Kicking Off Kidney Week 2021

Announcer:
Welcome to the ASN Action Center on ReachMD. On this episode, we’re joined by Dr. John Friedewald, a Professor of Medicine and Surgery at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Medical Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Dr. Friedewald is here to share highlights of day one of the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week 2021. Here’s Dr. Friedewald now.

Dr. Friedewald:
Really excited about Kidney Week, which has just gotten under way. Opening presidential address from Dr. Quaggin was really a call to arms for the global kidney community to really take action and start to move the needle on treatment and also prevention of kidney disease. And I think that was really important to number one, define where the world stands with kidney disease and how prevalent it is, and then number two, some real actionable ways that we can all do something to start to improve the lives of the 850 million people living worldwide with kidney disease. So, I think that was a great start to the meeting.

Hearing about COVID-19 and its effects, not just globally, but also on patients with kidney disease was also very important. Where we go from here is I think really exciting. I think the kidney community has addressed disparities and a number of important ways and we’re gonna hear about that during the meeting both with the way we measure and define kidney disease, which is obviously where it all starts, but then also ways that we can be more mindful and thoughtful about changing how we deliver care to everybody in equal ways and certainly with organ allocation, but also with inclusion in clinical trials and a number of important ways that we can extend these therapies to everybody so that there’s equitable delivery of healthcare for patients with kidney disease.

Recently the, the National Kidney Foundation and the American Society of Nephrology together put out a joint statement on the measurement of kidney function, we call it GFR and estimates of GFR and how those estimation equations were not accurate in some populations. And so I think that’s where people should start is with that joint statement that came out just a few months ago. Also the United Network for Organ Sharing, which is charged with allocating organs here in the U.S., puts out frequent reports on how organ allocation is going and with that, there’s a report on equity and lack thereof in ways that we can address organ allocation to better serve all of our patients.

Announcer:
That was Dr. John Friedewald, discussing the highlights of day one of the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week 2021. To access this and other episodes in our series, visit ReachMD.com/ASN, where you can Be Part of the Knowledge. Thanks for listening.