Heart transplant patients who live in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas are more likely to experience post-surgical complications and die within five years than patients who live in more advantaged areas, even when those patients were transplanted at topnotch high-volume hospitals, new UCLA research suggests. The findings, published September 30 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation , suggest that a lack of access to follow-up care, likely stemming from neighborhood deprivation, are at the root of this disparity, said lead author Sara Sakowitz MS MPH, a medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The paper was originally highlighted at the 2024 Society of Thoracic Surgeons National Meeting, where it was named the J.
Maxwell Chamberlain Memorial Paper, representing the top paper in perioperative care. "Our study demonstrates that access to high quality centers for cardiac transplantation does not mitigate persistent neighborhood deprivation-based disparities in patient and allograft survival," Sakowitz said. "Rather, factors outside the immediate post-transplantation period that stem from access to longitudinal care or crucial immunosuppressive medications, appear to be implicated.
" "Altogether, this means that improving access to care is not wholly sufficient to address persistent disparities in post-transplant outcomes. We must shift our focus to addressing inequities in access to and engagement with longitudinal care, over th.