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About Hannah Bracamonte

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So far Hannah Bracamonte has created 566 blog entries.

Hyperkalemia From a Dietitian’s Viewpoint

2024-03-28T20:58:47-04:00December 17th, 2021|Categories: Nutrition, The Kidney Citizen|

By Fanny Sung Whelan, MS, RDN Have you been diagnosed with hyperkalemia? Hyperkalemia refers to a medical condition that occurs when the potassium level in your blood gets too high [1]. “Hyper” means “over or beyond”, and “-kalemia” means “the presence of potassium in the blood.” Hyperkalemia is a common diagnosis, and luckily most people have mild cases that are well tolerated, but even mild cases need to be treated to prevent more serious cases from occurring. If left untreated and severe hyperkalemia develops, which is defined by blood potassium levels of 7 mEq/L or higher, cardiac arrest and death can [...]

Kidneys: Holy Grail Pursuit of Regenerative Medicine

2024-03-28T20:58:48-04:00December 17th, 2021|Categories: Kidney Transplant, The Kidney Citizen, Treatment|

By Anthony Atala, MD, Director, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Recently, two teams of scientists from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) won first and second place in NASA's Vascular Tissue Challenge, a prize competition that aims to accelerate tissue-engineering innovations. Vascularization of engineered solid organs – like the kidney – is part of the Holy Grail pursuit of regenerative medicine. Being able to create organs with the needed blood vessel structure means the organs are supplied with needed nutrients and oxygen to survive when implanted. The two Wake Forest teams both used 3D bioprinting technology to create [...]

H.R. 1676 – The Jack Reynolds Memorial Medigap Expansion Act

2024-03-28T20:58:49-04:00December 17th, 2021|Categories: Costs for Treatment, Quality of Life, The Kidney Citizen|

By Megan Hashbarger, Vice President of Government Relations Earlier this year, The Jack Reynolds Memorial Medigap Expansion Act (H.R. 1676) was reintroduced by Congresswoman Cynthia Axne (D-IA-03) to ensure all End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients have access to Medigap. This Congress, we were very pleased she was joined by Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA-03) in leading this effort. Ensuring all ESRD patients have access to Medigap is extremely important to help patients cover the high costs of care and to improve their access to transplantation. Medigap policies are standardized, private insurance policies that cover costs not covered by Medicare, such [...]

Improving Equity in Dialysis Treatments and Transplants

2024-03-28T20:58:50-04:00December 7th, 2021|Categories: Dialysis, eNews, Kidney Transplant, Treatment|

Earlier this month the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced that it is seeking comments on future rulemaking to support the President’s executive orders to advance health equity and improve health outcomes for people in need of dialysis treatment and transplants. HHS Secretary, Xavier Becerra stated, “We want to hear from diverse stakeholders, especially the patients and their families. Your feedback is essential to our work in ensuring equal access to vital resources.” HHS acknowledged that both Black and Latino individuals are more likely to have kidney failure than white individuals in the United States (almost 4 times [...]

Finding Your Voice – The Importance of Advocacy

2024-03-28T20:58:51-04:00December 1st, 2021|Categories: eNews, Quality of Life, Support|

Including the patient voice in healthcare is something that most people don’t have to think about. You realize how essential it is though if you are sick - something that Christina Fuhrman experienced firsthand when she got an infection. After being in the hospital for seven months, her doctor thought that the best course of treatment would be to remove her colon; however, Christina was worried about the impact on her quality of life. By doing her own research, she learned about another, possibly risky, treatment and decided to seek a second opinion when her doctor said she did not have [...]

Understanding Depression Throughout Your Life

2024-03-28T20:58:52-04:00November 10th, 2021|Categories: eNews, Mental Health|

As people grow and change throughout the different stage of their lives, so do their signs of depression. The commonly thought of signs, such as feeling sad or hopeless, can appear in people experiencing depression in every age group, but there are additional signs to lookout for in family and loved ones. Children – some tell-tale signs in children can be a loss of interest in previously loved activities, difficulty with family members, problems at school (including socializing), and changes in diet or weight. Teenagers – teens may exhibit the same signs as children, but more unique to this age group [...]

Transplant Patients Could Have a New Type of Donor in the Future

2024-03-28T20:58:53-04:00November 1st, 2021|Categories: eNews, Kidney Transplant|

During a surgery that took place in September 2021 at NYU Langone Health in New York City, a kidney that was grown in a genetically altered pig was transplanted into a human patient. The patient, who was brain dead and who’s family consented to the surgery, had the kidney attached to the blood vessels in the upper leg outside of the abdomen. It quickly began functioning normally and the entire procedure went better than expected. Although the patient was only followed for 54 hours post-surgery and the research behind the procedure has not been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal, [...]

COVID-19 Vaccines for Immunocompromised People

2024-03-28T20:58:53-04:00October 22nd, 2021|Categories: eNews, Immunizations, Kidney Transplant, Staying Healthy|

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, ongoing studies help inform healthcare professionals about the different immune responses and reactions among various groups within the population. Data has shown that people who are moderately to severely immunocompromised are especially vulnerable to the virus due to the inability to build the same level of immunity after vaccination as non-immunocompromised people. Small studies have also found that immunocompromised people made up a large portion of breakthrough cases requiring hospitalization, suggesting they could be more likely to transmit COVID-19 to other members of their household. Given this information, the CDC recommends that moderately to severely immunocompromised [...]

DPC Education Center to Become a Member of the TAQIL Leadership Coordinating Council with HSAG

2024-03-28T20:58:56-04:00October 12th, 2021|Categories: eNews, Kidney Transplant, News & Events|

In September, The DPC Education Center signed a letter of commitment to become a member of the TAQIL  Leadership Coordinating Council with the Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG) which had been awarded the CMS Technical Assistance, Quality Improvement, and Learning (TAQIL) Contract. As a member of the Council, we agree to  support their efforts to increase recovery of kidneys by organ procurement organizations and utilization of kidneys by transplant centers. This includes the aims of increasing deceased donor transplants and reducing kidney discard rate. The Dialysis Patient Citizens Education Center recognizes the importance of all parties working together to improve the [...]

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