OnDemand: Tackling Racial Disparities in Kidney Disease

About this On Demand Training

OnDemand: Tackling Racial Disparities in Chronic Kidney Disease

About 37 million adults in the United States have chronic kidney disease (CKD) and 9 out of 10 people with CKD are unaware they are living with the disease. Early identification, regular monitoring and ongoing management of CKD are critical to slow disease progression and avoid kidney failure. Racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in care and health outcomes exist for patients with CKD and CKD risk factors. Racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to progress from CKD to ESKD and yet are less likely to receive a kidney transplant or to have been under the care of a nephrologist before starting dialysis. These disparities are related to patient, clinician, clinical and system factors.

This course will explore the drivers of health disparities in CKD and practical actions health plans, health systems and clinicians can take to achieve health equity. Led by Dr. Sylvia Rosas, the President-Elect of the National Kidney Foundation, a panel discussion will cover:

• The role of primary care in early detection and intervention for CKD.
• How health plans can facilitate access to high quality, equitable CKD treatment including support for the clinical and social drivers of health.
• Effective strategies to engage patients early in managing their CKD risk (given the low awareness and often silent progression of the disease).
• Implications of eliminating the race-based modifier in kidney function calculation (eGFR).

Sponsorship Support

NCQA thanks Bayer for their generous support which helped make this course and the Quality Innovation Series possible.

Faculty

Sylvia E. Rosas, MD, MSCE

Sylvia E. Rosas, MD, MSCE is a nephrologist and epidemiologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Ma. She is the Director of the Latino Kidney Clinic and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She also is a nephrologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Dr. Rosas completed medical school at University of Rosario in Bogota, Colombia and Internal Medicine training at Michael Reese Hospital/University of Illinois at Chicago. She obtained Clinical Nephrology training, a Master’s in Clinical Epidemiology as well as completed the Wharton Management Program from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Rosas’s primary research focus is on the epidemiology of metabolic and cardiovascular disease complications in patients with chronic kidney disease particularly diabetic kidney disease. She has also evaluated health disparities in individuals with CKD particularly in those of Hispanic/Latino background. She is the clinical center PI in the NIDDK-funded multicenter APOL1 Long-term Kidney Transplantation Outcomes Network (APOLLO) that evaluates the role of the APOL1 gene in kidney transplant outcomes.  She is also the PI for the Kidney Precision Medicine Program (KPMP) Chronic Kidney Disease recruitment site at Joslin Diabetes Center. KPMP aims to ethically obtain and evaluate human kidney biopsies in order to create a kidney tissue atlas, define disease subgroups, and identify critical cells, pathways, and targets for novel therapies. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and the Advances of Chronic Kidney Disease Journal. Dr. Rosas served as the Chair of the Minority Affairs Committee of the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network/United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).  Dr. Rosas has been the secretary for Women in Nephrology as well as Program Committee and Oversight Committee Chair for the NIDDK Network for Minority Health Research Investigators. She has received numerous awards including the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) of New England Physician of the Year in 2017, National Hispanic Medical Association Fellow of the Year Award and the 2021 ASN Midcareer Distinguished Leader Award. She is the President Elect of the National Kidney Foundation 2021-2022.

Emmanuel Mensah, MD, MBA

Emmanuel Mensah (MD, MBA) is an internist and Firm Chief in the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He holds a faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School. Dr Mensah also practices as an internist at Tema General Hospital in Ghana. He currently serves as the West Africa Lead for the NCDI Poverty Network, working with multiple stakeholders and ministries of health in different countries to address the burden of severe non-communicable diseases and injuries in these countries.

Dr Mensah previously split his time between practicing medicine and management consulting at McKinsey and Company. As a management consultant, his interest and work focused on healthcare delivery systems and strategy projects for various clients along the healthcare value chain.

His academic interests are in health disparities and unconscious bias and its impact on patient care. He teaches lectures on the topic at multiple Grand Rounds, Harvard Medical School, Harvard College and as a keynote speaker at various leadership programs and events.

Dr Mensah earned his MD at Harvard Medical School and MBA from Harvard Business School. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Event Type

1. Self Paced