January 17, 2024
By Matthew Fitting
Starting a new job always involves uncertainty, but particularly so when I joined the National Kidney Foundation as its new Director of Grassroots Advocacy in March of 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic was becoming a bigger part of all our lives, I was initially thinking more about how excited I was to be rejoining a patient-focused organization. Having previously worked at the American Heart Association and coming most recently from the American Nurses Association, I was ready to work with those who care for patients most closely.
Almost four years later and on the cusp of another new job, I am overwhelmed by my incredible experiences at NKF. I’m forever grateful to have seen how members of the kidney community take care of one another and everything kidney advocates have accomplished.
By finding their voices and telling their stories, NKF advocates have consistently driven positive change over the past four years. Their dedication helped pass bills into law, guided critical regulations aimed at fighting Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), and above all ensured that the patient is not just at the center of their own care process, but at the center of the policy process as well.
While COVID-19 posed challenges for everyone as it took center stage in 2020, it was particularly difficult for the immunocompromised, which includes patients who have received a kidney transplant. Together, we worked to stress the importance of ensuring those at higher risk had access to the protective equipment that became essential as the pandemic unfolded, and later advocated for those same patients to get priority access as vaccines started rolling out. During this unprecedented time, collective action once again showed its unique value in making certain that the kidney community had a seat at the table where key policy decisions were being made.
Through all this, and later as the pandemic became less of a focus, the kidney advocacy community continued notching victories and building momentum for better policy.
Over roughly one presidential term, advocates like you have worked tirelessly to:
- Enact two major pieces of federal legislation to expand Medicare access to lifesaving medication for transplant patients and modernize our country's organ procurement network.
- Pass 30 kidney policy bills into law in 25 states, improving the lives of patients and living organ donors nationwide while ensuring more people consider stepping up to become living organ donors themselves.
- Provide urgently needed perspective on how better regulatory policy can ensure that more patients who are at risk of CKD are screened and diagnosed early, among other policy priorities.
Finally, I cannot talk about my time at NKF without talking about the four Kidney Patient Summits that I was privileged to be a part of and lead. While the first three were all-virtual and incredibly impactful, returning to an in-person summit in 2023 was an energizing and inspiring reminder of what kidney patients can accomplish when they join together – in this case literally as well as figuratively – to advocate on behalf of themselves and those like them.
The strength and resiliency that this community has demonstrated will continue to serve as a source of inspiration for me and a reminder of the unique power that patient advocacy holds. I will continue supporting and urging others to support NKF as it drives critically needed campaigns to grow health equity, improve our transplant system so that every patient who needs a transplant can get one, and raise public awareness about the public health crisis that CKD represents.
Because of you, I know these big, ambitious goals are attainable, and that using your voice to demand positive change will pave the way toward a better future for all kidney patients. The best way to do that is by joining our Voices for Kidney Health community today. Thank you for everything that you have done and will continue to do. Like your fellow kidney patients, I am incredibly grateful.
