Health disparities related to the provision of, and access to, healthcare in the United States are well documented across racial and ethnic groups. One area of particular interest to health disparities researchers has been solid organ transplantation. Both provider and patient behaviors are implicated as contributing to ethnic variance of medical care in kidney transplantation. Research evidence suggests that an important target for improvement is the patient-provider relationship. Trust is central to this relationship, yet trust has been described as ?the scarcest of medical resources?. ? ? This pilot study explores the perceptions of trust among patients in the kidney transplant process at the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health and at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. For sampling purposes the transplant process is defined as patients currently on dialysis, patients on the transplantation waiting list receiving dialysis, patients on the transplantation waiting list not receiving dialysis, patients newly transplanted for less than one year, and patients transplanted greater than a year. Face-to-face interviews were conducted that include questions regarding demographic variables, the Trust in Physician Scale, the Trust in Nurse Scale, and the Patient Trust Scale. To date, sixty-eight patients have been enrolled at the National Institutes of Health site. Forty-five patients have been enrolled at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center site. Total accrual is 113 for both sites. Accrual for this study has been closed. Preliminary analyses of the data will allow us to answer the questions posed in this pilot study.
