For years, a race-based calculation for kidney function has been silently impacting the lives of Black patients awaiting kidney transplants. Jazmin Evans, diagnosed with kidney disease at 17, experienced this firsthand, waiting four years on dialysis before receiving her life-changing transplant on July 4th last year.
The culprit behind these extended wait times was a commonly used calculator that estimated kidney function differently for Black patients. This race-based approach, deeply embedded in medical practice, led to significant delays in Black patients being referred for transplants or even being placed on waiting lists.
In 2021, a pivotal shift occurred when this race-based factor was removed from the kidney function calculation. This change came after years of advocacy and research highlighting the inequities caused by such race-based medical algorithms.
Evans, now an advocate for equity in health care and organ transplant systems, recently participated in a panel discussion at the STAT Summit. Alongside experts in clinical algorithms, she explored the implications of removing race from kidney function calculations and the challenges in addressing similar biases across other areas of medicine.
The discussion underscored a broader issue in healthcare: the prevalence of race-based clinical tools that inform care decisions, often without patients’ knowledge. While progress has been made in nephrology, experts stress the need for continued scrutiny of medical practices that may perpetuate health disparities.
As the medical community grapples with these embedded biases, stories like Evans’ serve as powerful reminders of the real-world impact of clinical algorithms and the ongoing need for equity in healthcare delivery.
See “A race-based test for kidney function is finally changing. What about the rest of medicine?” (October 17, 2024)
