Transplant messaging service to improve health knowledge and confidence in youth and young adult transplant recipients

Project Summary

The goal of this study is to first explore the perspectives of youth and young adults with solid organ transplants on the acceptability and relevancy of a one-way messaging based education platform. The purpose is to then use these perspectives in building an education tool using text notifications that will support transplant health knowledge and health confidence in this population. The study population is solid organ transplant recipients who are 14 to 25 years old. Participants may be current or former patients of the BC Children’s Hospital MOT Clinic, or from another transplant program across Canada. The first part of the study will use semi-structured interviews to solicit perspectives on the acceptability of text-message or notification based education, desired content/topics to provide education on, frequency of contact and customization options. Qualitative description will then be used to explore phenomenon from the interviews. The second phase of the study will involve a pilot study of the messaging based education platform, accessed through the Health Education and Learning Platform "HELP" application, to evaluate acceptability, usability and impact of the platform on youth and young adult participant health knowledge and confidence.

This study is being conducted by a group of transplant pharmacists, nephrologists, social worker and patient-parent partner, with the support of the SOT research team and members of the BCCHR CRSU. The primary investigator is Dr. Katie Haubrich, who is a clinical pharmacist specialist with the Multi-Organ transplant team at BCCH.

Funding support has been provided by the Canadian Society of Transplantation.

Project Status

Status: Active, pre-enrolment
Study Start Date: June 1, 2025

Study Enrolment Status: Active

Project Team

Principal Investigator

Katie Haubrich

Co-investigators

Holly Mansell, Associate Professor, University of Saskatchewan
Jenny Wichart, Pediatric Transplant Clinical Pharmacist, Alberta Children’s Hospital
Laura Beresford, Pediatric Transplant Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, BC Children’s Hospital
Katherine Broad, Social Worker, BC Children’s Hospital
Camille LaRoche, Pediatric Nephrologist, CHU Sainte-Justine
Tom Blydt-Hansen, Pediatric Nephrologist, BC Children’s Hospital
Elaine Yong, Patient and Family Advisor

Research Team Members

Irene Chen, Research Graduate Student, University of British Columbia
Christopher Yu, Undergraduate Student
Asli Ozer, BCCHR Research Coordinator

Enrolment Eligibility Criteria

Patients aged 14 to 25 years old who are recipients of a solid organ transplant and English-speaking will be sought for participation in the semi-structured interviews and in the pilot study.

For more information, view our study poster or email kathryn.haubrich@cw.bc.ca.