NIH awards $2.585 million grant to School of Nursing and Health Studies for kidney transplant medical adherence study

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $2.585 million grant to the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Nursing and Health Studies for a study on methods to help adult kidney transplant recipients stay on their vital medication.

Cynthia Russell, professor at the UMKC School of Nursing and Health Studies and a global leader in transplant adherence research, is the primary investigator on the grant.

“Medication non-adherence in the U.S. is a $300 billion problem. Though they have received the ‘gift of life,’ about 75 percent of people with a kidney transplant struggle to take transplant medicines on time every day for the life of the transplant. Without these critical medications, the kidney will not survive,” said Russell, president of the International Transplant Nurses Society. “We are testing a very promising and innovative intervention called SystemCHANGE, which has been shown to be effective with difficult-to-change behaviors like exercise.”

With SystemCHANGE, the patient is taught to modify daily routines and habits that impact taking medication. They will conduct small experiments focused on the modification and track their success with a graphic report from an electronic medication monitoring system. This innovative approach moves away from traditional interventions that focus on increasing motivation and intention and instead enhances the patient’s ability to monitor small environmental changes and determine the effectiveness of the changes. The study will also examine physiological outcomes and the cost effectiveness of improved medication adherence.

“Our goal is to help people keep their gift of life for a very long time,” Russell said. “More kidneys will be available to those in need of this critical resource, since they won’t have to rejoin the transplant list.”

At UMKC, Russell’s NIH-funded research has focused on interventions that lead to improved patient adherence with post-transplant treatment regimens.

“This project builds on the school’s mission to create and translate knowledge to patient care, especially in the area of chronic care. The faculty possess a wealth of research and practical knowledge about caring for people,” said Ann Cary, dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies. “This grant recognizes the school’s expertise in innovative research led by Dr. Russell in the area of managing transplantation aftercare.”