Increasing Transplantation — One Patient, One Social Network at a Time
Transplant House Calls partners with transplant programs to provide an interactive in-home or virtual education service that guides transplant candidates and members of their social network toward the best treatment available – a living donor transplant.
Delivering Comprehensive Education to Patients and Their Loved Ones in a Non-clinical Environment
Interactive Education
Our trained Transplant Health Educators dedicate 60 to 90 minutes to each patient and their invited guests, providing tailored, conversational transplant and living donation education in a comfortable in-home or virtual environment.
High Satisfaction
Hundreds of Transplant House Calls later, 99% of patients and their guests consistently report very high satisfaction with the education experience.
Thousands Reached
Over two decades, our educators have provided in-home transplant and living donation education to 1,000+ transplant candidates and 8,500+ people who support them.
Proven Impact
300+ new living donor transplants
Transplant House Calls has facilitated more than 300 additional living donor kidney transplants beyond typical program baselines.
1,500+ new living donor screenings and evaluations
When fully informed about the benefits and risks of living donation and living donor transplantation, family and friends are more likely to complete online health screenings and evaluations.
Why Transplant House Calls?
Living donor kidney transplantation offers important advantages for many patients, including shorter waiting times and strong clinical outcomes. Yet despite these benefits, access to living donor transplantation remains limited for many patients. In fact, the number of living donor kidney transplants in the United States has not changed much since the beginning of this century.
One reason is educational design.
In many transplant programs, education is delivered primarily to the patient, who is then expected to explain a medically complex and deeply personal process to family and friends. Even with excellent transplant staff and educational materials, this model places a substantial communication burden on patients and may leave the patient’s social network underinformed.
A key limitation of standard transplant education is that it often does not directly engage the patient’s social network. This matters because conversations about living donor transplantation usually occur within that network, where family and friends help shape understanding, raise concerns, provide support, and, in some cases, consider living donor evaluation.
Transplant House Calls was created to address this gap.
Rather than focusing only on the patient, Transplant House Calls brings transplant education directly to the patient and their social network – family members, friends, and other key supports – through personalized, conversational sessions in a comfortable, non-clinical setting (in person or virtual).
Many transplant programs recognize the value of this high-touch approach but face real implementation challenges, including staffing limitations, workflow demands, and scheduling complexity. Transplant House Calls provides a structured, specialized service model that programs can offer without building and staffing it internally.
Our mission is to expand access to transplantation through personalized education—one patient, one social network at a time.
What Is Transplant House Calls?
Transplant House Calls is a personalized education service for kidney transplant patients and the people who support them.
We deliver in-person or virtual sessions for patients and members of their social network in a comfortable, non-clinical environment. These sessions are designed to help those in attendance better understand kidney disease, treatment options, transplantation, and living donation—and to create space for questions, discussion, and informed next steps.
What participants learn about…
- kidney disease and treatment options
- the kidney transplant process and expected timelines
- deceased donor vs. living donor transplantation
- living donor evaluation, eligibility, and common questions
- risks, benefits, outcomes, and practical considerations
- common misconceptions and barriers to pursuing LDKT
What Transplant House Calls is designed to do…
- build an understanding of transplantation and living donation
- address concerns and knowledge gaps in a supportive setting
- support informed, values-consistent decision-making
- improve communication within the patient’s social network
- identify patient-specific barriers to LDKT
- develop individualized next-step strategies when LDKT is being pursued
By engaging the patient and their support network together, Transplant House Calls helps increase readiness for living donor discussions and evaluation.
How Does Transplant House Calls Work With You?
Built for Transplant Programs. Designed for Patients and Their Social Networks.
Transplant House Calls is offered in two partnership models. Both include a structured implementation process; the difference is who delivers the patient-facing sessions. In both models, Transplant House Calls is designed to complement – not replace – your transplant program’s clinical education and workflow.
Full-Service Delivery (Turnkey)
We implement and deliver the program (virtual delivery).
- Contracting & Launch Planning: scope, timeline, roles, success metrics
- Pre-Implementation & Integration: stakeholder orientation; workflow mapping; language/ethical alignment; referral and patient selection; evaluation + data-sharing plan
- Patient Outreach & Scheduling: we contact patients, plan invitations, schedule sessions
- Session Delivery: we deliver 60–90 minute virtual sessions (structured, conversational)
- Ongoing Review: regular liaison check-ins; implementation monitoring; metrics review
Train-the-Educators (Capacity-Building)
We integrate the model and train your team to deliver sessions (in-person or virtual).
- Contracting & Launch Planning: scope, timeline, roles, success metrics
- Pre-Implementation & Integration: stakeholder orientation; workflow mapping; language/ethical alignment; referral and patient selection; evaluation plan
- Training & Fidelity Supports: training, coaching, tools, checklists, session guides
- Center-Delivered Sessions: your selected staff delivers 60–90 minute virtual or in-person sessions
- Ongoing Quality Review: fidelity support; referral/participation monitoring; metrics review
Regardless of the model, Transplant House Calls is designed to complement – not replace – your transplant program’s clinical education and workflow. We provide a high-touch educational service that extends support beyond the clinic
Evidence and Experience
Transplant House Calls is an education model developed through decades of practical experience and refined through ongoing implementation and research.
Foundation and Development
The model began more than 25 years ago as in-home educational conversations designed to bring transplant information directly to kidney transplant patients and their social networks in a more personal, non-clinical setting.
Since then, the approach has been refined through repeated implementation, clinician collaboration, and program evaluation to support a structured, reproducible model for transplant programs.
What Implementation Experience Has Shown
Across hundreds of sessions, program experience has consistently shown that participants value:
- a conversational, non-clinical format
- the opportunity to ask questions openly
- shared education across the patient’s social network
- individualized discussion tailored to the patient’s situation
- practical guidance on next steps and communication
External Adoption and Program Adaptation
The Transplant House Calls model has informed implementation in multiple settings, including adoption by transplant programs and adaptation by the Dutch Federation for Nephrology in The Netherlands (https://publicatie.nefro.nl/
Research and Evaluation
Transplant House Calls is supported by a body of published research examining outcomes such as patient/social-network engagement, interest in living donation, and downstream transplant-related processes.
As with any educational intervention, outcomes may vary across programs and patient populations depending on implementation, referral practices, and local workflow context. For this reason, Transplant House Calls emphasizes structured pre-implementation planning and program-specific evaluation when feasible.
Virtual Delivery
To improve access and reduce geographic and scheduling barriers, Transplant House Calls has also been adapted for virtual delivery.
Preliminary findings from virtual implementation suggest that remote delivery can preserve the core strengths of the model (e.g., including personalization, interaction, and social-network engagement) while making participation easier for geographically dispersed family and friends.
What Patients and Their Social Networks Say
“After the house call, the conversation in my family changed. Everyone seemed more comfortable asking questions, and we could talk about next steps in a way that we just couldn’t before.”
— Kidney transplant patient, age 37
“I didn’t really know that I would learn so much about kidney problems and what all is involved in getting a kidney transplant. I got more information than I expected, and it helped me see what my friend was going through – I had no idea. I’m thinking now about donating my kidney to him.”
— Friend of transplant patient, age 46
“I thought I knew what my dad was going through, but I know now that I didn’t know much at all. The meeting helped our whole family get on the same page about how best to help Dad. I think our talks will be a lot easier now.”
— Adult child of transplant patient, age 27
“This was the best! What I like is that I don’t have to explain everything by myself anymore. Ms. [Educator] was so nice, and everyone felt comfortable to ask questions. I feel like you took a lot of pressure off me.”
— Kidney transplant patient, age 63
Published Papers and Invited Presentations
We encourage transplant programs and clinical teams to review the published literature related to the Transplant House Calls model.
About The Founder
Jim Rodrigue, PhD, FAST, is a clinical psychologist, researcher, and nationally recognized leader in transplant behavioral health and organ donation. He earned his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Memphis in 1989 and served on the faculty at the University of Florida, directing Transplant Behavioral Health Services. From 2005 to 2024, he was at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, where he led transplant behavioral health services and held multiple leadership roles, including Vice Chair for Clinical Research, founder and director of the FIRST Program, and director of the Clinical Scholarship Program for surgical residents. He is now Professor Emeritus of Surgery and Psychology at Harvard Medical School.
Clinically and academically, Dr. Rodrigue has pioneered innovative programs to improve the lives of transplant patients and living donors. He has published over 230 peer-reviewed articles, four books, and numerous book chapters, and has lectured nationally and internationally on behavioral health, living and deceased donation, and inequities in transplantation. His contributions have been recognized with the American Society of Transplantation’s Clinician of Distinction Award (2017) and the Psychosocial & Ethics Community of Practice Lifetime Contribution Award.
Since 2024, Dr. Rodrigue has served as Director of Data Research & Insights and Director of the Galen V. Henderson Medical Student Summer Program at New England Donor Services (NEDS). In this role, he continues to lead and collaborate on research to improve organ donation policy, increase donation rates, and support donor families.
He is also the founder of Transplant House Calls, an evidence-based program designed to expand access to living donor kidney transplantation through personalized, home-based education for patients and families. Through this initiative, Dr. Rodrigue applies decades of clinical and research experience to empower families to make informed decisions and increase living donor awareness nationwide.
“Some of the most important transplant conversations happen at home with trusted family and friends, not in the clinic. Transplant House Calls was created to support those conversations.”
ꟷ Dr. Jim Rodrigue
Contact Us
We welcome inquiries from transplant programs, clinicians, and organizations interested in learning more about Transplant House Calls.
Whether you are exploring a pilot, program partnership, or implementation questions, we would be glad to discuss how Transplant House Calls may support your patients and your team.
Get in touch
Jim Rodrigue, PhD, FAST
Owner & Principal
jrodrigue@
(617) 206-8027