New Policy Will Remove Race, Improve Equity in Transplantation
New Policy Will Remove Race, Improve Equity in Transplantation
WASHINGTON, PRNewswire -- The following is a joint Statement from the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and American Society of Nephrology (ASN) on the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) plans to remove the African American/Black race coefficient from the Kidney Donor Profile Index (KDPI) calculation.
"ASN applauds the revision of the KDPI without race," said ASN President Deidra C. Crews, MD, ScM, FASN. "The revised formula will better reflect the likelihood of graft failure for kidneys from deceased donors, and appropriately reflects the fact that race is a social, and not a biological, construct."
"NKF has been a leader in advancing health equity in kidney care," said Dr. Sylvia E. Rosas, MD, MSCE, and NKF President. "We collaborated with ASN to establish the Task Force on Reassessing the Inclusion of Race in Diagnosing Kidney Diseases and joined forces with ASN again on a joint letter to the OPTN urging for the removal of race from the KDRI calculation. We believe all patients deserve equal access to kidney care and will continue to work towards that goal. Removal of the African American/Black race coefficient from the score used to evaluate the suitability of the kidney for transplantation is likely to improve transplant equity."
"This has been a dishonor to African American/Black donors and a disservice to patients waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant," said Kevin Longino, CEO of the NKF and a kidney donation recipient. "We applaud OPTN for advancing this change and are optimistic that this policy will promote equity and increase the number of kidneys available for transplant now."
In addition to removing race, the updated KDPI no longer includes whether or not the donor was Hepatitis C Virus positive. Thanks to therapeutic advances, post-transplant outcomes for HCV positive deceased donor kidney transplants are similar to that of HCV negative donor kidneys.
"With the new approach, some kidneys that may have otherwise been considered unsuitable for transplantation due to the inclusion of race in the formula will now receive more favorable scores, including some that will now be classified with scores that make them more appropriate for transplant," said Cynthia Delgado, MD, who participated in the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network task force that led efforts to reconsider the use of race and HCV in the formula.
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