After years of being kept off the kidney transplant waiting list due to a biased medical test, thousands of Black patients are finally receiving the justice and medical attention they deserve. Jazmin Evans, 29, from Philadelphia, discovered she had been eligible for a transplant years earlier than she was told, a massive oversight attributed to a racial bias in the testing algorithm. Evans, who began dialysis treatment while pursuing higher education, was initially listed in 2019 but should have been on the transplant list as early as 2015, according to her recalculated lab tests, 6abc reported.
The problematic test underestimated kidney function in Black patients by using race-based criteria, which made them appear healthier and less in need of a transplant, this method has been discarded in favor of a race-neutral approach, following guidelines from the National Kidney Foundation and American Society of Nephrology to eliminate such racial disparities in the healthcare system, AP News mentioned.
The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) has mandated a lookback to adjust waiting times for those affected by the previous calculation which has so far resulted in more than 14,000 Black transplant candidates receiving credit for time wrongfully lost in getting on the list and therefore improving their placement for a potential transplant NBC Philadelphia reported.
These recalculations have been the result of meticulous work by hospital staff who have had to dig through old medical records—some reaching back several years—to find and reevaluate past tests without the race correction, with immense efforts taking place outside of regular hours 6abc highlighted. Dr. Pooja Singh of Jefferson Health's transplant institute recounted the intensive search, stating, "You're reaching out to the nephrologist, their primary care doctors, the dialysis units to get those records," and emphasized the joy of seeing the first patient benefit from this effort.
The race-neutral testing approach is a significant leap toward equity in the medical field, with the potential to save lives by correcting past oversights. For individuals like Jazmin Evans, who received a new kidney on July 4 and is now healthy, the change arrived just in time. "You don't know if people would be alive today" if the policy had been enacted sooner and maintaining, "making amends to fix the situation for those that we can - I feel like it's very important and it's very necessary if you're truly wanting to bring more equity and equality into the medical field," Evans told 6abc in an inspirational note that underscored the criticality of these revisions for fairness in healthcare.
