For Roy Malkin, President and CEO of Minntech Corporation in Minneapolis, who brought the TRUST to Minnesota earlier this year for a corporate screening event, the outlook for his Renal Systems business over the next decade is quite strong, but he indicated that he would be more than happy to see a reduction in business growth, if the incidence of CKD could be reduced.

“Unless we take action as a society to step up prevention efforts, the number of people with kidney failure in this country, who will require dialysis or a transplant in their lifetime, is going to go through the roof” said Roy in a recent interview. “At Minntech we’re doing everything we can to ensure that kidney disease prevention gets the attention it deserves.”
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When Dr. John A. Robertson finished his residency at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center and began his practice as a nephrologist in the 1980s, there wasn’t a widespread appreciation in the medical community, much less in the public at large, for the number of people who had chronic kidney disease (“CKD”). Robertson says that strides have been made and knowledge has grown. “Over the years we’ve done a lot to educate doctors,” says Robertson, “And we now have a staging program tool for kidney disease that was unknown when I entered the practice.”

Although knowledge about kidney disease has increased over the last 20 years, along with the ability to treat it more efficiently and effectively, Dr. Robertson is concerned that public awareness about the threat of CKD, which can lead to kidney failure, lags far behind other diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS that have been effectively called to the public’s attention by aggressive and well-financed awareness campaigns during the same time.
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Over the past year the TRUST has piloted a financial assistance program for people on dialysis who are having trouble managing co-pays, co-insurance and deductibles for medical treatment, services, and prescription drugs. The recently-concluded Fall 2009 FAP Pilot was offered to residents of California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Maryland, Texas, and Virginia. Since the start of the program over 500 grants have been awarded and approximately $1.2 million in funds committed to grant recipients.

According to TRUST President Barbara Lawson, “The TRUST believes that helping people on dialysis keep working and retain their insurance gives them more control of their health outcomes. And we think that health outcomes are going to be better if those on dialysis don’t have to choose between spending their last few dollars every month on groceries versus co-pays for drugs.”
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