JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Due to rising healthcare costs, patients have sought alternative ways of addressing medical expenses. In particular, transplant patients have complex and expensive medical needs, including skin cancer surveillance, that may not be fully covered. One such method of financing medical costs is by crowdsourcing through online platforms, most notably GoFundMe.

Objective:

Previous work identified factors associated with dermatologic disease GoFundMe campaign fundraising success. We sought to characterize these factors in transplant recipients’ campaigns for funds raised related to skin cancer costs. These factors include demographics, campaign traits, and subjective themes.

Methods:

From January - April 2022, we analyzed GoFundMe campaigns using the following search terms chosen by author consensus: transplant skin cancer, transplant basal cell, transplant squamous, transplant melanoma, dermatologist transplant. Demographic data were coded from campaign text or subjectively coded based on author consensus. Campaigns were read completely by two independent coders and associated with up to three different themes. Linear regression examined the qualities associated with success, which was defined based on funds raised when controlling for campaign goals. Logistic regression was used to examine qualities associated with extremely successful campaigns, defined as those raising >1.5 times the IQR. Statistical significance was set at P<.05.

Results:

Across 82 campaigns, we identified several factors that were associated with fundraiser success. Patients who suffered from infectious treatment complications, received a pancreas transplant, or died from their disease raised significantly more money. Patients over 61-years-old raised significantly less money. Extremely successful campaigns (>$20,177) were associated with campaigners who emphasized a disability from their disease, a reluctance to ask for help, or who died due to their disease.

Conclusions:

Demographic and thematic factors are associated with transplant skin cancer fundraising success, favoring those who are younger, in more extreme situations, and appear reluctant to ask for help. Additionally, transplant patients have complex and expensive dermatologic needs that may not be fully covered by insurance, as reflected in their GoFundMe campaigns. The most commonly mentioned reasons for fundraising included living expenses/loss of income, inadequate/no insurance, and end-of-life costs. Our findings may inform patients how to maximize the success of their campaigns and highlight gaps in healthcare coverage for skin cancer related costs in transplant patients. Limitations include the possibility for misclassification due to the data abstraction process and limiting data collection to fundraisers available on GoFundMe while excluding those on other websites.