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National Kidney Foundation Introduces Plan To Track Patients In National Screening Program

Health and Medical News - Urology & Nephrology
Monday, 07 April 2008
The National Kidney Foundation and Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) announced a new initiative of the Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP) that will provide valuable data to help communities address the growing prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The initiative introduces a participant follow-up - or "longitudinal" - component to the National Kidney Foundation's KEEP further strengthening the comprehensive, free kidney disease screening program. The new initiative is made possible by an educational grant from Amgen, KEEP's primary sponsor. Offered at community-based locations across the country, KEEP provides comprehensive health risk appraisals to assess individuals' kidney function and key risk factors for the disease, including high blood pressure and diabetes. The appraisals are based on blood and urine testing as well as onsite physician consultations. The promptly expanding program is expected to screen approximately 40,000 people in 2008 and lately screened its 100,000th participant since the program's inception in 2000. "Most of the 26 million people who are living with CKD in the United States are not even aware that they have it. In fact, our data shows that only 2 percent of KEEP participants who were diagnosed with CKD knew they were at risk for the disease," said Joseph Vasalotti, M.D., chief medical officer, National Kidney Foundation. "Early-stage CKD can be hard to diagnose as symptoms are not commonly apparent until the disease progresses to near kidney failure. Yet research shows that treating kidney disease before may help enhance outcomes. For this reason, the continued growth and enhancement of KEEP is critical to addressing the public health concerns posed by CKD." The new patient follow-up initiative was successfully piloted in Miami, Minneapolis and East Brookfield, Mass. in 2007. It has 2 primary objectives: first, to assess past KEEP participants and determine improvements in outcomes and, second, to arm community healthcare providers with outcomes data based on participating patients' ongoing KEEP results from the follow up. KEEP participants, including those who participated previous to the introduction of the follow-up initiative, will be invited back annually for repeat screenings. The patient follow-up initiative joins an extensive list of recent enhancements to the KEEP program. Among them are: - Expansion of the physician educational component through an yearly data report published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases and through publication and presentation of KEEP data at medical meetings and in publications targeted at nephrologists, cardiologists and endocrinologists. - Expansion of KEEP into new geographic regions with a focus on areas with large populations of at-risk individuals, including minorities who have higher incidence of the disease. - Enhancement of public awareness activities around individual KEEP screenings and for KEEP overall. - Addition of new tests and protocols to increase KEEP's impact on national health initiatives including fatness and diabetes. "Early detection and increased awareness of chronic kidney disease and its causes are valuable to helping stem the growing prevalence of the disease that we've seen in recent years," offered U.S. Representative Mark Kirk of Illinois, co-chair of the Congressional Kidney Caucus. "KEEP plays a key role in helping us reach that goal." CKD is a condition defined by kidney damage and impaired kidney function that progresses over time. Twenty six million Americans have some form of CKD with minority populations, specially Hispanics and African Americans, at increased risk for the disease. The most frequent causes of CKD are high blood pressure, diabetes and a family history of kidney disease. Early-stage CKD frequently is not diagnosed as symptoms are not commonly apparent until the later stages of the disease. When the kidneys fail, dialysis or a kidney transplant is necessary to sustain life. Dialysis is the artificial process of cleaning wastes from the blood when the kidneys can no longer function adequately. "KEEP not only represents the seminal screening program for CKD, but it also helps the medical community, state and federal governments and advocacy groups unite to address the growing prevalence of CKD, specially among minority communities where the need is greatest," said Robert M. Brenner, M.D., executive director, Nephrology Global Development. "As a pioneer of innovative therapies for patients with difficulties of chronic kidney disease, Amgen is proud to be the primary sponsor of KEEP." About the National Kidney Foundation The National Kidney Foundation is devoted to preventing kidney and urinary tract diseases, improving the health and well-being of individuals and families affected by these diseases and increasing the availability of all organs for transplantation. For more info on kidney disease visit http://www.kidney.org. About Amgen Amgen discovers, develops, manufactures and delivers innovative human therapeutics. A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen was one of the first companies to realize the new science's promise by bringing safe and effective medicines from lab, to manufacturing plant, to patient. Amgen therapeutics have changed the practice of medicine, helping millions of people around the world in the fight against cancer, kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and other serious illnesses. With a deep and broad pipeline of potential new medicines, Amgen remains committed to advancing science to dramatically enhance people's lives. Amgen

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