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2010 KidneyWise Summit

On June 9, 2010 leaders in the health industry, the CDC, a former U.S. Surgeon General, the U.S. Congress and organizations representing nearly every sector of American life convened at the Capitol Visitors Center in Washington DC for a one-day summit to discuss the epidemic of CKD. These leaders and their organizations have pledged that True Prevention is the ultimate answer to stopping this pending American crisis.

Chronic Kidney Disease consumes one-quarter of all Medicare expenses – effecting a devastating 50 million Americans. KidneyWise and it's partners are working together and engaging community leaders and health professionals nationwide to bring this epidemic to the forefront.

Captain Robert Tosatto, Director of the Medical Reserve Corps, of the Surgeon Generals Office added, "Chronic Kidney Disease related illnesses are taking a heavy toll on this country, and that will continue if nothing is done to stop it." Congressman Jim McDermott from Washington's Seventh District and co-chair of the Kidney Caucus commented, "We continue to send kidney patients to the medical community for treatment – and we shouldn't have to. I think we should be dedicating a great deal of money to prevention." 

Learn More about the focus of the 2010 National Summit

Thought leaders at the National Summit defined True Prevention as "People and communities taking action to promote and sustain good health to reduce disease rates."

 

Millions of Americans are negatively affected along the CKD Chain.  In order to meet this huge need, we need a model of community health promotion, research and disease prevention that can affordably achieve the necessary scale.  By tapping in to the wisdom, resources and energy of engaged people and organizations, and motivating collaboration through social networking and technology, we will find and deploy solutions to the problems that initiate the CKD Chain.

 

Redefining prevention of CKD and its associated diseases means we must address the underlying determinates resident in the cultural, environmental and economic factors that initiate the CKD Chain.  

WiseCommunities is a long term strategy for modifying personal behaviors and building social capital in communities to mitigate the common risk factors and stem the tide of CKD and its associated diseases. Through Healthsourcing®, we will ensure sustainability and scalability in the WiseCommunities program in order to transform our nation’s health.

We lay the ground work for this initiative with medical ethnographic and sociological studies in real communities across the country – called WiseCommunities on the Ground - and grow these strategies through deployment of online social networking technologies in order to have the greatest and most efficient, sustainable reach – called WiseCommunities Online.