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Blue Shield of California invests in Cricket Health expansion aimed at treating kidney disease

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“Improving clinical outcomes for people with kidney disease results in lower costs for health plan partners, according to Cricket.

Today, Cricket Health closed an $83.5 million Series B funding round led by Valtruis, which will enable Cricket’s expansion to support demand for its care model for people with kidney disease.

Blue Shield of California made a strategic investment of an unspecified amount. The round also includes existing investors Oak HC/FT and Cigna Ventures, as well as K2 HealthVentures.

The expansion will improve clinical outcomes for people with kidney disease, resulting in lower costs for health plan partners, according to Cricket. In both Texas and California, across commercial and Medicare Advantage health plan partnerships, Cricket Health said it has shown improvements in key clinical measures for its populations living with kidney disease.”

Read more, here.

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Making transplants without a lifelong regimen of anti-rejection drugs a reality at UCLA Health

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“When he was a medical trainee, UCLA Health nephrologist Erik Lum, MD, was part of a team at Stanford University exploring how to create “tolerance” in kidney-transplant patients — a process that encourages the body to welcome the new organ without the necessity for a lifelong regimen of anti-rejection drugs.

Now, Dr. Lum is among the leaders of a multidisciplinary team making transplant tolerance a reality at UCLA Health. Two kidney transplants have been performed thus far under the advanced protocol, making UCLA Health one of only five medical centers in the world capable of the groundbreaking approach hailed as “the Holy Grail” of transplantation.

“It requires a lot of interplay between different divisions,” Dr. Lum says. “To me, it really demonstrates the strength of a place like UCLA. You can’t do this just anywhere. It’s a huge collaboration.”

The protocol brings together a broad range of specialties, including nephrology, urology, hematology, radiation oncology and others, for a series of treatments that prime the transplant recipient’s body to accept the new organ.”

Learn more, here.

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National Kidney Foundation and Labcorp Data Show Millions Aren’t Tested for Kidney Disease

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“New data suggest that millions of patients most at-risk for life-threatening kidney disease are unaware they have it because they are not tested according to clinical practice guidelines despite their risk. The study, by authors from the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and Labcorp, appears today in the journal Diabetes Care.

In the study, “Chronic Kidney Disease Testing (CKD) Among At-Risk Adults in the U.S. Remains Low: Real-World Evidence from a National Laboratory Database,” investigators reviewed laboratory ordered CKD tests from more than 28 million patients with diabetes, hypertension (also known as high blood pressure), or both, that were tested by Labcorp between 2013 and 2018.”

Read more, here.

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Home is where the heart is: This CNN Hero is housing transplant patients near their hospitals

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“Twelve years ago, Ava Kaufman was fighting for her life. Now, thanks to a donor heart and successful organ transplant, she’s alive — and saving others.

“My life changed on a dime,” said Kaufman, who was a professional dancer and black belt in taekwondo when an autoimmune disease went undiagnosed and wiped out her muscular system. She ultimately ended up on life support in intensive care with organ failure.

“I went from living this big life to not knowing how I was going to survive.”

In what she calls a series of small miracles, Kaufman was given a second chance at life.”

Read the full story, here.

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Should You Recommend a COVID Booster to Patients?

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“Certain at-risk groups need to consider extra protection now.”

What’s the Current Booster Landscape?

“Several studies offer preliminary evidence on the benefits of boosters, especially for certain populations. A recent French study in JAMA showed that about 50% of 159 kidney transplant patients with low or no measurable antibodies after two doses of an mRNA vaccine mounted a response with a third shot, and with no serious side effects or rejection episodes. A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine also showed the benefits of a third dose in solid organ transplant patients. Pfizer data (that has not yet been peer reviewed) show antibody levels rise 11-fold in patients ages 65 to 75 after a booster.

Around the world, some countries and localities have gotten an early start on boosting. Boosters are being offered to patients over 60 years old in Israel. France is giving a booster dose to the severely immunocompromised 4 weeks after the second dose, and Hungary, Turkey, Thailand, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates are starting booster programs. The Mississippi Health Department is now recommending physicians consider boosters for the immunocompromised.”

Read more, here.

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Diabetes Patients on Dialysis See Better Sugar Control With Artificial Pancreas

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“Adults with type 2 diabetes and end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis benefitted from an artificial pancreas in a small, randomized crossover trial.

Patients using a fully automated closed loop system spent a longer amount of time in target glucose range versus those using standard insulin therapy (52.8% vs 37.7%, respectively, P<0.001), reported Charlotte Boughton, MD, PhD, of University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories in England, and colleagues.”

Read more, here.

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NKF Publishes Recommendations to Move Thousands of Patients from Dialysis to Transplant

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“The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) releases today a position paper developed by 16 experts in nephrology and transplantation from 13 institutions that plots a path for research and innovation to address the most pressing barriers to kidney transplant access, organ availability, and long-term allograft survival in the United States. 

This ambitious agenda seeks to direct research investment to optimize equity, efficiency, and patient-centered outcomes and maximize the benefits of transplantation in our country. Today, while nearly 100,000 people are on the waitlist for a kidney transplant, only 22,817 Americans received a kidney transplant in 2020.

“While kidney transplantation provides the best treatment option for kidney failure to thousands of patients each year, the goal of universal access to this treatment remains elusive,” said lead author Krista L. Lentine, MD, PhD, Saint Louis University Center for Abdominal Transplantation. “Addressing the priorities outlined in this research agenda has the potential to transform kidney patient care by expanding opportunities for safe living donation, improving waitlist access and transplant readiness, maximizing use of available deceased donor organs, and extending graft longevity.”

To assess the knowledge gaps amenable to more research, NKF convened an expert panel to develop a research agenda aimed at advancing access to kidney transplantation for all patients who could benefit, with attention to reducing/eliminating racial and ethnic disparities and supporting the goal of “one transplant for life” for organ recipients.”

Read full article, here.

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Liver Transplants: ‘Collateral Damage’ of Pandemic Drinking

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“The number of alcoholic hepatitis patients getting liver transplant more than tripled during the COVID-19 pandemic, a retrospective study found.

A difference-in-difference analysis from June 2020 to February 2021 found that liver transplants for acute alcohol-associated hepatitis more than tripled (268.5% increase) compared with expected trends, while the rate of patients with acute alcohol-associated hepatitis added to the transplant waiting list more than quadrupled (325% increase), reported Therese Bittermann, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues.”

Read full article, here.

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SGLT2 Inhibitor Adds Years of Life to Patients With Heart Failure

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“Patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) may increase their lifespan if they take the SGLT2 inhibitor dapagliflozin (Farxiga) over the long term, a statistical modeling study showed.

Mean event-free survival was an estimated 8.3 years in a patient with HFrEF who started dapagliflozin at age 65. As a similar patient on standard therapy alone would only be expected to live free from heart failure events for another 6.2 years, this represented an event-free survival time gain of 2.1 years (P=0.002).”

Learn more, here.

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If You’ve Done This, Your Risk of COVID After Vaccination Is 82 Times Higher

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“A study published July 23 in the Transplantation journal looked at COVID infections among transplant recipients. The researches analyzed data from more than 18,000 fully vaccinated people who had transplants for large organs from 17 transplant centers across the U.S. There were 151 breakthrough infections among the patients studied. According to the researchers, the risk of getting COVID after vaccination is 82 times higher for people who have had a transplant.

Out of the transplant breakthrough infections, 87 people were also hospitalized and 14 died. According to the study, this translates to a 485 times higher risk of breakthrough infection with associated hospitalization and death for transplant recipients. Per the CDC, most people who get breakthrough infections should not expect severe complications.

Study co-author Dorry Segev, MD, a transplant surgeon with Johns Hopkins University, told Science magazine that this is the first study to provide clinical evidence across multiple hospitals that transplant recipients are less protected by the vaccine.”

Read the full article, here.

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