FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Alice Andors
Office: 240-292-7053
Mobile: 703-609-6085
aandors@kidneyfund.org
American Kidney Fund Announces Free Webinar on Minority Organ Transplant Led by Renowned Transplant Surgeon
August 30 webinar will feature Dr. Clive O. Callender, founder of national Minority Organ/Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP)
ROCKVILLE, Md. (August 25, 2016) Though minorities represent a disproportionately large segment of patients with kidney failure, their rates of transplantation, particularly from living donors, lag behind. The American Kidney Fund (AKF), the nation's leading nonprofit working on behalf of the 31 million Americans with kidney disease, will host a webinar on Tuesday, August 30 at 1 p.m. EDT focusing on the impact of kidney disease on minorities and improving access to kidney transplants for minorities.
In the webinar, Dr. Clive O. Callender, professor of surgery at Howard University College of Medicine and founder of the Minority Organ/Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP), will discuss health disparities in transplants and the steps needed to reduce disparities through education and increased awareness. The webinar is the sixth in a monthly series of free educational webinars for kidney patients and caregivers provided by AKF this year.
Minorities are at higher risk for kidney disease and kidney failure. African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics/Latinos are up to three times more likely than Caucasians to suffer from end-stage renal disease (ESRD, or kidney failure), often as the result of high blood pressure and other conditions such as diabetes that can damage the kidneys. As a result of these factors, almost 34 percent of the more than 101,000 people on the national waiting list for a kidney transplant are African American and about 20 percent are Hispanic/Latino. More than 50 percent of the kidney patients AKF helps through its health insurance premium assistance program and other grant programs are people of color.
In 1973, Dr. Callender helped develop the first minority-directed dialysis and transplant center in the United States. Throughout the 1980s, he worked to increase the number of African American organ donors as well as expand awareness of transplant as a treatment option for advanced chronic kidney disease. Building on this work, he founded MOTTEP, an education program that helped to double the organ donation rates among minorities in less than 20 years. MOTTEP is now celebrating its 25th year of educating communities and saving lives through organ/tissue donation and transplantation.
The webinar will be held on Tuesday, August 30, at 1:00 PM EDT; advance registration is required. Learn more and register here. All AKF webinars are recorded and available for on-demand viewing on AKF's website at
www.kidneyfund.org/webinars. The webinar series is supported by an educational grant from Amgen.
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About the American Kidney Fund
As the nation's leading nonprofit working on behalf of the 31 million Americans with kidney disease, the American Kidney Fund is dedicated to ensuring that every kidney patient has access to health care, and that every person at risk for kidney disease is empowered to prevent it. AKF provides a complete spectrum of programs and services: prevention outreach, top-rated health educational resources, and direct financial assistance enabling 1 in 5 U.S. dialysis patients to access lifesaving medical care, including dialysis and transplantation.
For more information, please visit KidneyFund.org, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Topic: Webinar on Minority Organ Transplants (Read 2817 times)