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A Cleveland Clinic Physician is cautiously optimistic about President Trump’s order to overhaul kidney care.
Nephrologist Dr. John Sedor attended the announcement in Washington Wednesday. Sedor is chair of the steering committee for The Kidney Innovation Accelerator (KidneyX), a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the American Society of Nephrology to accelerate innovation in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney diseases.
Sedor has been working on innovations including providing dialysis in a patient’s home.
Sedor said educating patients on their options for care is important, but the system should be flexible to accommodate patients’ needs. Sedor said patient choice is critical when it comes to kidney care.
“You don’t want to swing from one model where almost everybody has in-center dialysis to another model where you force people to have home therapy because that’s not appropriate for all patients and some patients don’t want it.”
Sedor said one potential model would create new reimbursements that may encourage transplants and home treatment. He said it’s important to remember these models are new and will be tested over the next five years to determine what works and what needs to change.
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