The African American Transplant Access Program: Mitigating Disparities in Solid Organ Transplantation

Abstract

Black Americans experience end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) at a disproportionately higher rate than other racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Kidney transplantation provides the best outcomes for patients with ESKD. However, Black patients frequently have decreased access to kidney transplantation. This article summarizes the robust literature on disparities in transplantation for Black patients and presents a practical solution to this complex issue by redesigning the transplant access process for Black patients challenged by structural and institutional barriers. The authors provide a detailed overview of a novel African American Transplant Access Program (AATAP) with its pillars of cultural congruency, trust, health literacy, and psychosocial support. This overview includes a thorough description of the program’s conceptualization, the process of creating the program, the preliminary results, and guidance to establish similarly culturally congruent transplant access programs.