According to Mayo Clinic, physicians should refer kidney patients for transplant when their GFR reaches 25 to ensure they are evaluated and listed in a timely fashion. The goal is get patients evaluated before their condition worsens, and ultimately avoid complications from dialysis that could affect transplant eligibility. (Excerpts taken from: https://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/transplant-medicine/news/top-5-reasons-to-refer-a-patient-early-for-kidney-transplant/mac-20575082).

Late Referrals:

1. Force transplant eligible patients on dialysis. Dialysis leads to a significant decline in the patient’s quality of life—and increases risks for infections, anemia and cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart failure and myocardial infarction.

2. Sabotage transplant opportunities as the patient’s health and independence declines, triggering disqualifying co-morbidities.

3. Rob eligible transplant patients from vital education that would otherwise prepare them for proactive self-advocacy, and a timely listing for the best outcome.

4. Stretch out “evaluation timelines” and disrupt the likelihood of underlying medical conditions getting evaluated beforehand.

5. Lead to unrealistic timelines for finding suitable living kidney donors. Much of this is due to poor education, and a lack of preemptive (live-donor) awareness and encouragement.

There are several resources available to help patients attract living kidney donors who can help them avoid (or eliminate the need) for dialysis. One such resource is the “Donor Seeker,” which inspires hopeful recipients talk-up, team-up and learn how to share their story to attract interested donors in less than 15-minutes.  “Donor Seeker” is a free download from Android and Apple app stores. Learn more here: https://transplantfirst.org/donor-seeker-how-to-find-kidney-donors/

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Social Media Story Videos

Do you need to get your story out in social media so more people know that you are hoping to find a living kidney donor for your much-needed transplant?  Here’s your chance to get a professional video produced with your name and contact information for you and your transplant center.  

Our video producer has walked a mile in your shoes. All you have to do is answer a few questions and we’ll create the content to educate and inform your viewers from the moment they click “play.”  In less than less than 3 minutes they’ll understand your need and know how to help if they choose to do so.

Video Not Your Thing?

No worries. We’ve done the heavy lifting for you. You can get a semi-custom video for a fraction of the cost you’d have to pay to hire a professional videographer to create and edit. Check out our example below—to see how story videos can be your best outreach tool for sharing your story.

Here’s what you’ll get:

Your customized video will include:

• ‘Ready-to-Post’ 2-minute inspirational video 
• Your name and contact info will be included, along with your transplant center’s and applicable links
• Facts on the value of living kidney donor transplants — and the hardships of dialysis 
• Your urgent need for a transplant, and the risks involved in waiting for a deceased donor’s kidney 
• An invitation to learn more, share your video in social media — and expand your search 

Watch Sample Here

Don’t waste another minute waiting to see what comes next.

Start networking your story with a professionally produced video about your story and need.

Become a Donor-Magnet® by posting your story video and start attracting potential donors!

Discover more about story videos at this link: https://transplantfirst.org/story-videos/

Your Ideal Donor is Out There!

Talking about your hope to find a kidney donor can be overwhelming. With your own story video you aren’t faced with having to build up the courage before sharing your story. Your video does that for you. Viewers can either respond or simply share your video in their network to expand your search. *Depending on your social network, you can get 100’s of eyeballs within just a few hours.

Discover more about story videos at this link:  https://transplantfirst.org/story-videos/

Check out this animated video with a heartfelt twist from an adorable “fur-friend.” 

You can also discover more about our revolutionary “Donor Seeker” mobile app for English & Spanish “how to” videos and powerful resource links here: https://transplantfirst.org/donor-seeker-how-to-find-kidney-donors/

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Increasing Organ Transplant Access (IOTS) Model. Medicare 2025-2030. Key Takeaways:

New performance metrics will serve as the basis for the proposed incentive payments, with three categories assigned a score totaling 100 possible points.

For example, each performance year, a participating kidney transplant hospital will fall into one of three categories based on their final score as follows:

• Final score of 60 or greater: Hospitals will RECEIVE A LUMP SUM UPSIDE RISK PAYMENT from CMS equal to the final performance score minus 60, then divided by 60, then multiplied by $8,000, then multiplied by the number of kidney transplants to attributed patients with Medicare as their primary or secondary payer during the performance year.
  • For example, a hospital that performed 150 qualifying kidney transplants and received a final score of 85 would receive a $500,000 lump sum payment under the proposed incentive calculus.
• Final score between 41 and 59: Hospitals in this performance range will be considered neutral and will not receive any lump sum payments or be required to make any payments to CMS.
• Final score of 40 or lower: HOSPITALS WILL OWE CMS a lump sum downside risk payment equal to the participant’s final performance score minus 40, then divided by 40, then multiplied by -$2,000, then multiplied by the number of kidney transplants to attributed patients with Medicare as their primary or secondary payer during the performance year.
  • For example, a hospital that performed 150 qualifying kidney transplants and received a final score of 35 would owe CMS $37,500.
  • Downside risk payments will be required only after the second performance year

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/05/17/2024-09989/medicare-program-alternative-payment-model-updates-and-the-increasing-organ-transplant-access-iota

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After Five Attempts to Pass, Let’s Make This Year Our Last!

The post Living Donor Protection Act 2024 – H.R. 2923/S. 1384 (2023-2024), appeared first on TransplantFirst!.

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The National Kidney Registry (NKR) is now offering recipient protections in addition to their very generous donor protections that remove barriers to donation.

Most of us are familiar with NKR’s donor protections (Donor Shield) which offer living kidney donors reimbursement for:

• Lost wages up to $2,000/week—for up to 6 weeks
• Travel and dependent care—up to $5,000
• Complications not covered by Insurance or transplant center

Donor Shield also offers “priority status” to donors in the unlikely event that they ever need a kidney transplant—and/or legal support if the donor finds themselves dealing with job loss or discrimination.

But wait, there’s more!

RECIPIENTS who receive a kidney from NKR’s voucher or paired exchange program are now protected should their transplanted kidney fail to function.

That’s right! Recipients now get protections (also known as Recipient Shield) if their transplanted kidney fails to function within 90 days. Recipient Shield provides kidney transplant recipients “priority status” to receive another kidney from NKR—providing the recipient’s “failure to function” was reported to NKR within 90 days.

Learn more here: https://www.kidneyregistry.org/

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While Covid-19 vaccine (3rd dose) boosters are now recommended for immunosuppressed patients—here’s the back story as to why this population finds itself more vulnerable 

Article From Science.org/news  — 26 JUL 2021

Doctors recommend that organ transplant patients continue to take precautions such as wearing a mask and social distancing even after they are fully vaccinated.

Transplant physicians have worried for months that their patients might not be getting the protection they need from COVID-19 vaccines. Studies have already shown that many organ recipients don’t produce coronavirus-fighting antibodies even after two doses of the highly effective messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines—an indication their bodies are unable to mount a strong defense against SARS-CoV-2. A study out today indicates this lack of antibodies is indeed translating to a much higher risk of “breakthrough” cases of COVID-19 among vaccinated transplant recipients.

Immunosuppressant drugs, commonly used to keep the body from rejecting a new organ, leave transplant patients more vulnerable to infections. In a previous study involving 658 transplant recipients, just 54% of patients given two doses of an mRNA vaccine developed antibodies to protect them against the pandemic coronavirus. But antibodies are only one indication of a body’s response to a vaccine. Low antibody levels are “a warning,” says Dorry Segev, a transplant surgeon with Johns Hopkins University. “It’s a signal, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have suboptimal protection.”

To measure that protection, he and colleagues obtained SARS-CoV-2 infection and testing data on more than 18,000 fully vaccinated recipients of large organs like kidneys or lungs at 17 transplant centers across the United States. They found that 151 of these patients caught the virus. Of those that became infected, more than half were hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms and nearly one in 10 died.

Although the rate of infection in the study was low, just 0.83%, it’s still 82 times higher than in the general vaccinated public—and the rate of serious illness was 485 times higher, the team reports today in Transplantation. This study provides the first clinical evidence across multiple hospitals that transplant recipients are less protected by the vaccine, Segev says.

Eva Schrezenmeier, a nephrologist at Charité University Hospital in Berlin, worries the study is actually underestimating breakthrough cases, because the patients might have gone to different hospitals to be treated for COVID-19, or might not have reported their breakthrough case at all.  “I think they might have missed some patients.”

Deepali Kumar, a transplant infectious disease physician at University Health Network in Toronto, says this is a “welcome study,” but she would like to know more about those who had breakthrough infections before drawing any conclusions. Because the study is based on summary data and not complete medical records, it can’t provide information about whether the serious breakthrough cases were in older organ recipients, or in patients who received a particular kind of transplant, she says. “There are a lot of questions remaining.”

One thing is certain, however: “We need to do a lot more to protect our transplant patients,” she says.

A potential solution: a third shot of vaccine. Kumar, Segev, and other researchers are studying whether a booster dose could give transplant recipients better COVID-19 protection.

Two recently published studies have shown promising results. In the first, published last month in The New England Journal of Medicine, 68% of organ recipients produced antibodies after a third dose of the mRNA vaccine made by Pfizer, up from 40% after two doses. In another study published last week in JAMA, doctors administered a third dose of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine to 159 kidney transplant patients who generated little to no antibodies after two doses. They found that 49% of these patients subsequently started to churn out antibodies.

Third doses are not yet an officially recommended course of action for immunocompromised people in most countries, but as more data come out, policies are shifting. The French government endorsed third doses for transplant patients in April. The United Kingdom’s National Health Service also plans to begin to offer a third vaccine dose to immunocompromised individuals beginning this fall. In the United States, an advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week evaluated recommending third doses, but likely won’t make an official recommendation until after the Food and Drug Administration offers full approval to the mRNA vaccines. [Update: FDA has approved and boosters are now recommended]

In the meantime, transplant patients should still get their COVID-19 vaccine, Segev says, because limited protection is better than none. But they should also continue to wear masks and practice social distancing, he stresses. Getting the rest of the population vaccinated is another crucial step in helping protect these patients, he adds. “This is a stark clinical reminder that transplant patients are inadequately protected by the standard vaccine series.”

Article Taken From July 26, 2021 Science.org — News

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