Screening for Prevention

NKF, CDC to test new kidney disease screening program this fall

NEW YORK—A new kidney disease screening program will be pilot-tested this fall in California, Florida, New York and Minnesota as part of a cooperative agreement between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Kidney Foundation and the Chronic Diseases Research Group.

The program will target Americans at high risk for chronic kidney disease—those who are over the age of 50 or those who have diabetes or high blood pressure. The results of this demonstration project could be used to create a modified screening program to be conducted nationwide.

Two screening programs will be held in each of the four states selected for the pilot test. The geographically diverse locations include:

California: Los Angeles, Riverside-San Bernardino

Florida: Miami, Orlando

New York: New York City, Syracuse

Minnesota: Minneapolis, Prior Lake

“People who have early kidney disease, especially those with diabetes, have a significantly increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke,” Allan Collins, MD, NKF president-elect and the principal investigator of the project, said in a news release. “Our challenge is to find early kidney disease and treat it aggressively. We can substantially reduce risk and improve outcomes by using treatments that are readily available today. The experience that we at the NKF have gained in running our Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP) nationwide will aid in our development of the new screening program.”