2024/25
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use in Post Kidney Transplant Patients followed by SPH post-kidney transplant clinic
Natural health products (NHP) are products made from natural ingredients that are used to improve or maintain your health. This includes things such as vitamins and minerals, herbal remedies, homeopathic medicines, traditional medicine products (traditional Chinese medicines, ayurvedic medicine, indigenous medicines), probiotics and other natural products, for example fatty acids.
The use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) has been growing globally. Limited data exists on the prevalence of natural health product and medicine (NHPM) use in kidney transplant recipients (KTR).
As part of this project the team will survey the kidney transplant patients to determine the prevalence of NHPM use as well as information needs and comfort discussing NHPMs with the transplant team at St. Paul’s Hospital. Having a better understanding of patients’ current use and information needs will help inform clinical practice and support the development of a more systematic way of supporting patients with NHPM decision making.
Primary Investigator: Anja Webster
Co-investigators: Erin Waters, Casara Hong, and Lee James
Patient Partner: Julie Panneton
Patient and healthcare providers experience with the Pre-Transplant Coordinator role at Providence Healthcare
Transplantation is the best treatment option for most people with end stage kidney disease. The transplant referral criteria and process is complex and often leads to confusion for both patients and staff. To address this, a newly created “Pre-Transplant Coordinator” role has been created at Providence Healthcare, to help facilitate access to kidney transplantation for patients across the renal program (Kidney Care Clinic, Peritoneal Dialysis, Hemodialysis and Home Hemodialysis). As part of this role, new workflows have been developed with the aim of standardizing practice throughout the program, supporting the patients throughout the process to feel knowledgeable, empowered and confident, as well as providing reassurance to staff in the referring teams that the process is working as it should.
The team will explore patient and staff experiences with this new role. Interviews will be conducted with patients who went through the referral to transplantation process before the existence of this role as well as those who went through the process after. Interviews with staff will also be conducted to elicit healthcare provider feedback. The insights from this qualitative study will help to improve current practice and ensure patient-centred care is being upheld. The findings will also influence how this new role continues to develop and what resources are needed for it to be successful. Similar roles have been created in other BC health authorities and these findings will be useful at informing practice across the province.
Principal investigator: Debra Fairhurst
Co-investigators: Erin Waters and Lee James
Patient Partner: Christine MacArthur