Overcoming Disparities in CKD Burden and Care

Charles P. Vega, MD, is a family medicine specialist and director of the University of California, Irvine Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC). PRIME-LC is a 5-year, dual-degree program designed to create leaders and physician-activists who will work in underserved Latino communities. Dr. Vega is also a spokesperson for the It Takes 2 campaign, which recently launched in Spanish. The health initiative promotes the importance of early diagnosis of chronic kidney disease, focusing on how it takes two people—the patient and doctor—and two tests to detect kidney disease.

Dr. Vega spoke with Nephrology Times about the disproportionate kidney disease burden in the Latino community and how clinicians can address racial and ethnic disparities in kidney care.