It was a full house as nearly 100 people joined the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) at its 20^th Annual Medal of Excellence Dinner. The event was held Friday, March 20, 2015 at the Hilton Baltimore in Baltimore, MD in conjunction with the Renal Physicians Association’s (RPA) Annual Meeting. The AAKP Medal of Excellence recognizes visionaries whose insight and perseverance have led to dramatic advances that improve kidney patient care.

Friday evening’s award dinner honored two physicians, Dr. Alan R. Hull, President of Renal Management, Inc. and Chief Medical Advisor for NxStage Medical, Inc. and Dr. Alvin Moss, Director of the Center for Health Ethics and Law and a Professor of Medicine at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia University. AAKP also gave Mark Neumann, Executive Publisher of Nephrology News and Issues, a special award.

“For nearly 20 years the Medal of Excellence has honored extraordinary individuals who have dramatically improve patient care, and have provided mentorship and leadership to pave the way for the next generation of health care professionals,” stated Paul Conway, AAKP President and kidney transplant recipient. “This year’s award recipients join that tradition and illustrate why empowering patients to take control of their health care is so worthy.”

This year AAKP expanded the Medal of Excellence Program to include health care professionals. Winners were selected in the nursing categories. They include Gail Wick, RN, MHSA, BSN, CNNe, Chair-Elect of the American Kidney Fund (AKF) Board of Trustees and Rebecca Wingard-Daniel, RN, MSN, CNN, Vice-President of Innovations Group for Fresenius Medical Care North America. Ms. Wick and Ms. Wingard will be recognized at another event.

AAKP is very thankful to our sponsors for their support of the Medal of Excellence Program. They include:

Silver Sponsors

Amgen Inc.

Dialysis Clinic Inc. (DCI)

Fresenius Medical Care North America.

Bronze Sponsors

Dallas Nephrology Associates

Relypsa

Patron Sponsors

Mallinckrodt

West Virginia University Healthcare.

Supporting Sponsor

West Virginia University School of Medicine, Section of Nephrology.

AAKP also thanks RPA for their support of the Medal of Excellence Program.

For additional information on this year’s award recipients, recognition events scheduled to honor the awardees, or to sponsor the 2015 Medal of Excellence program, please visit www.aakp.org/community/programs-events or contact Diana Clynes, Director of Programs and Services, at dclynes@aakp.org or (813) 400-2391.

Kidney care, including dialysis, costs the American taxpayer over $35 billion per year, an estimated 7% of the Federal budget. An estimated 26 million Americans suffer from chronic kidney disease (CKD), including more than 600,000 individuals who suffer from complete renal failure, a figure that includes those on dialysis or have a functioning kidney transplant. Today, there are 109,439 people on the kidney transplant waiting list, including 1,871 in Tennessee alone.

The founding members of AAKP were directly involved in the formation of the Federal End Stage Renal Disease program which passed in October 1972. In additional to a broad range of relationships in the United States Congress and among allied kidney organizations, AAKP works very closely with Federal agencies and senior leaders across government to inform policy and regulatory decisions related to kidney disease care and prevention as well as dialysis and kidney transplantation. These agencies include the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

Over the next several months, AAKP will join with many other allies from the health care and kidney community to make patient perspectives better known among lawmakers and their staffs. AAKP will be joining with the American Society of Nephrology(ASN), the Renal Physicians Association(RPA), the Alliance for Home Dialysis, the National Renal Administrators Association(NRAA) and several other national organizations.

AAKP is a voluntary non-profit organization founded by kidney patients, which for 45 years, has been dedicated to improving the quality of life of kidney patients through education, advocacy and the fostering of patient communities. The programs offered by AAKP inform and inspire patients and their families to better understand their condition, adjust more readily to their circumstances, and assume more normal, productive lives in their communities.