Regenstrief researcher receives Showalter award to improve access to organ transplants using learning health systems approach

Regenstrief Institute Research Scientist Katie Ross-Driscoll, PhD, MPH, has been awarded a 2025 Ralph W. and Grace M. Showalter Research Trust grant to lead a new study, Using a Learning Health Systems Approach to Improve Access to Transplant in Indiana. The project will receive $75,000 in funding.

Limited access to transplant waitlists, combined with the scarcity of available organs results in more than 100,000 deaths each year in the United States. Marginalized populations, including women, racial and ethnic minorities, the underinsured, individuals in rural areas and those with lower income or education levels have disproportionately low rates of organ transplant. There is no standardized approach to collecting patient data prior to listing, hampering efforts to improve access to the waiting list. To design effective interventions, there is a critical need to systematically capture and integrate social and clinical data throughout the continuum of transplant care.

Dr. Ross-Driscoll has been named a Showalter Young Investigator, one of three categories of research awards supported by the Ralph W. and Grace M. Showalter Research Trust Fund and administered through the Indiana University School of Medicine. Her project aims to leverage learning health system methods to address these data and equity gaps in Indiana.

The Showalter Trust, established in 1975, supports scientific and medical research at Indiana University and Purdue University. Priority is given to projects with strong potential to secure federal funding and to generate long-term impact beyond the life of the Showalter award.

Katie Ross-Driscoll, PhD, MPH
In addition to her role as a research scientist with Regenstrief Institute, Katie Ross-Driscoll, PhD, MPH, is an assistant professor of surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine. She is a health services researcher and epidemiologist focused on social epidemiology and its application to health disparities in patients with end-stage liver disease. Her work delves into the relationship between access to care, care quality and the resulting racial, socioeconomic and geographic disparities in outcomes for end-stage liver disease patients.