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 them 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 and reduce the risk of severe disease.

Since 2020, the CDTRP’s COVID-19 research has focused on 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.

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.

Knowledge Mobilization

The CDTRP continues to leverage its infrastructure to understand the needs, concerns, and priorities of transplant families. 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.