Northwest Kidney Centers’ commitment to people with kidney disease extends beyond providing high quality dialysis. Our mission is to promote optimal health, quality of life and independence through patient care, education and research.
We’re committed to research because we’d love to make kidney disease a relic of the past someday. In the meantime, we want treatments for kidney disease that are less intrusive into people’s lives. Research offers hope for those things to happen, and for lives to be transformed.
In this time of global pandemic, raising funds for kidney research remains vital. We now know that half of COVID-19 patients in the ICU have acute kidney injury (AKI); AKI has long-term, serious consequences, making kidney research in this area especially important.
On Oct. 17 we raised $374,000 and counting at the Discovery Gala specifically for kidney research. What’s amazing is that each $1 a donor contributes results in $12 in grant funding for research.
Research provides hope for a better future that is closer than you think
Here are some recent findings from local research. Tune in to the Discovery Gala to learn more and support these efforts:
- Patient-directed studies that compare treatment options for symptoms and conditions that are most important to our patients, such as chronic pain management.
- Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure.
- When blood sugar goes too high, harm results to the tiny blood vessels in kidneys, heart, eyes and nervous system.
- Diabetes can eventually lead to heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness and nerve damage.
- A new study is looking at blood vessels in the eye to determine what’s going on in the kidneys.
- Between 70% and 90% of people with kidney disease have high blood pressure; treating blood pressure may protect the kidneys and the heart. High blood pressure is:
- A leading cause and consequence of kidney disease.
- Linked to loss of kidney function and development of heart disease.
- Treatable!
- We live in a community that fosters futuristic ideas such as the kidney-on-a-chip and regenerative organs – as well as studies into depression and insomnia that are helping dialysis patients today.
About half of Northwest Kidney Centers patients have signed up to join in research studies that focus on conditions like theirs.
