Kidney Health for Al

Chennai

A second CME was held in November 2023 in Chennai to find out how far the prevention measures had progressed. ~Continuing Medical Education (CME) event developed to engage with the Medical Community~

Chennai, November 27, 2023: Kidney Health for All, a CME event was held yesterday to address the topic of dramatic rise in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). The CME engaged the Medical Community to deliberate on ways to make early detection possible among patients in their practice to curb growth of Chronic Kidney Disease that is looming large and is a concern world over, as it impacts all ages including our young population. Emerging growth of CKD due to unknown reasons in agricultural and other low economic resource areas is putting a strain and burden on the country’s healthcare system. The CME was organized in the public interest by NephroPlus, Tanker Foundation, and MOHAN Foundation with the concept developed by Kidney Warriors Foundation. The highly anticipated event commenced with a welcome address and inauguration by the chief guest, the Health Secretary Shri Gagandeep Singh Bedi. He addressed the audience with insights on ‘Why Preventive Measures are Critical!’ and the importance of overall well being, and shared three areas of their healthcare work: 1. Encourage Healthy Lifestyle and Exercise 2. Early detection and medicines, “Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam” where 10500 women volunteers on Govt stipend go house to house to check BP and Blood sugar in all adult population, send them to the nearest primary health center so there’s lower rate of people with diabetes and hypertension, avoiding medical complications. In the last two years, nearly 1 crore people have been checked and directed towards medical treatments  3. Healthcare should take care of dialysis; enough machines are placed for subsidized dialysis and peritoneal dialysis fluids reach the patients doorsteps.

The welcome address was followed by a Panel Discussion that centered on kidney health. With panelists that included leading Ophthalmologists, Diabetologists, Gynecologists, Cardiologists, General practitioners and family physicians, the sessions were informative, backed by knowledge and research. Topics such as ‘Exploring the Pervasive Growth of Hypertension and its Impact on Chronic Kidney Disease’, ‘Diabetologists and Ophthalmologists Unite to Address the Escalating Diabetic Disease Rates, Early Symptoms, and the Crucial Link to Chronic Kidney Disease – Early Detection and Prevention Practices’ to a ‘Candid Conversation on Pregnancy, Kidney Health, and the Challenges Impacting both Mothers and Babies’ were covered.

Renowned Doctors such as Dr Georgi Abraham, Dr Edwin Fernando, Dr Gopalakrishnan, Dr Sunil Shroff, Dr Muruganathan, Dr PB Sivaraman, to name a few, graced the event with their presence and interacted with the invitees.

Dr Georgi Abraham, renowned nephrologist who runs the TANKER Foundation mentioned that as Tamil Nadu had set many benchmarks with conducting the first transplant and starting dialysis, whether TN could be the state to prevent the disease was the next big question. He spoke of a device introduced in Japan that could detect creatinine with a single prick blood sample. Our country has enough talent to bring about such innovations that could address and curb growth of CKD.

 Dr. Suresh Sankar a renowned Nephrologist at Sundaram Medical Foundation, based in Chennai said, “Kidney health is critical for living a healthy life. We can protect our kidneys and lower our risk of developing kidney disease by taking preventive measures. This event was a great way to spread awareness about renal health and I am hoping we have more such informative CME initiatives.”  

Dr N Gopalakrishnan, a renowned Nephrologist mentioned that a recent study found that 52% of the CKD cases were caused by reasons unrelated to lifestyle diseases. He said, “The three causes associated with CKD cases are heat stress, environment pollution and exposure to chemicals.”