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Advancing American Kidney Health can Improve the Transplant Rate

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“Transplant is widely considered the preferred modality of renal replacement therapy for patients with irreversible kidney failure.

Transplant is more effective at replacing kidney function than dialysis and provides most patients with a better quality of life, as well as an increased opportunity to participate in the work force.

Despite the advantages offered by transplant, fewer than one in 10 adults with kidney disease receive a kidney and 12 candidates die each day on the waitlist. Policy makers must take aggressive measures to help more patients seek a transplant and increase the number of available kidneys.”

Read the full article, here.

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Patient’s Ventricles Removed as Bridge to Heart Transplant

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“Brian Pedigo was originally referred to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, for a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), but the 41-year-old’s condition deteriorated rapidly.

He was experiencing intractable ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation and going into cardiogenic shock. With both ventricles in bad shape, his team of cardiologists couldn’t just put in an LVAD. On top of that, Pedigo’s thin frame and the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to support him in the ICU meant he likely wasn’t a candidate for an FDA-approved total artificial heart.”

Read the full article, here.

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‘Kidney’ vs ‘Renal’: Experts Say Words Matter

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Most Patients Don’t Know What Renal Means

“KDIGO collaborated with Standardised Outcomes in Nephrology (SONG) to conduct 10 focus groups with 54 patients and 13 caregivers from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. These revealed the patients’ attitudes and experiences with language commonly used to describe kidney diseases and care.

Some patients said that “end-stage kidney disease” sounds like impending death, and most did not know what “renal” meant.”

Read the full article, here.

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Chuck Lorre’s ‘B Positive’ Puts a (Slightly) More Urgent Spin on the TV Odd Couple: TV Review

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“The first two episodes of the show, though, do set up enough side plots and dynamics to suggest that there’s plenty of material to mine going forward. It’s also not hard to see where “B Positive” could sit among the latest slate of CBS multi-cam sitcoms produced by Chuck Lorre, namely “Mom” and “Bob Hearts Abishola.” With settings like Gina’s job at an assisted living facility and Drew’s dialysis group turned frank support group, “B Positive” works to lend more personality and authenticity to what could otherwise be just a basic odd couple show. Should it get the room to go forward, the show would be smart to expand upon those elements that make Gina and Drew seem more human instead of leaning on their wacky differences.”

Read the full review, here.

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Kidney Patients Expand Impact as Kidney Voters™ in 2020

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“The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), the oldest and largest independent kidney patient organization in the nation, today thanked kidney patient volunteers, their families, and kidney community allies for exercising their influence through voter registration and engagement as self-identified Kidney Voters™ through AAKP’s I Am A Kidney Voter initiative (#KIDNEYVOTER and #IAmAKidneyVoter) in the 2020 election”

“In 2018, AAKP developed and launched the first non-partisan kidney community voter education, registration, and turnout drive that had ever been attempted. In 2019, AAKP launched The Decade of the Kidney™ upon the signing of the White House Executive Order onAdvancing American Kidney Health Initiative. This strategic effort organizes kidney patient consumers nationally and globally to further drive policies that prevent kidney injury and disease, and support greater patient care choice, innovation, and timely access to care and new treatment options. Based on the grassroots tactics and online technologies refined by AAKP in 2018 and 2019, the I Am A Kidney Voter initiative has expanded rapidly to include all sectors of the kidney community, including medical professionals such as nephrologists and transplant surgeons, researchers, and workers across the medical industry and policy-influencers. AAKP estimates that their expanded platforms will engage close to 500,000 Kidney Voters™ by the 2022 election cycle while expanding kidney patient consumer demand for full immunosuppressive drug coverage for transplanted kidneys, new diagnostics to detect kidney disease far in advance of current standards, new biologics and precision medicine to treat and slow kidney disease progression, as well as bioengineered and artificial wearable and implantable kidneys to ease transplant waiting times.”

Read the full press release by AAKP, here.

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Nationwide Kidney Risk Campaign Relaunches by NKF, HHS, and ASN

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“The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) is joining forces with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), and actor, activist and entrepreneur Wilmer Valderrama to reach the 1 in 3 American adults at risk for kidney disease.  “Are You the 33%?”is a nationwide public awareness campaign relaunching today timed for Hispanic Heritage Month. The campaign, originally launched in March 2020, was paused due to the national pandemic and will run through March 2021.”

Read the full article, here.

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National Campaign to Capture Stories of Hope and Transformation Through Living Donation

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“The Transplant Research and Education Center (TREC), in partnership with the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation and One Lambda, Inc. (onelambda.com), part of Thermo Fisher Scientific and leading producer of in vitro diagnostic products for the HLA transplant community, has launched a six-month mass media campaign for kidney and transplant patients, living donors, and medical providers to raise awareness about the innovative resources available through the Living Donation Storytelling Project.”

Read the full article, here.

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New Records Set for Organ Donation and Transplantation Despite Pandemic

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“INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Despite the COVID-19 pandemic – and with more than two months remaining in 2020 – a record number of Hoosier organ donors have already given the gift of life through Indiana Donor Network, resulting in a record number of lifesaving organs transplanted in a single calendar year.

From Jan. 1 through Oct. 12, 2020, Indiana Donor Network, the state’s federally designated organ recovery organization, made it possible for 667 lifesaving organs to go to patients on the national transplant waiting list. This total breaks Indiana Donor Network’s existing record of 665 lifesaving organs transplanted in all of 2019 and puts the organization on pace to facilitate 28% more organ transplants this year than last year.”

Read the full article by Indiana Donor Network, here.

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A Kidney International “Journal of the COVID-19 Year” in Kidney Transplantation

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“The global COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on kidney transplant recipients and transplantation programs in the calamitous months of February to June 2020, the Northern Hemisphere Spring to Summer, is represented in articles published in the December issue of Kidney International. Writing about another pandemic in the year of 1665 over 300 years ago the author Daniel Defoe describes the same period of time in London and gives a remarkably familiar description of how a pandemic affects populations, including the unproven treatments, epidemiology of infection and human response to restrictions on freedom of city lockdowns that occurred during that time (1). The risks, outcomes, epidemiology and potential treatments for the kidney transplant population worldwide during the past 12 months have been thankfully studied in detail by multiple authors, and form the subject of papers in KI this month”

Read the full article on kidney INTERNATIONAL, here.

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Is ‘2 Hearts’ Movie Based On A True Story?

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“Yes, it is! The film is based on the real-life story of Jorge Bacardi — of the Bacardi Rum dynasty — and Christopher Gregory, an organ donor who tragically and suddenly passed away at the age of 19 from a brain aneurysm. Christopher’s organs were donated to five people, one of them being Jorge. The movie is an adaptation of the book All My Tomorrows, written by Chris’ dad.”

Read the full article and watch the trailer, here.

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