American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Telemedically Supported Case Management of Living-Donor Renal Transplant Recipients to Optimize Routine Evidence-Based Aftercare: A Single-Center Randomized Controlled Trial.
Improving mid-term and long-term outcomes after solid organ transplantation is imperative, and requires both state-of-the-art transplant surgery and optimization of routine, evidence-based aftercare. This randomized, controlled trial assessed the effectiveness of standard aftercare versus telemedically supported case management, an innovative aftercare model, in 46 living-donor renal transplant recipients during the first posttransplant year. The model includes three components: (i) chronic care case management initiated after discharge, (ii) case management initiated in emerging acute care situations, and (iii) a telemedically equipped team comprising a transplant nurse case manager and two senior transplant physicians (nephrologist, surgeon). ⋯ This comparative effectiveness study provides the basis for multicenter study testing of telemedically supported case management with the aim of optimizing posttransplant aftercare. The trial was registered with the German Clinical Trials Register (www. DRKS.de), DKRS00007634.