American Kidney Fund Launches National Kidney Health Equity Media Campaign

ROCKVILLE, Md. (April 25, 2024) – As part of its longstanding commitment to kidney health equity, the American Kidney Fund (AKF) has launched a national media campaign aimed at bringing greater awareness of kidney disease within Black and Hispanic/Latino communities, the two groups most disproportionately affected by kidney failure in the United States. 

A central piece of AKF's Kidney Health for All™ program, this yearlong campaign focuses on prevention and disease management and will include national TV, streaming and radio PSAs, digital advertising, video in primary care doctor's offices, and ads on billboards and public transit in metropolitan areas with high rates of kidney disease. The English and Spanish language PSAs feature Dr. Silas Norman, chair of AKF's Board of Trustees and Co-Medical Director, Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at the University of Michigan, and Dr. Pablo Garcia, a nephrologist and transplant nephrologist at the University of New Mexico. Garcia is also Director of the Living Donor Program and Director of the Outpatient Nephrology Clinics at the University of New Mexico. 

In the U.S., the prevalence of kidney failure among Black people is more than four times that of white people, while the prevalence of kidney failure in Hispanic or Latino people is more than twice that of white people, according to the U.S. Renal Data System. 

"Our message is clear: 'We don't just believe in Kidney Health for All – we work to achieve it,'" said LaVarne A. Burton, AKF President and CEO. "Through these awareness efforts, we hope to educate Americans, particularly those in communities where rates of end-stage kidney disease are high, that dialysis is not evitable. We are urging people to see their health care provider regularly and get their kidneys checked, so that they are empowered to prevent or slow the progression of kidney disease."

AKF's health equity initiative centers around four pillars:   

• Preventing and slowing the progression of kidney disease
• Increasing diversity in clinical trials to reflect the populations the medications will treat 
• Increasing awareness and utilization of home dialysis, which can result in better outcomes, as an available treatment option
• Increasing access and removing barriers to kidney transplantation among people of color

PSAs may be viewed on AKF's Kidney Health for All website (KidneyHealthForAll.org) and in Spanish at Saludrenalparatodos.org. 

Kidney Health for All is supported by Presenting Sponsors Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company, Travere Therapeutics, Inc., and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated; Leadership Sponsors AstraZeneca and Merck; and Equity Sponsors Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. and Sanofi.