Catherine Butler
University of Washington, WA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
For many people whose kidneys have failed, a transplant can be a valuable treatment. Before getting on the path to a new kidney, though, patients must be referred to a transplant center and pass a long physical and psychosocial evaluation.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
kidney transplant
transplant evaluation
kidney failure
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- 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.
- Prioritize items for the KTE-PREM questionnaire through a national survey of referred patients at the Northwest Kidney Centers and Dialysis Clinic, Inc. dialysis organizations.
- Draft the KTE-PREM instrument and refine it through cognitive interviews, in which referred patients talk through how they interpret each question.
- Describe the experiences and perspectives of older adults with kidney failure, their families and their clinicians on transplant evaluation, using qualitative interviews.
- Measure how long each step of the transplant process takes and how likely patients are to complete it, in a large national cohort of patients with kidney failure.
- Adapt and pilot-test a communication tool that supports shared decision-making about transplant referral for older adults with kidney failure.
More about the research
That process can be demanding, confusing and emotionally draining, and many patients, especially older adults, never receive a kidney. This research asks how the evaluation can become more person-centered and fair. One project measures what patients experience during evaluation. The other helps older adults and their clinicians decide together whether to pursue it.
Why it matters
People with kidney failure who are referred for transplant could benefit from an evaluation process that is less burdensome and better matched to their goals. Older adults may benefit most, since many of them will not receive a kidney. A validated patient-experience questionnaire would give clinics, researchers and policymakers a way to measure and improve the evaluation process. A shared decision-making tool could help older patients and their families weigh whether to pursue evaluation.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Laura Siminoff
Temple University, PA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Identify which provider communication behaviors during transplant evaluation consultations lead to living-donor inquiries, evaluations and transplants, using audio-recorded visits for 120 patients and pre- and post-visit surveys.
Dinushika Mohottige
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Quantify over time how structural racism relates to poor kidney health in Black individuals with APOL1 high-risk alleles, using three large APOL1-enriched cohort studies.
Katie Ross-Driscoll
Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, IN·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
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.
The school
University of Washington: 81 labs on PI Pages, $1.7B a year on research, 694 research doctorates a year.
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