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. Study accrual was closed in 2006. Total accrual is 113 subjects. Sixty-eight subjects were enrolled at the National Institutes of Health site and forty-five subjects were enrolled at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center site. Data analysis is ongoing. Preliminary analyses of the data suggest that the questions posed in this pilot study will be answered. Interest in health disparity research remains high. As such, this study has been presented at multiple conferences over the past year.
