Program areas at AKF
Patient assistance: in 2023, we helped more than 66,000 low-income Kidney failure patients in all 50 states gain access to lifesaving healthcare, including dialysis and transplant, by providing need-based grants to pay for health insurance premiums, transportation to treatment, prescription medications and nutritional products, and emergency assistance in the wake of natural disasters. With akf's support for health coverage they otherwise could not afford, more than 1,600 dialysis patients had lifesaving Kidney transplants and post-transplant care, representing nearly 6% of all u.s. Kidney transplants performed in 2023. We provided nearly 300 dialysis patients disaster relief assistance in the wake of hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. Patients seeking help from akf must demonstrate financial need through completion of a grant application. On average, our grant recipients have total household incomes less than $27,500 per year.
Research: established in 1988, akf's clinical scientist in nephrology program has provided research funding to many of nephrology's brightest scholars. Many former csn fellows have gone on to distinguished careers in the field, conducting groundbreaking research that advances knowledge and treatment of Kidney disease. In 2023, akf selected two new fellows. Dr. alexandra bicki from ucsf will be working on a project related to identifying facilitators and barriers to home dialysis and living Kidney donor transplantation among adolescents and young adults. Dr. nivetha subramanian from stanford university will be working on a project related to disparities in covid-19 vaccine booster update in dialysis.akf took major steps in addressing the problem of unknown causes of Kidney disease (uckd) by implementing aspects of akf's uckd roadmap. These included creating two new cme courses for prescribers and nurses, hosting our first rare disease fly-in, and hosting our first, in-person uckd summit on december 5, 2023, bringing together patients, family members, and renal professionals.
Public education, awareness and prevention activities:awareness and prevention: 37 million americans have chronic Kidney disease (ckd), and most don't realize they have it. Akf's education programs help individuals identify their risks for ckd and manage ckd, Kidney failure and co-morbidities. A hallmark of our awareness-building work was our fourth annual Kidney action week, held from march 20-24, 2023. The virtual educational event was streamed through a digital conference platform and simulcasted through akf's facebook and youtube social channels. More than 5,600 people preregistered for the event, with more than 82,000 people viewing the combined live and archived sessions. We provided prevention and awareness messaging throughout the year on our social media channels, which grew to 220,000 followers in 2023.public educationwe continually enhance our education content and offerings. Our website had more than 16 million views in 2023 from people looking for Kidney health information. We also continued to enrich our award-winning Kidney kitchen website, a resource for planning a kidney-friendly diet, and the site had more than 1.2 million views in 2023. We also launched our Kidney health for all website, the online centerpiece of akf's health equity programming. We continued to run awareness campaigns which focus on managing various aspects of Kidney disease and its co-morbidities. We also continued to provide our Kidney health coach peer-to-peer community outreach program, which now includes more than 5,800 coaches nationwide. For children, living with Kidney disease is extremely challenging. Akf offers a free, nationwide online virtual camp program for pediatric Kidney patients. The campers participate monthly in moderated activities and discussions that allow them to connect with other children around the country who are experiencing the same challenges. In 2023, nearly 200 children participated in akf's virtual camp. Akf also launched a special virtual camp in 2023 for children living with cystinosis, a rare Kidney disease. Akf also continued in 2023 to provide a nationwide art contest for pediatric Kidney patients. Akf is a strong and independent voice advocating for policies that improve access to health care and strengthen the quality of care for individuals with Kidney disease. We work with congress, the administration, federal agencies, and state governments to advance legislation and regulatory policies important to Kidney patients and their families. Engaging patients and caregivers around advocacy issues is central to this work. In 2023, we grew our advocacy network to nearly 28,000 patients and family members and provided opportunities for engagement: two in-person fly-ins, including one focused on rare Kidney diseases; 4 in-person health equity trainings and 3 virtual health equity trainings. In april 2023 we held our patient access initiative summit, followed later in the year by a white paper on the recommendations that came out of the summit, focusing on four areas of concern to Kidney patients: screening and testing, patient education and navigation, the fda approval process and insurance coverage issues. We published our third annual "state of the states: living donor protection report card," which holds each state accountable for the laws it has in place to make it easier for people to be living Kidney donors. Since akf began spearheading the living donor protection advocacy work in 2018, 32 states have enacted laws that remove roadblocks to being living donors.professional educationakf develops courses that are provided online and meet the continuing education requirements for professionals who treat Kidney patients. In 2023, there were more than 91,000 akf courses completed by physicians, nurses, social workers, dialysis technicians, dietitians, health educators and other renal care professionals. The growth in this area was in large part due to the creation of two new accredited uckd project courses on identifying ckd causality, which saw nearly 15,000 course completions.