Name: Mohammad Kazem Fallahzadeh, MD

Institution: University of California, San Francisco

Grant: 2020 Sharon Anderson Research Fellowship

Project Title: Identifying Opportunities for Improved Cardiovascular Care Delivery Among Kidney Transplant Recipients

How would you sum up your research in one sentence?

• In this research project, we aim to identify modifiable factors that influence cardiovascular care delivery among kidney transplant recipients.

Provide a brief overview of the research you will conduct with help from the grant.

• The aim of my research project is to identify opportunities to improve cardiovascular care delivery among kidney transplant recipients. This project will have two parts. In the first part we will analyze the data from a cohort of kidney transplant recipients to evaluate the performance of cardiovascular risk prediction models in the kidney transplant recipients and to evaluate the possible differences in the receipt of cardiovascular medications between kidney transplant recipients with different characteristics. In the second part of my project, I will identify through a survey of prevalent kidney transplant patients whether presence of cardiovascular disease or cardiovascular risk factors in kidney transplant patients is associated with knowledge of cardiovascular disease, and if knowledge of cardiovascular disease is associated with patient participation in cardiovascular risk factor reduction strategies. Results of this project will inform subsequent development and evaluation of cardiovascular-focused educational initiatives for patients and providers who care for kidney transplant recipients.

What impact do you hope your research will have on patients?

• I hope that the data from this research project will be used to develop interventions to improve cardiovascular care delivery and educational initiatives to enhance patient participation in cardiovascular risk factor reduction strategies.

What are your career goals at the end of the grant period? Five years out? Ten years out?

• My career goal is to become an academic transplant nephrologist and physician scientist. My research goal is to improve cardiovascular outcomes among kidney transplant recipients. At the end of grant period, I hope to identify from our research project opportunities to improve cardiovascular care delivery among the kidney transplant recipients. In five years, I hope to implement findings from my research project to develop interventions that improve the delivery of evidence-based cardiovascular care to kidney transplant recipients. In 10 years, I hope to expand my research in this field and in collaboration with other researchers, to conduct larger multi-center interventional studies to the improve cardiovascular outcomes in the kidney transplant recipients.

What inspired you to focus your research in this area?

• Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death with a functioning graft among kidney transplant recipients. However, kidney transplant recipients have been shown to receive suboptimal cardiovascular care. This is an area of research with widespread implications that has large potential for further exploration and improvement. By identifying opportunities to improve cardiovascular care delivery among kidney transplant recipients, we hope to develop interventions that improve cardiovascular care in this population.

In one sentence, please describe the importance of having grant funding available through KidneyCure.

• I am humbled and honored to receive the 2020 Sharon Anderson Research Award; I am confident that ASN KidneyCure Research Fellowship will provide me a strong foundation from which to build a successful career as an academic nephrologist and physician-scientist.

Something you may not know about me is…

• My father is a pediatric nephrologist at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Shiraz, Iran, where I went to medical school. He was my first research mentor and a main reason why I decided to become a nephrologist.

In my free time I like to…

• I like nature photography, playing and watching basketball, swimming, and reading history.