Katie Ross-Driscoll
Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, IN·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Cirrhosis is scarring of the liver. It affects about 4.5 million people in the United States and is more common among people living in poverty and those insured by Medicaid.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
liver transplantation
end-stage liver disease
cirrhosis
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2028
What they work on
- Identify patient, social and geographic factors linked to referral for liver transplant among patients with end-stage liver disease, using data from two transplant centers serving 108 counties across Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina.
- Determine which factors influence completing the medical and psychosocial transplant evaluation, combining center data with spatial epidemiology methods that examine how access varies by location.
- Explore barriers to early liver transplant steps through interviews with patients and providers, to inform a future intervention that widens access to referral and evaluation.
More about the research
When it advances to end-stage liver disease (ESLD), with complications such as fluid buildup in the abdomen, bleeding veins and confusion, a liver transplant is the only cure. Getting a transplant takes many steps. A patient must be referred to a specialized center, pass a demanding medical and psychosocial evaluation, and then join the national waiting list. There are known racial, socioeconomic and geographic gaps in who gets onto the list. Because of data limits, however, little is known about who drops out at the earlier steps of referral and evaluation.
Why it matters
Patients with end-stage liver disease, especially those facing racial, socioeconomic or geographic barriers, may never reach a transplant center or finish evaluation. Finding the factors that block referral and evaluation in the Southeast could guide future interventions to make the early steps of liver transplant more equitable.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
David Goldberg
University of Miami, FL·Medicine & Clinical Research
Develop risk prediction models for transplant-free survival among patients with alcohol-associated liver disease who have limited access to transplant, to identify those most in need of early liver transplant referral.
Lisa McElroy
Duke University, NC·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Quantify how many patients are eliminated during the screening, evaluation and committee decision phases of transplant selection using electronic health record data.
Catherine Butler
University of Washington, WA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Identify the concepts that matter in the kidney transplant evaluation experience, using a literature review, existing interview transcripts, and focus groups with referred patients, family members and clinicians.
The school
Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis: 25 labs on PI Pages, $89M a year on research, 120 research doctorates a year.
More about Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis
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