Dr. Charbel Khoury was part of ASN’s Diabetic Kidney Disease Collaborative Strategy Conference that discussed how to safely and efficiently get new therapies to patients who need them.
The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) launched the Diabetic Kidney Disease Collaborative (DKD-C) in response to the recent development of new therapies for people with diabetic kidney disease (DKD). Charbel Khoury, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Division of Nephrology, was invited to participate in the DKD-C Strategy Conference, held January 14, 2020, in Washington DC.
DKD is one of the most common and serious complications of type 2 diabetes and accounts for more than 40% of kidney failure in the United States. With the prevalence of diabetes on the rise, the need for innovative therapies for people with DKD is great.
The goal of the DKD-C is to help accelerate the use of new therapies, educate the healthcare community, and address legislative, regulatory, and policy issues that affect a patient’s access to quality care.
The DKD-C Strategy Conference’s agenda included presentation of new DKD therapies, such as SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists, as well as discussions about how to prevent kidney failure through better diagnosis, treatment, and incentives.
“The participants discussed the barriers to implementing new therapies for DKD and brainstormed on deliverables to address the barriers to get new therapies to the patients who need them, safely and efficiently,” says Dr. Khoury. “The ASN will be releasing a white paper on the meeting’s conclusion in the near future. Going forward, focused workgroups will elaborate the strategies to address specific barriers and deliverables.”
The DKD-C will be holding additional meetings in the coming months focusing on the role of nephrologists in treating DKD and how to optimize the relationships with primary care, endocrinology, and cardiology.
Follow Dr. Charbel Khoury on Twitter @Charbel_Khoury.