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About Hannah Bracamonte

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So far Hannah Bracamonte has created 602 blog entries.

Basic Facts about Kidney Disease

2024-03-28T21:05:14-04:00March 8th, 2016|Categories: eNews, Fact Sheet, Home Hemodialysis, In-Center Hemodialysis, Kidney Transplant, Peritoneal Dialysis, What Is Kidney Disease|

Kidneys perform crucial functions within the body. When they fail there are only four treatment pathways available: Hemodialysis uses a dialyzer to act as an artificial kidney, peritoneal dialysis uses the body's own abdominal lining to filter wastes, a transplant comes from a living or deceased donor and palliative care is a strategy that aims to prevent stress and reduce pain at the end of life. Without hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or a transplant, individuals with failing kidneys will die. Hemodialysis (HD)—Cleansing a patient’s blood of harmful toxins and excess fluids through use of an artificial kidney (dialyzer) and hemodialysis machine. [...]

“Transplant 101” Recording Now Available!

2024-03-28T21:05:18-04:00February 26th, 2016|Categories: eNews, Kidney Transplant, News & Events, Treatment, Webinar|

The DPC Education Center held its second education call of 2016 last Wednesday on the basics of kidney transplantation. Medical professionals from the Christiana Care Transplant Center provided patients with extensive information about the transplant process, including: who can become a candidate for a kidney transplant, the steps individuals must take have their names added to the transplant list and how the transplant list works. If you were unable to listen to the call live, the recording can be found below. Join the Education Center for its next education call on Living Well on Dialysis, scheduled for Tuesday, March 29, at [...]

Report Focuses on Quality of End-Of-Life Care

2024-03-28T21:05:19-04:00February 26th, 2016|Categories: eNews, Treatment|Tags: |

While it is hard to think about, advanced care planning is beneficial to family members and caregivers when a health crisis arises. A recent report suggests that the type of hospice care a patient receives until his or her death influences the family’s opinion on the quality of that care. Researchers surveyed more than 1100 family members of older patients who died from lung or colorectal cancer and found that family members were more likely to rate end-of-life care higher based on three factors: care lasting more than three days, avoidance of admission into the intensive care unit of a hospital [...]

Study Suggests a Lack of Utilization of Timely Kidney Transplants

2024-03-28T21:05:20-04:00February 26th, 2016|Categories: eNews, Kidney Transplant|

A “timely living donor kidney transplant” refers to when a patient receives a kidney from a living donor either before beginning dialysis or within a year of beginning dialysis. Research links timely transplants to better outcomes and higher survival rates for patients. A new study indicates there has been no increase in the utilization of this transplant method since 2006. Scientists from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Michigan studied the data of over 68,000 patients who received living donor transplants between 2000 and 2012. Results showed that while timely kidney transplants increased between 2000 and 2006, there was no [...]

Study Shows CDC Intervention Tools Decrease Infection Rates for Hemodialysis Patients

2024-06-07T11:38:27-04:00February 26th, 2016|Categories: eNews, Hemodialysis|

Bloodstream infections are the second leading cause of death for hemodialysis patients. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) prevention tools, also called the Core Interventions, provide dialysis facilities with a guide on how to prevent bloodstream infections. A recent study found that dialysis facilities that implemented CDC’s infection prevention tools such as improving staff hygiene and increasing patient education on better catheter maintenance, had a 44 percent decrease in bloodstream infections for patients. These resources are free and available to anyone on the CDC’s website.

What Is Advance Care Planning And Why Is It Important For Dialysis Patients?

2024-03-28T21:05:23-04:00February 24th, 2016|Categories: eNews, Fact Sheet, Treatment|Tags: |

By Dr. Prayus Tailor, Nephrology Associates I am a nephrologist. About five years ago, my father had a sudden cardiac arrest in front of me. I was able to quickly initiate CPR. By the time the ambulance arrived, he had regained consciousness. He lived for another two years, but unfortunately became critically ill after developing leukemia. An infection had overtaken his body. He was then in the intensive care unit (ICU) on multiple antibiotics and drugs to treat the infection and keep his blood pressure up so that his organs could continue to get blood flow. His kidneys started failing quickly. [...]

Amgen funds Website Redesign

2024-03-28T21:05:35-04:00February 4th, 2016|Categories: eNews|Tags: |

Thanks to the generous support of Amgen, the DPC Education Center just completed an extensive upgrade and redesign of its website.  The upgrade allowed for a more responsive design and easier to use navigation among many other improvements.

Racial Disparities in Kidney Transplantation Rates Eased By System’s New Rules

2024-03-28T21:05:49-04:00February 2nd, 2016|Categories: eNews, Kidney Transplant|

Changes to the system that distributes deceased donor kidneys nationwide helped increase the rates of transplants for African American and Hispanics dialysis patients on the waiting list, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins University. The system’s old algorithm originally gave priority to patients based on how long they had been on the list. In December 2014, the algorithm was changed to give priority to patients based on how long they had been on dialysis. The goal of the changes was to increase transplant accessibility to minorities. To determine whether the changes had any effect, researchers examined transplant records from [...]

DPC Education Center Staff Member Transplant Story Featured in Television News Report

2024-03-28T21:05:50-04:00February 2nd, 2016|Categories: eNews, Kidney Transplant, News & Events, Treatment|

Last summer, DPC Education Manager Joanne Smith successfully donated a kidney to one of her patients. The story was featured in a report done by Philadelphia-based ABC affiliate WPVI. Learn more about the kidney transplant process, and save the date for the next education call: Transplant 101 on February 17th.

Report Identifies Positive News on Kidney Disease in the US, Yet Challenges Remain

2024-03-28T21:05:51-04:00February 2nd, 2016|Categories: Costs for Treatment, Dialysis, Early Intervention, eNews, Kidney Transplant, Stages of Kidney Disease|

The annual data report from the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) reveals both positive and negative trends in kidney disease in the United States. Positive news includes fewer deaths among kidney patients and an increasing use of home dialysis treatments. Ongoing challenges include increasing medical costs for dialysis treatment and an overall increase in the size of the dialysis population. Highlights from the report include: Fewer deaths were reported among dialysis and kidney transplant patients in 2013, dropping by 28 percent and 40 percent, respectively, since 1996. Prevalence of end-stage kidney disease—the last stage of chronic kidney disease when the [...]

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DPC Education Center

1001 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1230 Washington, DC 20036

Phone: 1-855-291-3725

Fax: 1-888-423-5002

Web: Dialysis Patient Citizens Education Center

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