Swami Swaminathan Named NKFMDDE Board Chair– CIO brings 30+ years of healthcare and tech operations expertise to the nonprofit

The National Kidney Foundation Serving Maryland and Delaware (NKFMDDE) has elected Swami Swaminathan to a two-year term as chair of its board of directors.

“Swami has been an asset to our Foundation since joining the board in 2020,” said Pattie Dash, executive director.  “With his extensive healthcare industry experience, we look forward to his building partnerships with government and commercial healthcare organizations to increase awareness of kidney disease.”

A federal government contracting executive, Swaminathan brings more than 30 years of experience, including 17 years in the healthcare industry.  As the Chief Information Officer of RELI Group Inc. in Catonsville, he leads healthcare projects on management consulting, program management, quality improvement, and program integrity for federal programs with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Swaminathan earned a master’s degree in math and operational research, an MBA, and various certifications.  Through the years, he has lent his time and talent to support various nonprofit causes and organizations. Overall, he believes in a “boots on the ground approach to volunteering as a great way to give back to society.”

He joined the NKFMDDE board two years ago and says his focus as its new chair is “advancing priorities in the areas of health equity, education about chronic kidney disease, and building partnerships within the community to move the needle to improve kidney health and education throughout Maryland and Delaware.”

Swaminathan resides in Ellicott City with his wife, Aarti, and their daughters, Pooja and Archana.

About NKF
The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) is the largest, most comprehensive, and longstanding organization dedicated to the awareness, prevention, and treatment of kidney disease. For more information, visit www.kidney.org.

Chronic diseases are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States and represent a substantial public health burden.[1] To help patients at varying levels of health literacy understand the connection between kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) launched an educational animated video series. Five patient friendly videos, each ranging from about one and a half to two and a half minutes, are available in both English and Spanish to help patients from diverse backgrounds understand these conditions and how they each relate to one another.

Each of these diseases are serious illnesses on their own, but when patients cope with multiple diseases the impact on their health is even greater. These chronic diseases share the same risk factors too – high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar (diabetes), obesity, and family history. If you can prevent or manage one chronic disease, that will help you prevent or manage the others.

For instance, if you have diabetes that means your body either doesn’t make enough insulin (type 1 diabetes) or your body produces insulin, but the cells don’t respond the way they should, which is insulin resistance (type 2 diabetes). Both types of diabetes can damage your small blood vessels. When the blood vessels in your kidneys are injured, your kidneys cannot clean your blood properly which can lead to kidney disease. If you have kidney disease, then you’re at higher risk for heart disease and if you have heart disease, you’re at higher risk for kidney disease. According to data from the Third National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES), patients with kidney disease and diabetes were three times more likely to die of heart related causes than those with diabetes alone.

“About 1 in 3 Americans are at risk for kidney disease in the U.S., yet most Americans living with chronic diseases like diabetes do not understand they are at risk,” said Joseph Vassalotti, MD, Chief Medical Officer for the National Kidney Foundation. “Developing these animated educational videos is our way of helping patients understand their individual risk for kidney disease. Importantly, we can then empower individuals to become engaged participants in their kidney disease care to improve outcomes.”

Topics for each animated video include the following: Introduction to chronic kidney disease: what it is, who develops it, and possible causes/risk factors; introduction to chronic cardiovascular disease: what it is, who develops it and possible causes/risk factors; introduction to diabetes: what it is, how it affects your body and possible causes/risk factors; Overview on all three chronic diseases: what each disease is and how they are all connected as well as possible causes/risk factors; Overview on prevention and management: how to prevent and manage all three chronic diseases.

This five-part educational animated video series was supported by Merck, Bayer, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Lilly and Novo Nordisk.

For more information on the connection between kidney disease and chronic diseases, visit our patient information center at NKF Cares and to learn more about the kidney disease, visit kidney.org.

Kidney Disease Facts

In the United States, 37 million adults are estimated to have chronic kidney disease—and approximately 90 percent don’t know they have it. 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. are at risk for chronic kidney disease. Risk factors for kidney disease include: diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and family history. People of Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian American, or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander descent are at increased risk for developing the disease. Blacks or African Americans are almost 4 times more likely than White Americans to have kidney failure. Hispanics are 1.3 times more likely than non-Hispanics to have kidney failure.

Approximately 785,000 Americans have irreversible kidney failure and need dialysis or a kidney transplant to survive. More than 555,000 of these patients receive dialysis to replace kidney function and 230,000 live with a transplant. Nearly 100,000 Americans are on the waitlist for a kidney transplant right now. Depending on where a patient lives, the average wait time for a kidney transplant can be upwards of three to seven years.

Thursday, June 23, 2022; VIRTUAL EVENT

Thank YOU to those who attended this very informative professional education event.

The session was recorded, check out Dr. Klassen’s session from June 23, 2022.

David Klassen, MD presented the recent changes to the kidney transplant allocation process and discussed new approaches being developed to address equity in access. The multiple factors that impact equity in kidney transplantation including geography and transplant center decision making were discussed.

David Klassen, MD joined UNOS in 2014 as Chief Medical Officer. In this role, Dr. Klassen provides an experienced clinical perspective to UNOS policymaking, research, education, and patient safety efforts. He assists with developing, planning, and implementing UNOS’ strategic direction. Prior to coming to UNOS, Dr. Klassen was the Medical Director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Programs at the University of Maryland Hospital, where he was a faculty member beginning in 1986. He has a long history of volunteer leadership with UNOS and many professional societies. Dr. Klassen served on the OPTN/UNOS Board of Directors and as a member of the OPTN/UNOS Kidney Transplantation Committee and Membership and Professional Standards committee. He has published extensively in clinical kidney and pancreas transplantation as well as in transplant outcomes and policy.

Dr. Klassen earned his medical degree from the Ohio State University in Columbus and completed his Internal Medicine and Nephrology training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Questions or need help? Contact Pattie Dash via email pattie.dash@kidney.org.

The National Kidney Foundation Serving Maryland & Delaware (NKFMDDE) is pleased to announce our Research Application Portal OPENS tonight at 9:00pm – May 2, 2022.  Over the years, the National Kidney Foundation has invested over $100 million to support the treatment of kidney disease. Locally, the National Kidney Foundation Serving Maryland & Delaware (NKFMDDE) has been able to distribute over $3,500,000 over the last few decades for pilot projects and for those early in their academic careers. Funding supports pilot projects focused on different areas of kidney disease (i.e., blood pressure, chronic kidney disease, urological disease, dialysis, and transplantation) that will ultimately impact improvement in the care of kidney disease patients through discovering novel mechanisms or management strategies.   

Local Types of Grants

1. Professional Development Awards- a maximum award not to exceed $40,000
2. Mini-Grants – awards up to $10,000 each

Locally, the Medical Advisory Board (MAB) meets to review grants annually. The MAB determines the awards that are distributed and monitors the progress of each grant. Grant applications are reviewed and scored by a committee of dedicated medical advisors.  

The grant cycle opens Monday, May 2nd at 9:00pm

The grant cycle closes June 20^th at 5:00pm*

Award announcements will be made by mid-September.

Click here to access NKFMDDE’s GRANT PORTAL.

If you have questions or need assistance with the application portal please contact Pattie Dash, Executive Director, pattie.dash@kidney.org, or via cell at 410.961.1644.

*This deadline/timeframe is non-negotiable and only fully completed applications will be considered.

The National Kidney Foundation is the leading organization in the U.S. dedicated to the awareness, prevention, and treatment of kidney disease for hundreds of thousands of healthcare professionals, millions of patients and their families, and tens of millions of Americans at risk.

Sincerely,

Sumeska Thavarajah, MD
Chair, NKFMDDE Research Grants

April 28th Governor John Carney signed the Living Donor Protection Act into law! Delaware is now the 25th state to pass the Living Donor Protection Act. We are so proud of every advocate who helped to make this milestone happen.

We are grateful to our partner, Beebe Healthcare, for hosting Governor John Carney for today’s signing of the Living Donor Protection Act. Special thanks to Kidney Advocate Charles Harvey and his wife Patricia for bringing this bill to Senator Ernie Lopez and Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf. It’s no surprise that the bill passed unanimously!  

Check out the great news here!

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