Long-term Care of Living Kidney Donors Needs a Better Model of Healthcare Delivery

Abstract

Every year, over 30,000 healthy individuals globally donate a kidney to a patient with kidney failure. These living kidney donors are at higher risk of some medical complications post-donation when compared with matched controls. Although the absolute risk of these complications is low, appropriate long-term care is essential to allow early detection and timely interventions. Some transplant centers follow living donors long-term, but many recommend that donors regularly see a primary care practitioner post-donation. However, primary care is currently not integrated with transplant centers, and the two often work in silos with little to no channels of communication with each other. As this model of care is suboptimal, existing evidence suggests that post-donation care and follow-up are inadequate. We argue for an integrated model of living donor care with stronger continuity and coordination between primary care and transplant centers that are developed with the input of all relevant stakeholders.