Advancing American Kidney Health

President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to launch Advancing American Kidney Health, a bold new initiative to improve the lives of Americans suffering from kidney disease, expand options for American patients, and reduce healthcare costs.

KIDNEY CARE IN ELDERLY

People 75 and older comprise the fastest-growing group of patients initiating dialysis. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has mandated that fellows receive formal training in geriatric nephrology, but nearly 25% of US institutions with ACGME-accredited nephrology training programs do not have comparable training programs in geriatrics. As a result, these institutions lack an educational structure for teaching geriatric nephrology to fellows.

ASN’s Geriatric Nephrology Educational Initiatives and Advisory Group on Geriatric Nephrology Speak Out

NEPHROLOGY WORKFORCE ISSUES

Amidst the rising tide of [chronic kidney disease] CKD, the global nephrology workforce has shrunk and is failing to meet the growing health care needs of this vulnerable patient population,” Muhammad U. Sharif, Mohamed E. Elsayed, and Austin G. Stack, wrote in Clinical Kidney Journal.

INCREASING PREVALENCE OF KIDNEY DISEASE

Per CDC:

  • 15% of US adults—37 million people—are estimated to have CKD.*
  • Most (9 in 10) adults with CKD do not know they have it.
  • 1 in 2 people with very low kidney function who are not on dialysis do not know they have CKD.

NEPHROLOGY SOCIETIES/ORGANIZATIONS:

  1. AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEPHROLOGY:  https://www.asn-online.org
  2. NATIONAL KIDNEY FOUNDATION: https://www.kidney.org
  3. RENAL PHYSICIANS ASSOCIATION: https://www.renalmd.org