Background: Many federal funding and regulatory agencies require patient engagement to conduct patient-centered research and drug development. We developed a liver transplantation patient-engagement program, which can serve as a model for bringing the patient perspective to digestive diseases research. Methods: Six liver transplantation patient-engagement program advisors completed training in patient engagement; participated in several virtual sessions; and completed postsession surveys. Results: Qualitative and quantitative results elucidated patient-centered liver transplantation study outcomes and barriers/facilitators to conducting clinical research. Group satisfaction was very high. Conclusions: The liver transplantation patient-engagement program model provides a paradigm for how to engage patients in the formative steps of patient-centered clinical research.

Understanding survivorship experiences at different stages postliver transplantation (poat-LT) is essential to improving care. Patient-reported concepts including coping, resilience, post-traumatic growth (PTG), and anxiety/ depression, have been implicated as important predictors of quality of life and health behaviors after LT. We aimed to descriptively characterize these concepts at different post-LT survivorship stages. This cross-sectional study featured self-reported surveys measuring sociodemographic, clinical characteristics, and patient-reported concepts including coping, resilience, PTG, anxiety, and depression. Survivorship periods were categorized as early (1 y or below), mid (1-5 y), late (5-10 y), and advanced (10 y or above).Univariable and multivariable logistic and linear regression modeling examined factors associated with patient-reported concepts. Among 191 adult LT survivors, the median survivorship stage was 7.7 years (interquartile range: 3.1-14.4) and median age was 63 years (range: 28-83); most were male (64.2%) and Caucasian (84.0%). High PTG was more prevalent in the early survivorship period (85.0%) than late survivorship (15.2%). High trait resilience was only reported by 33% of survivors and associated with higher income. Lower resilience was seen among patients with longer LT hospitalization stays and late survivorship stages. About 25% of survivors had clinically significant anxiety and depression, which was more frequent among early survivors and females with pre-LT mental health disorders. In multivariable analysis, factors associated with lower active coping included survivors ≥ 65 years, non-Caucasian race, lower levels of education, and

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