The Kidney Health Initiative (KHI) hosted its Seventh Annual Stakeholders Meeting May 29-30, in Washington DC. The annual meeting revolved around the theme of “Collaborating for Innovation to Improve Patient Care and Outcomes”. Planning Committee Co-Chairs Paul T. Conway and Mahesh Krishnan, MD, FASN, developed a program that attracted nearly 200 registrants. The “think-tank” style meeting included onstage Q&A with government representatives, presentations from leaders in the kidney community, and member showcases highlighting innovations around the KHI membership.

Following are highlights from the meeting’s speakers.

Keynote from Amy Abernethy, MD, PhD, Principle Deputy Commissioner, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Dr. Krishnan kicked off the meeting by interviewing Dr. Abernethy onstage. She shared her thoughts on personalized medicine, real world data, and patient reported outcomes. Innovation is always more powerful with patients at the table, Dr. Abernethy shared, “We have moved into an era where people are clamoring for patient focused development and now it’s going to happen”. She closed by saying that kidney disease is naturally set up to succeed: organizations like KHI can harness the motivated community, emerging science, and data rich environment to develop innovations.

Joseph Gaut, MD, PhD, shared his perspective as a transplant recipient

Dr. Gaut was diagnosed with kidney disease while in medical school. He spent a year on dialysis before receiving a transplant from his father. That transplant has lasted 13 years. He shared three themes from his story. First, that we are all patients even if we do not always realize it. Second, being a kidney patient requires perseverance. Third, partnerships and relationships are important to living with kidney diseases and developing innovations.  

Adam Boehler discusses leveraging cost and quality for healthcare transformation

Mr. Boehler is the Director of the Innovation Center at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). He was interviewed by Mr. Conway about how CMS thinks about healthcare transformation. He shared his story of watching his aunt’s kidney disease and her time on dialysis. That experience taught him the importance of making sure patients are informed and empowered to choose the options that are right for them.

Bruce Culleton, MD, on how CVS Health thinks about kidney care

5 million people walk through a CVS every day. This provides CVS an opportunity to make an impact on kidney disease awareness. CVS Health is reorienting its Minute Clinics to focus on chronic disease management and to provide better care for people with kidney diseases. Dr. Culleton is thinking about how to leverage the unique set up of a retail store to provide “nudges” that incentives people towards better health.

Richard R. Nelson talks about his family’s journey with a rare kidney disease

Mr. Nelson is the founder of the Rare Kidney Disease Foundation and is motivated by his family’s multi-generational battle against a rare genetic kidney disease called MUC-1. Mr. Nelson also lead the tech boom in Utah and has decades of experience in the tech industry, providing a unique perspective on innovation in the kidney community. He emphasized the importance of unifying the community to provided new innovations for patients.    

KHI Co-Chair Raymond C. Harris, MD, FASN, debuts KHI’s refreshed mission

In his first public appearance as KHI Co-Chair, Dr. Harris discussed his vision for KHI and engaged with the audience about their perceptions of the state of care in kidney disease. KHI’s refreshed mission is to catalyze innovation and the development of safe and effective patient-centered therapies for people living with kidney diseases. His presentation of the evolution of KHI covered membership growth, projects, and KHI’s position in the community.

Photo: Adam Boehler, Director of the Innovation Center at the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services; and Paul T. Conway, Planning Committee Co-Chair