My, how time flies! It seems like it has only been a few weeks since I was with many of you attending the AAKP Annual Meeting in St. Louis. Today, the AAKP staff and I are busy preparing for the Annual Convention taking place Aug. 28 – 31 in Washington, D.C. You can now download the Convention Registration Brochure from the AAKP Web site. The registration brochure provides a look at the educational sessions, social events, educational credits available for renal professionals and prices for Convention attendees. This year we are offering a discount for AAKP Life Members, Patient/Family Members and Professional Members.
The Convention hotel is the Grand Hyatt Washington. The hotel is located near many of the area’s tourist attractions. Hotel reservations can be made by calling the Grand Hyatt Washington toll free at (800) 233-1234. To receive the preferred rate of $125 per night (single or double occupancy), identify yourself as an AAKP Convention attendee. Make your hotel reservation now as hotel rooms have sold out in the past.
We are expecting at least 500 people to attend this year’s Annual Convention including the winners of the AAKP Says I Can! campaign. We designed the AAKP Says I Can! campaign to demonstrate that kidney patients do more than dialyze, they are active participants in their communities. The winners include: Wilfred T. Dow, a 78 year-old hemodialysis patient; Betsy Calloway, a 28 year-old kidney transplant recipient; and Mary Sheppard, a peritoneal dialysis (PD) patient.
AAKP Says I Can! winners will also be featured on posters in dialysis units, transplant centers and doctors’ offices across the country. Posters of the inspirational patients are available free of charge. Please order copies of the posters by calling AAKP at (800) 749-AAKP and encourage your doctor or dialysis unit to display them.
While we’re busy planning the Convention, I want to take a little time to share with you the progress of the many other programs offered by AAKP. The AAKP HealthLine conference call series has been a big hit with patients. AAKP HealthLine is a FREE, one-hour conference call designed to educate patients and their family on a variety of kidney related topics. Conference calls feature kidney healthcare experts from across the country and provide you with the convenience of gaining knowledge from the comfort of your home or office. Conference call participants have an opportunity toward the end of the call to ask the healthcare experts questions.
Upcoming calls topics include:
Understanding Your Kidney Treatment Options – Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Understanding the Connection: Anemia & Iron Deficiency – Tuesday, July 15, 2008
All calls take place between 1:30 p.m – 2:30 p.m ET. You can register for an upcoming call online or by calling (800) 749-AAKP.
You can also listen to past AAKP HealthLine conference calls. They are archived on the AAKP Web site. Past conference calls include:
Meal Planning 101
Risk Factors for Kidney Disease: Understanding Diabetes and Hypertension
Food for Thought: Your Kidney Diet
Understanding Anemia and the Importance of Exercise
Kidney Beginnings: A Patients' Guide to Living with Reduced Kidney Function
There are several more Kidney Beginnings: Live educational programs scheduled for the year. Kidney Beginnings: Live targets individuals recently diagnosed with kidney disease, those at risk of developing kidney disease (diabetes patients or hypertension patients) and their loved ones. This is a FREE program that teaches individuals about the basics of kidney disease and proper kidney care. Upcoming program locations include Denver and Jackson, Miss.
Programs last approximately three hours and feature presentations by healthcare professionals. Attendees have the opportunity to ask questions in an open forum setting.
AAKP is currently seeking the following healthcare professionals to present at each program: Certified Diabetes Educator, Dietitian, Nephrologist, Registered Nurse, Social Worker or Pharmacist. If you would like to volunteer to present at a Kidney Beginnings: Live program, contact Jolene Bussiere, Special Projects Coordinator at jbussiere@aakp.org.
If you haven’t seen the Take 2 Tell 5 Web site, I strongly urge you to do so. AAKP teamed up with Baxter to promote Take 2 Tell 5. The campaign targets African Americans and asks them to take 2 minutes to get tested for kidney disease and tell five others to do the same.
Posters of the Take 2 Tell 5 campaign can be downloaded for free. Healthcare professionals are encouraged to place them in their offices. AAKP hopes to raise kidney disease awareness in the African American community, an ethnic group disproportionately affected by kidney disease.
The AAKP staff is in the process of updating many of our patient educational brochures including Kidney Beginnings: A Patient’s Guide to Living with Reduced Kidney Function, AAKP Peritoneal Dialysis Advisory and AAKP Patient Plan, Phase 1.
AAKP’s The Iron Story brochure is now available in the Spanish section of the Web site. This brochure provides information on the importance of iron and what happens if the body does not have enough of it. It also describes the condition known as anemia and how it affects the kidneys. And parents with children coping with chronic kidney disease should visit the Pediatric Information section of the AAKP Web site. We have been working to include more information for children, their parents and the renal professionals helping these families.
We are proud of the work we do at AAKP. But we know we would not be able to do it without your generous support. If you have any questions about AAKP programs and events, please call the National Office at (800) 749-AAKP.
Kris Robinson
Executive Director/CEO
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