Overcoming Disparities in Living Donor Kidney Transplantation in the USA: the Promise of Academic and Community Stakeholder Partnerships

Living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) has been shown to be the optimal treatment for clinically suitable patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Despite the benefits, racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities persist in receipt of LDKT. These disparities may be mitigated through the development of academic and community-based partnerships. This article provides a systematic review of existing academic-community partnerships designed to address disparities in LDKT for adult populations in the USA. Few academic-community partnerships exist that were designed to specifically address LDKT disparities. Among the 7 existing partnerships identified within this review, the majority were developed as part of grant-funded interventions targeting healthcare access, health education, and health attitudes and behaviors as barriers to LDKT. Future work is needed to identify practical methods for expanding LDKT partnerships among health equity researchers, healthcare practitioners, transplant centers, and other key stakeholders, including patients, families, faith-based leaders, policy makers, and medically underserved communities.