COVID-19 has been particularly hard on transplant recipients and their families and caregivers. With weakened immune systems, vaccines don’t provide as much protection, leaving transplant recipients at higher risk of serious illness, hospitalization, or death from COVID-19. This highlights the urgent need for more research to develop better ways to protect transplant recipients, families, and caregivers and support their overall health and wellness.

The CDTRP’s COVID-19 research has focused on meeting the needs and priorities of patients, families, and caregivers. On this page, you will find research updates, educational resources, and the latest information on COVID-19 for transplant recipients, families, and caregivers.

This page will also provide regular updates on our current research project, Addressing Critical Issues and Therapeutics Emerging in Transplantation in COVID-19 (TREAT-COVID). You can also access information from our previous projects below.

Study Updates

 

 

Thank you for enrolling in TREAT-COVID! Your responses to the questionnaires will add to the many transplant recipient and family voices who want to see better care for immunocompromised Canadians in times of health emergencies.  

Hurray! Our first results were published by Dr. Istvan Mucsi and team at University Health Network (UHN), Toronto, ON, titled: Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Onset in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients: Canadian Repeated Cross-Sectional Study in the Journal of Clinical Medicine. 

The study talks about how from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic transplant recipients have experienced more risk factors, such as higher risk for infections and complications. These risks can lead to mental health concerns, including increased symptoms of anxiety and depression.  

In this study, the authors assessed whether kidney, liver and kidney-pancreas transplant recipients had more anxiety and depression symptoms since the start of the pandemic compared to before the pandemic. Three groups of adult transplant recipients were assessed.  

One group of transplant recipients was checked for mental health concerns before the pandemic. Another group had their transplant before the pandemic, but their mental health was checked during it. A third group had both their transplant and mental health check during the pandemic. 

Transplant recipients who got their transplant after the start of the pandemic reported higher levels of anxiety compared to individuals who got their transplant before the pandemic. This suggests that the stress of recovering from receiving a transplant during the pandemic has increased anxiety. Depression symptoms were similar across the different groups. Check out our visual graphic of the manuscript! 

Our next steps: 
  • TREAT-COVID is collecting continuous data on mental health of transplant recipients and their families/caregivers over a 2-year period. We want to look at the mental health of adult, pediatric and stem cell transplant recipients and their family members, so we will continue to recruit in all transplant communities! 

 

  • Strengthen future support by designing and planning mental health strategies for transplant recipients for future health emergencies. At UHN, a screening tool identifying physical and emotional symptoms among pre-transplant and current transplant patients is being studied. As part of the study, clinicians and patients will each receive reports that will flag any real-time concerns to discuss. We will see results from this study soon. 

 We want to recruit over 5000 transplant recipients and family members across British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, but with only 900 transplant recipients and 195 caregivers enrolled so far, we need your help! Please continue to share the TREAT-COVID study by posting on social media and emailing the study participant platform website: https://bit.ly/3UjGCQd to your transplant community! 

Your call to action:  

Transplant recipients, please invite your family members and caregivers! At previous national forums, family members and caregivers had different perspectives from transplant recipients on the pandemic: how it impacted them and gaps experienced in current support systems and resources. The well-being of transplant family members matters. But if they don’t participate in research, it will be impossible to understand their needs and how to support them better. 

How to enroll as a transplant recipient into the TREAT-COVID study: 

  • Step 1: Complete the eligibility questionnaire: https://bit.ly/3UjGCQd. Eligible participants then start the consent process. After consenting, you will be given a unique study identification number (##-X-XXX-####) beside your initials on the participant profile. Please write down your unique study identification number to complete Step 2 – enrolling your family or caregiver.  

 

How to enroll a family member or caregiver into the TREAT-COVID study: 

  • Step 2: Invite a family member or caregiver to enroll by sending them the link to the TREAT-COVID data platform: https://bit.ly/3UjGCQd. Your family member or caregiver does not need to live with you. To enroll, they will need your unique study identification number: ##-X-XXX-#### so they can be linked to you as the transplant recipient. Once they complete the consent process, they will have their own study identification number.  
  • Every transplant recipient is able to invite 1 family member or caregiver.

We want this study update to be informative: if you are a TREAT-COVID participant, please let us know what you think of this study update by clicking on your personalized survey link in your email.  

If you want to get in touch by email: info@cdtrp.ca.  

Knowledge Mobilization

Our goal is to provide accessible, trustworthy, and up-to-date information to support transplant recipients, families, and caregivers.

 
  • Ensure that transplant families stay updated on COVID-19  and how they affect transplant recipients, their families, and caregivers.

  • Encourage policymakers in government and healthcare settings to adopt evidence-based strategies that positively influence behavior and support improved outcomes for transplant recipients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Amplify knowledge and awareness among transplant families, transplant focused organizations, as well as patient groups actively supporting better policy.

  • Empower transplant families to actively engage as partners in their own care.

National Prioritization Forums

Engaging the donation and transplant community is at the heart of TREAT-COVID. The CDTRP has hosted several national forums and workshops to ensure research is reflective of patient, family, and caregiver priorities.

TREAT-COVID will host 4 National Prioritization Forums. Each Forum provides a venue for the research team to engage with stakeholders in the transplant community, including patients, families, caregivers, clinicians, trainees, researchers, government, and industry. The Forum helps identify the most urgent and emerging research questions and issues confronting transplant patients, families, caregivers, and the broader transplant ecosystem. Below, you will find the results of our completed National Forums and the tentative dates for upcoming Forum’s. These are open to the public.

National Prioritization Forums are held every six months, and the first Forum was held during CDTRP’s June 2023 Patient, Family, and Donor Research Forum, on June 9, 2023. This was the fifth National Forum hosted by CDTRP since 2021, with previous forums influencing the direction of TREAT-COVID and the PREVent-COVID-19 study.

The Forum’s attendees included patients, families, caregivers, health professionals, researchers, and clinicians. Together, they participated and identified the most urgent emerging research questions and issues confronting transplant patients, families, and caregivers.

Download the Prioritization Forum Report here.

Early experience from our first site to begin recruitment has highlighted several and significant barriers to recruitment, including COVID-fatigue, questionnaire-related fatigue, participant, and study coordinator burden. Concerns have been raised how best to reach the target number of participants in order to achieve the study’s goals. The 2nd National Forum provided a venue to engage with stakeholders in the transplant community, including patients, families, caregivers, clinicians, trainees, and researchers to address potential approaches to these barriers.

Download the Prioritization Forum Report here.

The discussions with PFDs and clinician-researchers highlight the complex challenges of navigating infectious and respiratory viruses, including COVID-19. These challenges extend beyond medical concerns to include considerations related to quality of life, financial costs, barriers to social wellness, mental health impacts, and gaps in available research.

Download the Prioritization Forum Report here.