Kidney Transplant Candidate Selection: Compliance, Adherence, and Person-Centeredness | HMC Ethics March Forum

This presentation will relate how patients with kidney failure are required to demonstrate adherence to clinical recommendations as a criterion for kidney transplant candidacy. During, she will examine implications of this requirement for person-centered and equitable care.

OBJECTIVES:

1. Appreciate the meaning and use of adherence to medical recommendations as a criterion for kidney transplant candidate selection.
2. Consider implications of an adherence criterion from the perspectives of utility, equity, and person-centricity in transplant candidate selection.
3. Identify strategies to reinforce the ethical foundation of the kidney transplant selection process.

SPEAKER BIO:

Dr. Catherine (Kate) Butler, MD MA, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Nephrology at the University of Washington, an Investigator at the UW Kidney Research Institute and Seattle VA Health Services Research & Development Center of Innovation, and a clinical nephrologist at the Seattle VA. Her research is framed by bioethical theories of distributive justice and centers on healthcare settings where patient experiences and treatment options are shaped by resource limitation, including in the kidney transplant evaluation and selection process and episodes of resource scarcity during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also studies end-of-life care and intensive medical interventions for older adults with kidney disease.