Kidney Disease? Compassionate Care Vital to Transplant Recipients Extended Life

Fri, Mar 9th 2018, 10:57 AM

Kidney disease ranks among top 10 leading causes of death in the United States along with an estimated 31 million people (10% of the adult population) living with chronic kidney disease.

As a kidney becomes diseased, they lose their ability to function, a condition called end-stage renal disease (ESRD) or kidney failure.

The two leading causes of kidney failure are diabetes at 44% and high blood pressure at 28.4%. An estimated 29.1 million people have diabetes; 8.1 million of them don’t even know they have it, and about 40% of them will suffer from chronic kidney disease. On the other hand, an estimated 70 million (29%) people have high blood pressure – that is every 1 in 3 American adults.

Treatments for this condition are hemodialysis, a mechanical process to clean the blood of waste products, peritoneal dialysis in which toxins are removed by passing chemical solutions through the abdomen, or a kidney transplant.

To share more insight with his Bahamian colleagues, Dr. Fernando Pedraza, Medical Director of the Adult Nephrology and Kidney Transplant Program at Memorial Healthcare System in South Florida has been invited to the Medical Association of the Bahamas Conference.

The event will take place at the Meliá Hotel in Nassau from March 7-9, 2018 where Dr. Pedraza will talk about the medical management of the kidney transplant recipient and a practical approach for the primary care provider.

“Kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) commonly present with complex medical issues that are best managed jointly by both their primary care physician and the kidney transplant center. Hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemias, and obesity are frequently present in the KTR population and the successful management of these comorbidities is essential in achieving excellent post-transplant outcomes,” stated Dr. Pedraza.

The mission of the Medical Association of the Bahamas Conference is to foster better relationships among the members of the medical profession in The Bahamas, to improve the standard of medical services in The Bahamas and to exert influence on behalf of, and for the benefit of the people of The Bahamas in matters of health.

Dr. Pedraza reiterated the importance of a jointly managed relationship between primary care physician and the kidney transplant hospital by stating, “I truly believe the healing process involves multiple areas of knowledge and encompasses all dimensions of a patient's life. Aside from medicine, I am passionate about languages, travel and learning about other cultures. With the diverse population in South Florida, my patients have been a great source of education. I enjoy getting to know them and then traveling to see the cultures and countries that they speak so lovingly about.”

About Memorial Global Health:
Memorial Global Health provides personalized coordination of specialized and emergency medical services for adult and pediatric international patients. Memorial Healthcare System offers premier clinical expertise throughout their six hospitals including Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, exclusively dedicated to the care of children. For more than 60 years, the physicians, nurses, specialists and healthcare professionals at Memorial have placed patients and their families at the heart of everything they do. The skilled team at Memorial offers patient-and-family-centered care by partnering with patients and their families.

About Memorial Healthcare System:
Memorial Healthcare System is one of the largest public healthcare systems in the United States and has served South Florida since 1953. Since, the South Florida community has benefited from compassionate healthcare delivered according to the service vision of Deeper Caring, Smarter Healthcare. Memorial has six hospitals and more than 150 employed physicians, who compose the Memorial Physician Group, a nursing home, home health services, research, and primary and urgent care centers and the South Broward Community Health Services. In 2013, Memorial Health Network led the way in putting the clinically integrated healthcare delivery model into action. By expanding on this new framework, Memorial will continue to improve the quality, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the services they proudly provide.

 Sponsored Ads