Adding Specialist Palliative Care to Transplantation Pilot Trial

Adding Specialist Palliative Care to Transplantation Pilot Trial

Specialist palliative care has been shown to be beneficial for patients experiencing serious illness, but has not been studied for patients being evaluated for liver transplantation. The investigators hope in the future to design a multi-center trial of a specialist palliative care intervention to measure the effects of specialist palliative care for patients undergoing liver transplant evaluation. This project represents a pilot to gather needed information to design such a future study.

Inclusion Criteria:

• adult patients (age 18 years or greater) undergoing evaluation for liver transplantation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Patient does not speak English fluently
2. Patient lacks a telephone
3. Patient is a prisoner
4. Patient is deaf
5. Patient currently receives specialist palliative care
6. Patient is not a resident of Tennessee