Search

Continuing education series for professionals.

Kidney transplants are the optimal treatment option for many kidney patients. However, the average wait time for a kidney is 3-5 years, and in some areas, much longer. Unfortunately, not all patients can afford to wait that long. As a healthcare professional, you can play a vital role in helping patients find a transplant sooner by educating them about living kidney donations....

When Erin Hintz Cabaluna was a dietitian intern, she was sent to a dialysis unit in a hospital. Working with people on dialysis made Erin nervous because she was in charge of their bone management medication. Any miscalculations could accidentally hurt a patient. Then an opportunity at a local dialysis clinic opened up after Erin earned her degree. With more experience under her belt, she decided to go for it. 

Eleven years later...

Prediabetes describes the condition of someone who is on their way to developing diabetes. Before having diabetes, people usually have “pre-diabetes.” This is a new name for a condition in which blood glucose (sugar) levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. A person with prediabetes cannot handle sugar as well as they should. Even though diabetes is not full blown, high sugar levels in...

Diabetic kidney disease is a decrease in kidney function that occurs in some people who have diabetes. It means that your kidneys are not doing their job as well as they once did to remove waste products and excess fluid from your body. These wastes can build up in your body and cause damage to other organs.

Kidney cancer is a disease that starts in the kidneys. It happens when healthy cells in one or both kidneys grow out of control and form a lump (called a tumor).

In the early stages, most people don’t have signs or symptoms. Kidney cancer is usually found by chance during an abdominal (belly) imaging test for other complaints. As the...