The Johns Hopkins Transplant Infectious Diseases Prospective Cohort Study

Overview

The Transplant Infectious Diseases Prospective Cohort Study facilitates the prospective identification and collection of data of infectious disease complications in order to determine the epidemiology, risk factors, and outcomes of patients who receive solid organ or stem cell or plastic surgery transplants at Johns Hopkins and other transplant centers. It is essential for the care and treatment of this population to employ a mechanism for investigators to centralize these datasets, using standardized definitions of infectious complications. This protocol outlines the procedures to be utilized in order to prospectively follow the diagnosis and treatment of infectious complications in transplant patients.

Patients are approached at their transplant screening visit, if possible, or during their hospital stay (before or after transplant) in order to introduce the study and obtain informed consent for participation. A letter to transplant physicians will introduce this study. Data collection will begin immediately upon consent and continue for up to five years. The informed consent form specifically requests permission to contact the subject in the future to verify information or if the subject is lost to follow up by Transplant services. The Day of transplant will be considered day 0 for enrollment in this observational study. Data will be collected on clinical template forms completed by study team members, as infectious complications become apparent in either outpatient ID clinics or on the inpatient service. A member of the research team will complete data collection in the registry, maintained on the REDCap platform. In addition, patient electronic records will be reviewed every 3 months to identify and record infectious complications, treatments administered, and outcomes. During these intervals, subjects will be contacted by phone to review the same outcomes. Creation of the registry relies on use of standardized definitions to define infections. An electronic database has been constructed in the REDCap system, documenting subject demographics, transplant variables, infection variables, treatments administered, and overall outcomes, during each interim time period.

Conditions