A national approach to prioritizing emerging research questions in COVID-19 in transplantation

Transplant recipients are at high risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. For transplant recipients surviving COVID-19 or experiencing the extreme stress associated with the pandemic, little is known about effective strategies to support recovery of quality of life. Understanding what is needed to support the health and quality of life of transplant recipients at particular points in time during the pandemic in Canada is challenging, given the pace of variant evolution and drug development, as well as regional variations in therapeutic practices and public health policies. Leveraging our pan-Canadian research network, we will create an agile, national framework that can address urgent and emerging issues, incorporating priorities of clinicians, researchers, and patients and families. We propose two national consensus-building forums six months apart, to determine the most urgent questions on emerging COVID-19 prophylactics/therapeutics in transplant patients. The outcome of these forums will be used to direct studies using a prospective registry we are developing of over 2500 transplant patients and their families. Our design will enable us to assess the safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of therapies in transplant patients, considering short and long-term clinical outcomes, and other outcomes critical to patients and their families, including mental health, life participation, and financial burden. Through a consensus-based, multi-disciplinary approach to establishing priority research questions, this project will enable our research team to provide the actionable knowledge needed by policymakers, for clinical guidelines, and by transplant patients and their families.