Eliminating Race From eGFR Calculations: Impact on Living Donor Programs.

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Race is a social construct that has been used to classify people in ways potentially limiting access to healthcare, therefore race-blind approaches can benefit minorities by increasing availability to specialist treatment, such as living donor kidney transplantation. It is known, in fact, that living kidney donation represents the best replacement therapy for end stage renal disease. Yet, there is not only a disparity in access to the waitlist for recipients of Black and Asian minorities, but it is also urgently needed an intervention to mitigate the worsening of kidney function in the same population, who could be double penalized if they wish to come forward as a living donor. Ongoing research is focused on how to better assess kidney function via eGFR formulas without accounting for racial adjustment. A timely reappraisal of the elimination of race from eGFR calculations in view of its impact on living donor programs seems therefore urgently needed both from the donor’s and the recipient’s perspective.