(January 11, 2023, New York, NY) — Health equity expert and nephrologist Cynthia Delgado, MD, is this year’s recipient of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Garabed Eknoyan Award. The Garabed Eknoyan Award honors individuals who have promoted the mission of NKF through exceptional contributions to key NKF initiatives. Dr. Delgado has been instrumental in guiding a medical movement in kidney care to remove race as a factor in diagnosing chronic kidney disease. She will be honored as part of NKF’s upcoming 2023 Spring Clinical Meetings from April 11 to 15, in Austin, TX.
“I am truly touched and honored to be this year's recipient of the Garabed Eknoyan Award,” Dr. Cynthia Delgado said. “Dr. Eknoyan was a true role model as a leader and humanitarian in support of patients living with kidney disease. My passion to work and serve the kidney health community comes from both family and professional experience. The burden of living with kidney disease overwhelms many aspects of patients' lives. I am focused on addressing the burden of kidney disease and improving life quality such that patients feel like individuals who happen to be living with kidney disease rather than being a kidney disease patient.”
Delgado is a Professor of Medicine with the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Healthcare System (SFVAHS) and University of California, San Francisco. She is the Associate Chief of Nephrology for clinical operations and the Director of the Dialysis Program for San Francisco Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
She is the Chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the American Society of Nephrology and served as the co-chair of the NKF-ASN Task Force on Reassessing the Inclusion of Race in Diagnosing Kidney Disease.
“Dr. Delgado’s work over the last two years as co-chair of the NKF-ASN Task Force was truly groundbreaking and will be remembered in history as a turning point in kidney care,” said NKF President Sylvia Rosas, MD, MSCE. “She is a recognized international expert on functional status, frailty, body composition, and quality of life among individuals living with chronic kidney disease and that brought a unique perspective to the team and its work. The impact of the NKF-ASN Task Force recommendations is felt beyond our specialty as we strive towards equity in healthcare.”
Dr. Delgado credits her colleagues and family for her professional successes, as well as her association with NKF.
“The NKF is an incredibly important and unique organization, bringing together the entire kidney disease community (patients and caregivers, nurses, social workers, physicians and researchers) as a united voice focused on improving the quality of life of the patients and families we serve,” Dr. Delgado said.
NKF Spring Clinical Meetings
For the past 31 years, nephrology healthcare professionals from across the country have come to NKF’s Spring Clinical Meetings to learn about the newest developments related to all aspects of nephrology practice; network with colleagues; and present their research findings. The NKF Spring Clinical Meetings are designed for meaningful change in the multidisciplinary healthcare teams’ skills, performance, and patient health outcomes. It is the only conference of its kind that focuses on translating science into practice for the entire healthcare team.
About Kidney Disease
In the United States, 37 million adults are estimated to have kidney disease, also known as chronic kidney disease (CKD)—and approximately 90 percent don’t know they have it. About 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. are at risk for kidney disease. Risk factors for kidney disease include: diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and family history. People of Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian American, or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander descent are at increased risk for developing the disease. Black or African American people are more than four times as likely as White Americans to have kidney failure. Hispanics or Latinos are 1.3 times more likely than non-Hispanics to have kidney failure.
NKF Professional Membership
Healthcare professionals can join NKF to receive access to tools and resources for both patients and professionals, discounts on professional education, and access to a network of thousands of individuals who treat patients with kidney disease.
About the National Kidney Foundation
The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) is the largest, most comprehensive, and longstanding patient-centric organization dedicated to the awareness, prevention, and treatment of kidney disease in the U.S. For more information about NKF, visit www.kidney.org.