NN&I - June 2010

AFTERTHOUGHTS 40 Nephrology News & Issues June 2010Subscribe to our free eNewsletter at www.nephronline.com Compiled by Rebecca ZumoffDust off your typewritersLearn how to 'heart' your kidneysGQ's 'Better Man' keynotes Northwest Kidney Center's fundraiserAAKP announces artwork contest winners The Renal Support Network news-letter KidneyTimes is accepting sub-missions for its 8th annual essay contest, "Lessons learned from a book, movie or song that help me deal with CKD." KidneyTimes received more than 150 essays last year. "I am always so impressed by the wealth of ideas and how thought-provoking these essays are," said Lori Hartwell, Renal Support Network founder and president. "We were very pleased with the winning essays. Narrowing these essays down to determine the winners was a real challenge." Prizes range from $500 to $100 and the contest is open to peo-ple who have been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. Submissions are due by Aug. 15. The American Association of Kidney Patients expanded its educational brochure series with a new booklet, " I Heart My Kidneys!" The AAKP said the brochure aims to teach patients about the importance of the kidneys and how chronic kidney disease and ane-mia can affect the body, particularly the heart. The booklet was developed with the National Anemia Action Council and American Regent and is avail-able at www.aakp.org.In a contest held by the American Association of Kidney Patients to raise awareness for kidney disease, three art-ists' (see box to right) work were chosen by more than 1,000 voters as the best visual representation of how kidney dis-ease affects individuals. The artwork was viewed and judged by attendees at the AAKP's annual Medal of Excellence dinner in March, held during the Renal Physicians Association annual meeting. Attendees narrowed the original selection down to eight, and then those pieces were displayed on the AAKP website until April 15.The winning entries can be found on the AAKP website, www.aakp.org.Melody Kirby's artwork. The winners 1st Place: Nellie Ferrante, dialysis patient 2nd Place: Melody Kirby, caregiver and transplant donor 3rd Place: Mary Mitchell, dialysis patient Melody Kirby's artwork. "Many of the submissions were just amazing," said Roberta Wager, RN, MSN. "I am just glad AAKP has the opportunity to showcase the wonder-ful talents of some of the nation's kid-ney patients." The selected pieces of artwork are being turned into all-occasion greet-ing cards.John Piano, software entrepreneur and GQ magazine's "Better Man for 2009," spoke at Northwest Kidney Centers' 8th annual Breakfast of Hope to raise money for dialysis and kidney trans-plantation as a treatment option. Piano created Transplant Connect, which has recently assisted in nearly 50% of all organ transplants in this country. Transplant Connect is a soft-ware system designed to streamline the organ donation process with real-time medical data. Piano developed the soft-ware after he quit his job as a corpor-ate attorney and media executive to de-vote his time to the transplant commu-nity. The software system overhauled the inefficient paper- and phone-based donor-transplant process with stream-lined, Web-based software. Afterthoughts_NNI0610_2.indd 40 5/14/10 4:41:12 PM