NKF launches advisory committee to promote health equity
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The National Kidney Foundation has launched a health equity advisory committee, an endeavor designed to reduce disparities in health care and promote community health and social justice, according to a press release.
“Through health services research we know that health care inequalities in communities of color begins long before actual kidney failure develops, so the formation of this committee to address ongoing severe health disparities, particularly in this age of COVID-19, is critically important,” Joseph Vassalotti, MD, NKF chief medical officer, said in the release.
Specific undertakings of the advisory committee, according to the release, include the following:
- collaboration with other NKF members and leadership, as well as with patients, to design and implement programs related to improving health equity;
- expanded professional development and research opportunities for underrepresented health care professionals;
- support health equity research in nephrology;
- networking with other experts, societies government agencies and potential funders; and
- review and editing educational documents by the NKF to ensure “accuracy, validity, and cultural sensitivity.”
The chair of the committee also commented on the news, noting that a significant part of the upcoming efforts will stem from recommendations provided by the NKF-ASN joint task force, which was launched in 2020 to reassess the use of race in eGFR equations.
“We are very excited about the formation of this important committee because our main goal is to ensure that all people living with, or at risk for, kidney disease have access to the health resources and support they need,” Sylvia E. Rosas, MD, MSCE, president-elect of the NKF, as well as a nephrologist and epidemiologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center, said.
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