Looking Ahead to 2011 and Beyond

On behalf of everyone at The Kidney TRUST, I’d like to extend our best wishes for a healthy, happy and productive new year.  This is an exciting time at the TRUST as we work with our friends and supporters to expand our programs and raise awareness about the threat of Chronic Kidney Disease (“CKD”) and reduce its human and financial impact.

Annette Eros

All of us at the TRUST are proud of the progress that we have made through our rapid-screening program that has now reached nearly 15,000 people, and our financial assistance program for people on dialysis that has awarded more than 1,000 grants totaling nearly $2.2 million over the last two years.

But our work is just beginning – CKD is a disease that affects over 31 million Americans and the number of people who experience kidney failure every year is growing at an alarming rate.

The Kidney TRUST envisions a day when consumers are as aware of their kidney function as they are of their blood pressure or cholesterol or any other health risk — and they understand how to maintain healthy kidney function. We are working towards a world where screening for CKD is routine and the onset of CKD is always caught early.  We want to see patients and their healthcare teams working together to maintain healthy kidney function and thus ensuring that kidney failure does not happen.

To this end, the TRUST will be focusing in the coming months on defining a new view of CKD that we hope will help to change the dialogue, treatment and outcomes surrounding CKD.  Our hope is that we can more fully engage consumers around kidney health issues and that over time early diagnosis of CKD, at a stage where treatment can be effective, will become the norm versus the exception.

Through public education, rapid screening for CKD, private/public partnerships, financial assistance program, and new ways of thinking about CKD, the TRUST aims to empower individuals and healthcare professionals to enhance patient outcomes and reduce the impact of kidney disease.

It’s our hope that you’ll join with us in this effort by sponsoring or donating to the TRUST, volunteering to assist with our programs, or participating in events like Tour DaVita and the Kidney Awareness Run|Walk.  Visit our website at www.kidneytrust.org to learn more.  Thanks for all that you are doing to help us reduce the human and economic cost of CKD.