Should remote residents be prioritized for kidney transplants?

People with kidney failure who live in rural and remote areas of Canada do not have the same access to the full suite of dialysis modalities as urban dwellers. Many need to relocate for life-sustaining renal replacement therapy. Often this means moving hours away from their home communities for months, sometimes years, at a time.

In this episode, hosts Drs. Mojola Omole and Blair Bigham speak with Dr. Aaron Trachtenberg, a nephrologist at the University of Manitoba about his commentary in CMAJ, in which he and coauthors argued that patients who must leave their home communities for dialysis should be prioritized for the allocation of deceased donor kidney transplants.

They also speak with Vanessa Tait whose father needed to relocate to Winnipeg, twelve hours away from his home community of O-pipon-na-piwin Cree Nation, for dialysis. Ms. Tait became a living donor to her father in an effort to bring him back home. She talks about the toll relocation takes on patients from remote communities.

Commentary in CMAJ
CMAJ

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