The Project:
The transplants unit includes
in their medical attention services a treatment adherence program for teens transplanted patients that focuses on prevention and care of the transplanted organs.
Involved Entities
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Investigation Challenge
One of the biggest challenges in the Transplants Unit was to identify improvement opportunities in their Adherence Program, especially with the teen population to avoid loss of grafts. To do so, I proposed to the nephrology medical team an ethnographic investigation to find the reasons why teens with kidney transplants had more trouble with adherence to the treatment post-transplant.
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Methodology
We made an ethnographic investigation where the following techniques were considered:
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Depth Interviews with patients and caretakers
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Life Stories
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Medical Team Focus Groups
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Co-creation workshops with the medical team
Users:
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Teen patients with kidney transplants from the Valle del Lili Foundation Transplants Unit
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Caretakers
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​Medical Team of the Valle del Lili Foundation Transplants Unit
Impact
The Adherence to Treatment Program was adjusted according to the insights found in the investigation.
We identified social and cultural factors that inhibit the adherence to treatment in teens and affect their understanding of the disease, their bodies, and their self-perception.
Awareness-raising of the medical team concerning the reality of their teen patients to provide better medical attention that factors in social and cultural aspects.
Results sharing with the pediatric nephrology community associated with the Valle del Lili Foundation in conventions and lectures about the adherence to treatment in teen patients with kidney transplants