There are also broader learnings here for how community organisations and clinical teams can work in a flat hierarchy to achieve shared aims with a clear framework.