The Kidney Club @ UChicago

KIDNEYS IN THE COMMUNITY
NEPHROLOGY, IN NUMBERS*
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Cases, US
37 million
Hispanic Adults with CKD, US
14%
Non-Hispanic Black Adults with CKD, US
16%
Non-Hispanic White Adults with CKD, US
5.2%
People with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), US
786,000
Median Wait Time for Kidney Transplant, US Adults
46 - 59.1 months
Completed Kidney Transplants (2020), US
22,817
People on Waitlist for Kidney Transplants (Aug. 2021), US
90,201

From filtering out toxins to activating Vitamin D, kidneys play a critically versatile role in our health. But 15% of U.S. adults have chronic kidney disease (CKD), and 2 out of 5 Americans with severe CKD are unaware of such a diagnosis and its associated threats. Concerningly, kidney disease disproportionately burdens racial and ethnic minorities.
Awareness catalyzes progress. And the Kidney Club aims to do just that.
So, welcome. Let's filter through this together.

IN THE KNOW:
Let's increase our knowledge together.
Keep up to date with the latest kidney news, resources to manage kidney disease, and ways to help the community. >
NEPHISTORY
A brief stroll with Dr. Neil Turner through some of nephrology's history, a discipline of internal medicine that focuses specifically on the detection and treatment of kidney conditions.
400 BC
Hippocrates
Historical evidence suggests that some of the first recorded instances of individuals utilizing urine changes to ascertain disease diagnoses traces back to the time of Hippocrates, who used changes in urine composition to monitor kidney disease progression and fever.
1827
Richard Bright
Dr. Bright shared important insight into nephrotic syndrome and dropsy, a condition characterized by severe edema. His observations paved the way for characterizing the etiology of proteinuria, in which high levels of protein in the urine are indicative of kidney damage.
1924
George Haas
George Haas performed the first hemodialysis treatment on a chronically ill patient in Germany. Today, hemodialysis involves the use of an artificial kidney to clean and filter the blood.
1950s
Helen Murray & Alfred Free
Murray and Free innovated upon previous attempts to develop techniques for the analysis of urine compounds, designing colorimetric paper sticks for the detection of glucose.
1960
Peter Medawar & Frank Burnet
Medawar and Burnet won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their early attempts at successful immunosuppression in kidney transplant patients.
1955 & 1957
Key Advances
The incorporation of electron microscopy and immunofluorescence allowed for critical analyses of kidney biopsies, particularly in regards to glomerular health.
