American Kidney Fund to Host Congressional Briefing on the Crisis in Kidney Disease

ROCKVILLE, Md. (June 6, 2022) – The American Kidney Fund (AKF) will hold a Congressional briefing on June 7 to discuss the alarming rates of kidney disease and kidney failure, the latter of which disproportionately affects people of color. The Crisis in Kidney Disease briefing will take place virtually at 1 p.m. ET as part of AKF's annual Kidney Action Week. Bringing together a panel of national experts, the briefing will raise awareness about the tremendous burden and the seriousness of kidney disease and address the steps that must be taken to begin to tackle the kidney disease crisis.

Speakers will include:

• U.S. Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Assistant Whip for House Leadership and member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce
• Dora Hughes, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at the CMS Innovation Center, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• Patrick O. Gee, Ph.D., AKF Ambassador from Virginia and Founder of iAdvocate

In 2009, there were 574,000 people in the United States with kidney failure; that number climbed to 809,000 in 2019, a a significant increase of 41% in just a decade.

"Unless something changes, the number of people with kidney failure will be well over one million by 2030," said LaVarne A. Burton, AKF President and CEO. "To make matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on people with kidney failure – mortality and hospitalization rates for these patients are much higher than for the general population. Kidney failure not only disrupts lives, but it also has a high cost to society in terms of medical costs, lost wages, hospitalizations and mortality. We are hosting this briefing not only to shine a spotlight on the current state of kidney disease, but also as a call to action to address this crisis."

AKF continues to spearhead and support legislation at the state and federal level to improve the lives of people living with kidney disease, and the 17,000 Ambassadors in its Advocacy Network have been an important part of that work.

AKF's briefing is open to members of Congress, Congressional staff, other policymakers, media and the general public. Registration is open at KidneyActionWeek.org. This briefing is made possible thanks to generous support from the American Kidney Fund's 2022 Corporate Members.

AKF's Kidney Action Week, a week-long schedule of virtual events providing information, tools and resources to prevent, detect and manage kidney disease, will run from June 6-10. Kidney Action Week is made possible thanks to the generous support of our Presenting sponsors Boehringer Ingelheim/Lilly and U.S. Renal Care as well as Calliditas Therapeutics, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and session sponsors Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, and Satellite Healthcare.