Newswise — Washington, DC (February 08, 2017) – The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) is pleased to partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to host the upcoming Kidney Innovation Summit. The Summit will take place at the Booz Allen Hamilton Center for Innovation in Washington, DC on February 9 – 10, 2017.
The goal of the Kidney Innovation Summit is to advance best practices and approaches to kidney disease by sharing knowledge and sparking collaborations between VA, industry, non-profits, patient organizations and other federal agency stakeholders. It will provide the opportunity for intensive knowledge sharing, discussion, and networking to identify areas of potential collaboration across the topics of chronic kidney disease (CKD), and renal replacement therapy including kidney transplant. Information exchange will occur through lightning talks, panels, round table discussions, and an innovation showcase.
More than 20 million Americans have kidney disease and more than 650,000 are diagnosed with kidney failure. Kidney diseases affect one in six veterans, including the more than 40,000 enrolled veterans who progress to kidney failure and rely on dialysis or a kidney transplant to remain alive. Highlighting the imperative for innovation, care for veterans with kidney failure is disproportionately high costs at an estimated $18 billion annually.
Highly prevalent risk factors for CKD include type 2 diabetes and hypertension, contributing to approximately 42% and 31% of CKD in the veteran population, respectively. ESRD also disproportionately affects minorities.
Both ASN and VA are committed to innovation in kidney care to improve patient quality of life and clinical outcomes. At the White House Organ Summit last year, ASN announced its pledge of the first $7 million to launch a prize competition incentivizing the development of novel technologies for renal replacement therapy to improve the quality of life for patients with kidney disease. The society has also pledged to continue to work with Congress to close the gap between the investment in research to cure kidney disease and significant disease burden on both patients and taxpayers.
“The time for innovation in kidney disease research is now. Millions of Americans are affected by kidney diseases, a significant number of which are veterans. We owe it to both veterans and civilians to develop cures for these devastating diseases. ASN is pleased to partner with the VA on this vital next step. ” said Eleanor Lederer, MD, FASN, President, ASN. ”VA has more than one million Veterans receiving treatment for chronic kidney disease,” said VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. David J. Shulkin. “We take this issue seriously, which is what makes this summit and the continued work of both VA and ASN so important.”
For additional information about the event, please visit: http://kidneydiseaseinnov.wixsite.com/ation. You can also follow #VAkidneyinnovation on Twitter.
Since 1966, ASN has been leading the fight to prevent, treat, and cure kidney diseases throughout the world by educating health professionals and scientists, advancing research and innovation, communicating new knowledge, and advocating for the highest quality care for patients. ASN has nearly 17,000 members representing 112 countries. For more information, please visit www.asnonline.org or contact the society at 202-640-4660.#
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