Recipe of the Month: Creamy Homemade Mac & Cheese
July's recipe is a classic side dish and the perfect answer for what to bring to BBQs, pool parties, and potlucks: Creamy Homemade Mac & Cheese.
Anxiety
ANXIETY is a word that most people do not want to think about or talk about. Anxiety in renal patients is very common. The important thing is to tell your medical provider(s) exactly how you feel on a day-to-day basis. There are methods to help a renal patient (and others) to cope with anxiety, which is why you should consult a medical professional. It is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about. You did not choose to get anxiety, but you can choose to get help if that is your desire. The following informaiton has been compiled from DaVita (www.davita.com) and [...]
DPC Education Center Adopts New AI Policy
To protect patient privacy and maintain the confidentiality of member discussions, the DPC Education Center has adopted a policy restricting the use of artificial intelligence (AI) meeting notetakers. Member privacy takes precedence over convenience and automation, and participants must be able to engage openly without concern that their conversations are being recorded, transcribed, analyzed, or retained by AI systems. Therefore, the use of Otter and any substantially similar application or service is prohibited during all DPC Education Center activities. We thank our members and community at large for adhering to this new policy and creating a safe space for kidney patients.
Innovation Isn’t Enough: A Dialysis Patient’s Case for Real Access
Pesh Patel, DPC Patient Ambassador In 2017, I was visiting Melbourne, Australia as part of my career as a global hospitality executive. While walking around the city, I suddenly had to stop four separate times over the course of just three city blocks because I couldn’t breathe. I thought I was out of shape. What I didn’t know was that I had been living with a single kidney since birth, and that kidney was functioning at 2%. If I hadn’t gone to the ER when I did, I would have died within 20 hours. Two hours later, I was [...]
Patient Stories are the “Secret Sauce”
Elizabeth Lively, DPC Eastern Region Advocacy Director Pamela Zielske, DPC Western Region Advocacy Director Does advocacy have a “secret sauce” for success? Are there tactics and tools that an organization needs to consider as strategies are developed to get legislation passed? What does success look like? How does optimism and the cumulative impact of advocacy work impact positive outcomes? Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) began a Medigap (Medicare Supplement) campaign in 2022 supporting legislation in the states to provide premium protected Medigap coverage to ESRD patients under-age 65. This campaign supports DPCs goals of improved financial security, increased [...]
Challenges, Opportunities, and Innovation in End Stage Kidney Disease and Transplantation
Dr. Velma Scantlebury, MD, FACS, GCM, DPC Education Center Health Care Consultant Over 90,000 patients sit on dialysis awaiting kidney transplantation, and thousands more are on some form of dialysis modality, with the hope of maintaining life without a kidney transplant. From chronic kidney disease (CKD) to end stage kidney disease (ESKD) there are significant challenges for both patients and healthcare providers, including delays in the onset of dialysis, complications associated with dialysis, limited access to donor organs and the need for lifelong immunosuppression following transplantation. Additionally, socioeconomic disparities and geographic barriers often impact the quality and availability [...]
Kidney Innovators Highlight New Therapies, Medicare Challenges at Congressional Hearing
Jackson Williams, DPC Vice President of Public Policy On March 18, 2026, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health held a hearing titled “Improving Kidney Health Through Better Prevention and Innovative Treatment”. This hearing allowed patients, providers, and other stakeholders to highlight the struggles many kidney patients face and the barriers that prevent them from accessing better, innovative treatment. This was exciting for kidney care advocates, as challenges have mounted since Congress last addressed kidney health in 2008. Better still, the questions from Members of Congress demonstrated that committee leaders understand those challenges and potential solutions. They are [...]
Innovation, Hope, and the Gift of a Second Chance – A Gift That Rewrites a Life
C. Andre’ Daniels, DPC Patient Ambassador Hope is not passive. It is not a soft sentiment or wishful thinking. For patients living with End-Stage Renal Disease, hope is often an act of discipline. It is the decision to keep going through the fatigue, the uncertainty, the appointments, the waiting, and the fear. It is the choice to believe that even in the face of illness--innovation, faith, and human generosity can come together to rewrite a life. I know this because I have lived it. When I woke up after my kidney transplant, I knew immediately that my life had [...]
Dialysis patients are missing out on new therapies due to Medicare’s ESRD payment structure
Quiana Bishop, DPC Board President While dialysis treatments sustain life for people with kidney failure, they cannot replace all of the many functions of a healthy kidney. Patients rely on medications to address certain symptoms. As of January 1, 2025, all of these medications are included in the ESRD prospective payment system bundle and dialysis facilities are given the responsibility of dispensing them. This arrangement saves money for Medicare, but it does so by creating a profile for an “average patient” and discouraging expenditures on anyone else. As we know, there’s no such thing as an “average” patient, with [...]
Hope, Innovation, and Life Reimagined
Albert Bailey Brisbane III, DPC Patient Ambassador I was a teenager when I first heard the word dialysis. In 1981, my father suddenly became critically ill while at work and was rushed to the hospital, where he passed away two weeks later. I remember being told that he refused dialysis. I didn’t know what dialysis was, only that my hero was gone forever. Years later, I heard that word again — dialysis. This time, it was my mother. Her experience came suddenly, and she began emergency dialysis in the hospital. In that moment, my sister and I didn’t think [...]