Background: Self-management and adherence are key factors that influence post transplant graft survival. Education after solid organ transplant plays an important role in providing patients and their caregivers the foundation to be successful in managing their care after leaving the hospital. Yet, many barriers exist to providing comprehensive education in the perioperative post transplant period. Medication education is often lengthy, cumbersome, and confined to hours when pharmacists are available. To address these challenges, we developed a digital transplant education curriculum delivered on a personal tablet for our pediatric liver and kidney transplant recipients. The curriculum, delivered to the primary caregiver, was multi-faceted with 19 content chapters presented in a variety of formats including videos (featuring clinicians, patients and family members), written content, and questions to reinforce the material and assess understanding.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of our pediatric liver and kidney transplant patient population to i) determine the feasibility of implementation of the digital curriculum measured by numbers of patients using the device and usage frequency, ii) explore its impact on psychosocial outcomes and self-efficacy, and iii) assess the impact on bedside transplant pharmacist education time.

Results: A total of 29 pediatric liver and 37 kidney recipients were included in the study. 7/67 (10%) did not use the tablet. Reasons for non participation included patient/family being non-English speaking (5/7) and patient/family stating they did not feel it was necessary due to re-transplant (2/7). Patients/families reviewed the content a mean of 2.1 times (SD 0.45) per chapter. Self-assessed anxiety scores decreased in 47 (78%) of patients/families from baseline, and participants expressed high levels of confidence to provide the necessary post-transplant care. There was a significant decrease in bedside pharmacist teaching time from a mean of 360 minutes pre-implementation to 183 minutes (SD 59 min) post implementation (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Implementation of a tablet based digital transplant education curriculum was feasible in pediatric liver and kidney transplant population and was associated with a significant decrease in bedside pharmacist teaching time.

CITATION INFORMATION: Nemeth T., Smith J., Pollack A., Swanson W., Hsu E. Digital Health Education for the Pediatric Solid Organ Transplant Population Am J Transplant. 2017;17 (suppl 3).

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