The US Social Security Amendments of 1972 extended universal Medicare coverage to individuals with End Stage Kidney Disease who need either dialysis or transplantation to maintain life. In this episode of GMO Dialogues, Robert Sepucha, CEO of InterWell health talks about how this legislation changed the trajectory of kidney disease care in the United States, and led to value-based care models of today.

Through data analytics, data engineering, research, collaborative partnerships, and publications, Fresenius Medical Care’s Clinical Advanced Analytics team monitors post-market product devices and product performance in the clinic environment.

Dr. Len Usvyat, the Global Medical Office’s head of Clinical Advanced Analytics, talks about how real-world data generated by devices is used to improve the care of people living with kidney disease.

The US Social Security Amendments of 1972 extended Medicare coverage to individuals with End Stage Kidney Disease who need either dialysis or transplantation to maintain life. In this episode of Dialogues noted medical researcher and economist, Dr. Philip Held, talks about the 50th anniversary of this landmark legislation and how it changed the trajectory of kidney disease care in the United States, and beyond.

The escalating incidence of infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria contributes to a reported 700,000 deaths annually, that number is expected to soar to over 10 million by 2050.  Timely, actionable information is necessary to provide effective treatments quickly to drug-resistant infections.

Dr. Miriam Huntley, the Chief Technology Officer for Day Zero Diagnostics, talks about their efforts to improve infectious disease diagnosis and treatment with genomic sequencing and machine learning to solve antibiotic resistance.

There are many obstacles to transplantation for individuals living with kidney disease, ranging from barriers getting on waiting lists to organ rejection.

Nephrologist, Dr. Sumit Mohan, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University, joins us to discuss strategies to address inequities in access to transplantation and why transplantation remains a vital therapy option for people living with advanced kidney disease.

The mission of United States Renal Data System (USRDS) is to document the impact of kidney disease on the US population. They support research and policy initiatives designed to improve the care of individuals living with kidney disease.  One means of doing that is the publication of the Annual Data Report, an authoritative source of data about the magnitude, characteristics, treatment, and costs of care in the US. One important aspect of this data focuses on racial and ethnic disparities in incidence and prevalence of CKD and ESRD and in access to treatment of these conditions.

Dr. Kirsten Johansen, Chief of Nephrology at Hennepin Healthcare, professor of medicine at the university of Minnesota, and deputy editor for the Clinical Journal of ASN, joins us to discuss racial and ethnic disparities at USRDS. 

Originally developed to treat diabetes, SGLT2 inhibitors are potentially groundbreaking in slowing the progression of chronic kidney disease. Recent studies indicate SGLT-2 inhibitors hold promise for slowing CKD progression and for treating heart failure and other cardiovascular conditions.

Dr. Michael Anger, Fresenius Medical Care’s chief medical officer for the Renal Therapies Group, joins this episode to discuss how SGLT-2 inhibitors can be used to intervene earlier with kidney disease patients and improve overall patient health.

Including patient-reported outcomes (PROs), in clinical trials, opens new and meaningful pathways to understanding medical care from the patient’s point of view. By combining clinical and patient-reported end points, trials featuring PROs can identify opportunities to improve patient health status and define treatment goals. 

Krister Cromm, Fresenius Medical Care’s expert director of patient experience for clinical research, is leading the company’s evolution from disease-centered to person-centered integrated trial design. 

People with kidney disease receiving dialysis have poor health-related quality of life. By considering biomedical and patient-reported outcomes when conducting research and measuring care quality, we can enrich our understanding of patient experiences and identify opportunities to improve patient health status by aligning treatment goals with issues important to patients. 

In this episode of GMO Dialogues, Dr. Jennifer Flythe, Associate Professor of Medicine at UNC School of Medicine, discusses Patient Related Outcome Measures and how they can improve the quality of patient care.