Name: Yuvaram N.V. Reddy, MBBS

Institution: Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital

Grant: 2020 Ben J. Lipps Research Fellowship

Project Title: Novel Methods to Inform Health Care Policy in Home Dialysis

How would you sum up your research in one sentence?

• We will use simulation modeling to project the impact of the Advancing American Kidney Health initiative and strategies like assisted peritoneal dialysis on clinical and economic outcomes to aid decision making for patients, providers and policymakers.

Provide a brief overview of the research you will conduct with help from the grant.

• Peritoneal dialysis is an underutilized modality of dialysis with several advantages compared to in-center hemodialysis in patients with kidney failure. The Advancing American Kidney Health initiative aims to improve the utilization of home dialysis (peritoneal dialysis and home hemodialysis) and transplantation for new patients with kidney failure to 80% by 2025. We will use simulation modeling to project the clinical and economic impact of this goal using Markov modeling. We will also simulate the strategy of using assisted peritoneal dialysis to assess the clinical and budgetary impact of implementing assisted PD in the US compared to the status quo.

What impact do you hope your research will have on patients?

• The results of this research can inform strategies to improve patient-centered care in chronic kidney disease. I hope to quantify the clinical and economic advantages of achieving the home dialysis goal of the Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative compared to the status quo. I also hope that our research will inform whether the implementation of assisted peritoneal dialysis could be a cost-effective or cost-saving strategy to improve patient-centered care in the US.

What are your career goals at the end of the grant period? Five years out? Ten years out?

• My goal is to improve patient-centered care through clinical research conducted at the intersection of chronic kidney disease, decision sciences and health policy. In the short-term, this research grant will provide me with the structured mentorship and training required to achieve my research goals. Over the next five years, I hope to leverage my clinical and research interests to improve peritoneal dialysis utilization in the US as an early stage investigator. Over the next 10 years, I aim to influence health care delivery for patient-centered outcomes in chronic kidney disease while paying forward the mentorship and training I’ve received to become an independent physician scientist.

What inspired you to focus your research in this area?

• As a medical student, I was mentored by Dr. Georgi Abraham, an advocate for patient-centered care and peritoneal dialysis in resource-limited settings. When I moved to the US for residency, I was fortunate to train at Boston Medical Center, one of the few programs that retained a primary nephrology service for patients with kidney failure. Through these experiences, I noticed a stark difference in the quality of life and independence of patients on peritoneal dialysis compared to hemodialysis and decided to pursue a career in nephrology focused on improving peritoneal dialysis utilization through clinical research.

What advice would you give to others to encourage them to apply for this grant funding?

• If you have an idea that you think is worth pursuing, find the right mentor(s) and consider applying for this grant! The grant-writing process is a great way to formalize your thoughts into a scientific proposal. Also, regardless of the outcome, the feedback is invaluable, and a submitted grant proposal is a victory in itself.

Something you may not know about me is…

• I like to sing quasi-professionally alongside colleagues who sing and play musical instruments professionally.

In my free time I like to…

• Cook without a recipe, play boardgames, escape rooms (that I was voluntarily locked in), go on short hikes while complaining about the weather.