The independent living donor advocate: a guidance document from the American Society of Transplantation's Living Donor Community of Practice (AST LDCOP)

Current perspectives on living donor selection in liver transplantation

The careful selection of donors is crucial to achieving a successful outcome in living donor liver transplantation. The evaluation process involves obtaining a comprehensive medical history and pertinent laboratory testing, evaluating surgical anatomy using cross-sectional radiologic imaging and understanding donor motivation and psycho social considerations. This review outlines the evaluation of a potential living liver donor and discussed frequently encountered special considerations that may need to be addressed by the transplant team.

The rise of multidisciplinary clinics in hepatology: A practical, how-to-guide, and review of the literature

Multidisciplinary clinics (MDCs) are gaining momentum throughout the medical field, having initially been pioneered in oncology clinics due to their inherent ability to streamline complex care and improve both patient outcomes and the patient care experience. Liver transplant and hepatobiliary tumor clinics are examples of established MDCs in hepatology. With the changing landscape of liver disease in regard to etiology and patient complexity and acuity, there is a clear need for efficient, highly coordinated care. These changes highlight opportunities for hepatology MDCs in alcohol-associated liver disease, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, and palliative care. This review provides practical advice in navigating the complex logistics of establishing and maintaining a hepatology MDC while also reviewing the emerging evidence on clinical outcomes for patients seen in these MDCs. As hepatology looks to the future, establishment of MDCs in key clinical areas will be the cornerstone of patient care.

Recommendations for living donor kidney transplantation

This Guide for Living Donor Kidney Transplantation (LDKT) has been prepared with the sponsorship of the Spanish Society of Nephrology (SEN), the Spanish Transplant Society (SET), and the Spanish National Transplant Organization (ONT). It updates evidence to offer the best chronic renal failure treatment when a potential living donor is available. The core aim of this Guide is to supply clinicians who evaluate living donors and transplant recipients with the best decision-making tools, to optimise their outcomes. Moreover, the role of living donors in the current KT context should recover the level of importance it had until recently. To this end the new forms of incompatible HLA and/or ABO donation, as well as the paired donation which is possible in several hospitals with experience in LDKT, offer additional ways to treat renal patients with an incompatible donor. Good results in terms of patient and graft survival have expanded the range of circumstances under which living renal donors are accepted. Older donors are now accepted, as are others with factors that affect the decision, such as a borderline clinical history or alterations, which when evaluated may lead to an additional number of transplantations. This Guide does not forget that LDKT may lead to risk for the donor. Pre-donation evaluation has to centre on the problems which may arise over the short or long-term, and these have to be described to the potential donor so that they are able take them into account. Experience over recent years has led to progress in risk analysis, to protect donors' health. This aspect always has to be taken into account by LDKT programmes when evaluating potential donors. Finally, this Guide has been designed to aid decision-making, with recommendations and suggestions when uncertainties arise in pre-donation studies. Its overarching aim is to ensure that informed consent is based on high quality studies and information supplied to donors and recipients, offering the strongest possible guarantees.

Controversies in Living Kidney Donation

The most precious gift that can be given is, arguably, a living organ to a person in need of replacement because of failure of that organ. Kidney transplantation remains the best modality of renal replacement therapy and there is an ever-increasing demand for organ donation. The inability of cadaveric organ donation to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of patients on global waiting lists highlights the important needs for alternate sources for kidneys such as those from living kidney donation. However, living donor kidney transplantation has been a focus of intense debate, with ethical concerns and controversies emanating from operating on an individual who does not need, and is put at a small but quantifiable risk from, the surgical intervention. Furthermore, health care systems across the world also are funded with different levels of national and individual affordability, leading to health inequalities for the sick and risks of exploitation for the poor, especially through commercialization of transplantation. This article highlights some of these contemporary ethical concerns and controversies in living organ donation.

Ethical Challenges in Independent Living Donor Advocacy

The Independent Living Donor Advocate, who is required on the transplant team, advocates, promotes, and protects the interests of the donor. Previously described ethical challenges perceived by these advocates and the variability of their responses prompted further inquiry.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

How are ethical obligations perceived by ILDAs? What ethical principles do ILDAs identify as the basis of their decision making? What are the ethical challenges for ILDAs?

STUDY DESIGN

A descriptive cross-sectional survey was designed and administered via REDCap. Participants were recruited from the National Kidney Foundation Living Donor Advocate email list. Quantitative and qualitative data on their role, ethical decision making, and perceived ethical issues, by seriousness and frequency, were collected.

RESULTS

Thirty-four participants responded. Nonmaleficence was ranked as the primary ethical principle used in decision making. Participants rated obligations to protect higher than advocacy. Participants reported experiencing internal ethical conflict to protect over advocate for the donor. The most serious ethical challenge participants perceived for donors was their decisional capacity, followed by their emotional or psychological distress, which was also described as a frequent donor challenge experienced in their role.

DISCUSSION

The results of this survey validate previous descriptions that the advocate role is largely perceived as protective. Their independent nature as well as the inherent vulnerabilities of the potential living donor compels the continued mitigation of ethical challenges, to enhance advocacy and protection for the living donor.

Liver Living Donation for Cancer Patients: Benefits, Risks, Justification

LDLT covers all standard indications for liver transplantation, and the results are similar or even better than for standard DDLT. Due to the donor shortage and long waiting time, LDLT has become a relevant option for patients with liver tumors, provided the expected five-year survival rate is comparable to that of patients receiving a DDLT. Nowadays, LDLT offers the possibility to extend the standard morphometric selection by considering the biological parameters. In the setting of LDLT, we are not only faced with surgical morbidity in the donor, but long-term non-medical problems like psychological complications and financial burden also have to be considered. On the other hand, the benefits to the donor are mainly social and psychological. In LDLT, the donor's altruism is the fundamental ethical principle and it is based on the principles of (1) beneficence (doing good), (2) non-maleficence (avoiding harm), (3) respect for autonomy, and (4) respect for justice (promoting fairness). On top of that, the concept of double equipoise of living organ donation evaluates the relationship between the recipient's need, the donor's risk, and the recipient's outcome. It considers each donor-recipient pair as a unit, analyzing whether the specific recipient's benefit justifies the specific donor's risk in particular oncologic indications. In this light, it is essential to seek adequate informed consent focused on risk, benefits and outcome benefits of both donor and recipient supported by an independent living donor advocate. Finally, the transplant team must protect donors from donation if harm does not justify the expected benefit to the recipient.

Care of international living kidney donor candidates in the United States: A survey of contemporary experience, practice, and challenges

The evaluation and care of non-US citizen, non-US residents who wish to come to the United States to serve as international living kidney donors (ILKDs) can pose unique challenges. We surveyed US transplant programs to better understand practices related to ILKD care. We distributed the survey by email and professional society list-servs (Fall 2018, assessing 2017 experience). Eighty-five programs responded (36.8% program response rate), of which 80 considered ILKD candidates. Only 18 programs had written protocols for ILKD evaluation. Programs had a median of 3 (range: 0,75) ILKD candidates who initiated contact during the year, from origin countries spanning 6 continents. Fewer (median: 1, range: 0,25) were approved for donation. Program-reported reasons for not completing ILKD evaluations included visa barriers (58.6%), inability to complete evaluation (34.3%), concerns regarding follow-up (31.4%) or other healthcare access (28.6%), and financial impacts (21.4%). Programs that did not evaluate ILKDs reported similar concerns. Staff time required to evaluate ILKDs was estimated as 1.5-to-3-times (47.9%) or >3-times (32.9%) that needed for domestic candidates. Among programs accepting ILKDs, on average 55% reported successful completion of 1-year follow-up. ILKD evaluation is a resource-intensive process with variable outcomes. Planning and commitment are necessary to care for this unique candidate group.

International consensus conference on stool banking for faecal microbiota transplantation in clinical practice

Although faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has a well-established role in the treatment of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), its widespread dissemination is limited by several obstacles, including lack of dedicated centres, difficulties with donor recruitment and complexities related to regulation and safety monitoring. Given the considerable burden of CDI on global healthcare systems, FMT should be widely available to most centres.Stool banks may guarantee reliable, timely and equitable access to FMT for patients and a traceable workflow that ensures safety and quality of procedures. In this consensus project, FMT experts from Europe, North America and Australia gathered and released statements on the following issues related to the stool banking: general principles, objectives and organisation of the stool bank; selection and screening of donors; collection, preparation and storage of faeces; services and clients; registries, monitoring of outcomes and ethical issues; and the evolving role of FMT in clinical practice,Consensus on each statement was achieved through a Delphi process and then in a plenary face-to-face meeting. For each key issue, the best available evidence was assessed, with the aim of providing guidance for the development of stool banks in order to promote accessibility to FMT in clinical practice.

Early experiences of independent advocates for potential HIV+ recipients of HIV+ donor organ transplants

BACKGROUND

HIV+ to HIV+ solid organ transplants in the United States are now legally permitted. Currently, these transplants must adhere to the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act Safeguards and Research Criteria that require the provision of an independent recipient advocate, a novel requirement for solid organ transplant programs. The objective of this study was to understand the experiences of the first advocates serving in this role.

METHODS

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 HOPE independent recipient advocates (HIRAs) from 12 institutions.

RESULTS

All HIRAs had a professional degree and experience in transplantation or infectious diseases. HIRAs' encounters with potential recipients varied in length, modality, and timing. The newness of the role and the lack of guidance were associated with unease among some HIRAs. Some questioned whether their role was redundant to others involved in transplantation and research since some potential recipients experienced informational fatigue.

CONCLUSIONS

HOPE independent recipient advocates are ensuring the voluntariness of potential participants' decision to accept an HIV-infected organ. Many suggested additional guidance would be helpful and alleviate unease. Concerns about potential role redundancy raise the question of whether the HIRA requirement may be inadvertently increasing burden for potential recipients. Future work that captures the experiences of potential recipients is warranted.

Ethical Analysis and Policy Recommendations Regarding Domino Liver Transplantation

Due to the widening gap between supply and demand, patients who need a liver transplant due to metabolic disease may be asked to serve as domino liver donors-to have their native liver transplanted into another candidate. We here analyze the ethical problems surrounding informed consent for the implant and explant procedures in transplant candidates who will serve as domino donors, using the case of a child with maple syrup urine disease. We discuss the need for 2 distinct consent processes separated in time to ensure that potential domino donors (or their surrogates) give a truly voluntary consent. We propose a Domino Donor Advocate-based on the concept of the independent living donor advocate to help the patient and/or his or her surrogates consider the risks, benefits and alternatives. Finally, we evaluate the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network policy regarding "therapeutic organ donation" and propose several modifications to ensure that the decision by the potential domino donor (and/or his or her surrogate) is voluntary and informed.

Opting out: a single-centre pilot study assessing the reasons for and the psychosocial impact of withdrawing from living kidney donor evaluation

Understanding why individuals opt out of living donation is crucial to enhancing protections for all living donors and to identify modifiable barriers to donation. We developed an ethical approach to conducting research on individuals who opted out of living kidney donation and applied it in a small-scale qualitative study at one US transplant centre. The seven study participants (64% response rate) had varied reasons for opting out, the most prominent of which was concern about the financial burden from lost wages during the postoperative period. Several reported feeling alone during their decision-making process. Although no participants used an alibi, a centre-provided statement of non-eligibility to donate, all believed that centres should offer alibis to help preserve donor autonomy. Given the complexity of participants' decisions and the emotions they experienced before and after deciding not to donate, we suggest approaches for independent living donor advocates to support this population. This study demonstrates that research on individuals who opt out of donation is feasible and yields valuable insight into methods to improve the evaluation experience for potential living donors.

Transplant Ethics: Let's Begin the Conversation Anew : A Critical Look at One Institute's Experience with Transplant Related Ethical Issues

Standardizing consultation processes is increasingly important as clinical ethics consultation (CEC) becomes more utilized in and vital to medical practice. Solid organ transplant represents a relatively nascent field replete with complex ethical issues that, while explored, have not been systematically classified. In this paper, we offer a proposed taxonomy that divides issues of resource allocation from viable solutions to the issue of organ shortage in transplant and then further distinguishes between policy and bedside level issues. We then identify all transplant related ethics consults performed at the Cleveland Clinic (CC) between 2008 and 2013 in order to identify how consultants conceptually framed their consultations by the domains they ascribe to the case. We code the CC domains to those in the Core Competencies for Healthcare Consultation Ethics in order to initiate a broader conversation regarding best practices in these highly complex cases. A discussion of the ethical issues underlying living donor and recipient related consults ensues. Finally, we suggest that the ethical domains prescribed in the Core Competencies provide a strong starting ground for a common intra-disciplinary language in the realm of formal CEC.

Living Organ Donation and Informed Consent in the United States: Strategies to Improve the Process

About 6,000 individuals participate in the U.S. transplant system as a living organ donor each year. Organ donation (most commonly a kidney or part of liver) by living individuals is a unique procedure, where healthy patients undergo a major surgical operation without any direct functional benefit to themselves. In this article, the authors explore how the ideal of informed consent guides education and evaluation for living organ donation. The authors posit that informed consent for living organ donation is a process. Though the steps in this process are partially standardized through national health policy, they can be improved through institutional structures at the local, transplant center-level. Effective structures and practices aimed at supporting and promoting comprehensive informed consent provide more opportunities for candidates to ask questions about the risks and benefits of living donation and to opt out voluntarily Additionally, these practices could enable new ways of measuring knowledge and improving the consent process.

Nephrologists' Perspectives on Recipient Eligibility and Access to Living Kidney Donor Transplantation

BACKGROUND

Wide variations in access to living kidney donation are apparent across transplant centers. Such disparities may be in part explained by nephrologists' beliefs and decisions about recipient eligibility. This study aims to describe nephrologists' attitudes towards recipient eligibility and access to living kidney donor transplantation.

METHODS

Face-to-face semistructured interviews were conducted from June to October 2013 with 41 nephrologists from Australia and New Zealand. Transcripts were analyzed thematically.

RESULTS

We identified five major themes: championing optimal recipient outcomes (maximizing recipient survival, increasing opportunity, accepting justified risks, needing control and certainty of outcomes, safeguarding psychological wellbeing), justifying donor sacrifice (confidence in reasonable utility, sparing the donor, ensuring reciprocal donor benefit), advocating for patients (being proactive and encouraging, addressing ambivalence, depending on supportive infrastructure, avoiding selective recommendations), maintaining professional boundaries (minimizing conflict of interest, respecting shared decision-making, emphasizing patient accountability, restricted decisional power, protecting unit interests), and entrenched inequities (exclusivity of living donors, inherently advantaging self-advocates, navigating language barriers, increasing center transparency, inevitable geographical disadvantage, understanding cultural barriers).

CONCLUSIONS

Nephrologists' decisions about recipient suitability for living donor transplantation aimed to achieve optimal recipient outcomes, but were constrained by competing priorities to ensure reasonable utility derived from the donor kidney and protect the integrity of the transplant program. Comprehensive guidelines that provide explicit recommendations for complex medical and psychosocial risk factors might promote more equitable and transparent decision-making. Psychosocial support and culturally sensitive educational resources are needed to help nephrologists advocate for disadvantaged patients and address disparities in access to living kidney donor transplantation.

Solicited kidney donors: Are they coerced?

Most non-directed donors (NDDs) decide to donate on their own and contact the transplant centre directly. Some NDDs decide to donate in response to community solicitation such as newspaper ads or donor drives. We wished to explore whether subtle coercion might be occurring in such NDDs who are part of a larger community. One successful organization in a community in Brooklyn, NY, provides about 50 NDDs per year for recipients within that community. The donors answer ads in local papers and attend donor drives. Herein, we evaluated the physical and emotional outcomes of community-solicited NDDs in comparison to traditional NDDs who come from varied communities and are not responding to a specific call for donation. An assessment of coercion was used as well.

The Psychosocial and Independent Living Donor Advocate Evaluation and Post-surgery Care of Living Donors

Solid organ transplantation as a treatment for end stage organ failure has been an accepted treatment option for decades. Despite advances in medicine and technology, and increased awareness of organ donation and transplantation, the gap between supply and demand continues to widen. Living donation has been an option that has increased the number of transplants despite the continued shortage of deceased organs. In the early 2000s live donor transplantation reached an all-time high in the United States. As a result, a consensus meeting was convened in 2000 to increase the oversight of living donor transplantation. Both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the United Network for Organ Sharing developed regulations that transplant programs performing live donor transplantation. These regulations and guidelines involve the education, evaluation, informed consent process and living donor follow-up care. Two areas in which had significant changes included the psychosocial and the independent living donor advocate (ILDA) evaluation. The purpose of this paper was to outline the current regulations and guidelines associated with the psychosocial and ILDA evaluation as well as provide further recommendations for the administration of a high quality evaluation of living donors. The goals and timing of the evaluation and education of donors; qualifications of the health care providers performing the evaluation; components of the evaluation; education provided to donors; documentation of the evaluation; participation in the selection committee meeting; post-decline and post-donation care of donors is described. Caveats including the paired donor exchange programs and non-directed and directed donation are also considered.

Living Donor Kidney Transplantation: Improving Efficiencies in Live Kidney Donor Evaluation--Recommendations from a Consensus Conference

The education, evaluation, and support of living donors before, during, and after donation have historically been considered the roles and responsibilities of transplant programs. Although intended to protect donors, ensure true informed consent, and prevent coercion, this structure often leaves referring nephrologists unclear about the donor process and uncertain regarding the ultimate outcome of potential donors for their patients. The aim of this article is to help the referring nephrologist understand the donor referral and evaluation process, help the referring nephrologist understand the responsibilities of the transplant program, and offer suggestions about how the referring nephrologist can help to improve efficiencies in the process of donor education and evaluation. A partnership between referring nephrologists and transplant programs is an important step in advancing living kidney donation. The referring nephrologists are the frontline providers and are in a unique position to offer education about living donation and improve efficiencies in the process. Understanding the donor referral and evaluation process, the responsibilities of the transplant program, and the potential role referring nephrologists can play in the process is critical to establishing such a partnership.

Consensus conference on best practices in live kidney donation: recommendations to optimize education, access, and care

Live donor kidney transplantation is the best treatment option for most patients with late-stage chronic kidney disease; however, the rate of living kidney donation has declined in the United States. A consensus conference was held June 5-6, 2014 to identify best practices and knowledge gaps pertaining to live donor kidney transplantation and living kidney donation. Transplant professionals, patients, and other key stakeholders discussed processes for educating transplant candidates and potential living donors about living kidney donation; efficiencies in the living donor evaluation process; disparities in living donation; and financial and systemic barriers to living donation. We summarize the consensus recommendations for best practices in these educational and clinical domains, future research priorities, and possible public policy initiatives to remove barriers to living kidney donation.