R21 NINR Medication Adherence Grant

1R21NR01454401A1: User-centered, web-based portal to support regimen adherence in transplant

Description

Medication adherence is a major challenge among organ transplant recipients and the leading cause of graft failure in kidney and liver transplant. Studies among primary care patients have found that health literacy is a major risk factor for medication adherence, and that the use of simple, direct, and unambiguous medication language can improve this situation.

Thus far, interventions to improve medication self-management among solid organ transplant recipients have had limited success. This proposal will build upon a substantial evidence base encompassing many individual intervention components in primary care to develop a multifaceted web portal that will serve as key infrastructure for a future, multicomponent intervention to assist new organ transplant recipients in engaging in self-care and managing communications with health care providers.

Specific Aims

1. We will develop a user-centered communications tool that will leverage electronic healthcare records and common technologies (website, SMS text, etc.) to improve medication adherence among transplant recipients.

2. We will use a community-based participatory research approach to design and develop the prototype of a web-based Transplant Patient Portal to help new transplant recipients engage in self-management of their complex medication regimens.