SAT., NOV 29, 2008 - 6:19 PM
Executive Q&A - Dr. Bryan Becker: University of Wisconsin expert fights kidney diseaseJUDY NEWMAN
608-252-6156
jdnewman@madison.com
Kidney specialist Dr. Bryan Becker already had a busy schedule, caring for kidney transplant patients, teaching at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, serving as vice chairman of the Department of Medicine and physician-in-chief and head of the nephrology division.
Now he's taken on another role that will require more traveling and will give him a prominent voice in Washington, D.C.
Becker was appointed president of the National Kidney Foundation in October. For the next two years, he will head a nonprofit organization with an $85 million annual budget, 280 employees and an agenda aimed at helping millions of Americans with chronic kidney disease, and their families.
Becker started volunteering for the foundation more than a decade ago and has been a member of its board of directors and its scientific advisory board.
A native of Shawnee Mission, Kan, Becker joined the UW-Madison faculty in 1997 as a visiting professor from Vanderbilt University while his wife, Yolanda Becker, participated in a fellowship program. She is now a kidney transplant surgeon here.
As Bryan Becker explains their complementary roles: "She does the operation and puts the new kidney in and I take care of (the patients) afterward."
Q: As president of this national organization, what are your primary goals?
A: To work with the board to advance awareness of chronic kidney disease; to advance awareness of organ donation; to start an early transplant initiative; and to enhance the National Kidney Foundation's role globally, as far as spreading education and information.
Q: How common is kidney disease and what are the symptoms?
A: About 26 million Americans, or 13 percent of the population, have chronic kidney disease, and the vast majority probably don't even know it. It's a very quiet disease with few symptoms. Until you lose a very significant amount of kidney function, you may not be aware you have it.
Symptoms include fatigue, difficulty concentrating or sleeping, weight loss, various aches and pains. The patient may be anemic or may just not feel as well as usual.
Q: Those sound like signs of just about any illness. How would you know if it's kidney disease?
A: Through early detection, by screening people. Most often, it's caused by high blood pressure or diabetes, or through a susceptibility carried in families. It crosses the socioeconomic spectrum. People who are at risk fall into any category.
If people have their blood pressure checked and have a urinalysis every year, their doctors can see if there's a trend, if the kidney function is decreasing. Researchers have developed a mathematical equation that is more precise, and it is being refined. We can use it to monitor patients with some simple blood tests.
There are things we can do to slow that process and I hope someday to stop it, but also to limit problems resulting from kidney disease, such as heart disease and infections of all types.
Q: Tell me about the early transplant initiative.
A: We strongly believe, based on the information available, that someone who can get a kidney transplant before starting dialysis can do better. They can live longer and their kidney function is better. Until 2007, only 2 percent of transplants occurred before dialysis. That figure already has doubled this year, and we hope to double it again within two years.
Q: What got you interested in the field of kidney disease?
A: As a medical student at the University of Kansas, I had tremendous role models, people who were incredibly committed to their patients and who were incredibly smart. I thought, "Boy, wouldn't it be nice to be like one of them?"
Q: What are some of your responsibilities as president of the National Kidney Foundation?
A: To meet with medical leaders in communities around the country to get our message out; to lend transplant expertise; to work with Congress and federal agencies such as the National Institutes for Health to develop legislation involving kidney disease and all chronic diseases.
Q: You have devoted your life to helping kidney patients, as a transplant nephrologist and through more than a decade of volunteer work with the foundation. What motivates you to lead the group?
A: When I was in Washington, D.C., in 2007 for World Kidney Day, there was a man from the Wausau area who was on dialysis. He was waiting to testify before Congress and it was the end of the day and he was tired. I offered to help him, but he said, "I'll get there on my own."
When you see the courage of regular people who didn't know they had a problem and then their lives are totally changed, the magnificence of people is amazing. They are challenged far more than I ever have been in my lifetime.
I look at them and say, I've got to put myself out of business, so that someday people don't have to go through such a hard time.
Q: What are the National Kidney Foundations's biggest challenges right now?
A: The foundation is going through a transformation from local, independent affiliates to a centralized organization, based in New York, where all administrative, human resources, operations and financial management will be conducted. This will let local offices advance their programs in research, advocacy, patient services, public education and organ donation while reducing operating costs and improving efficiency.
DR. BRYAN BECKER
Age: 46
Positions: President, National Kidney Foundation; UW Hospital transplant nephrologist; vice chair of the Department of Medicine and physician-in-chief and head of the nephrology division of the UW-Madison School of Medicine
Foundation annual budget: $85 million
Foundation employees: 280
Founded: 1950, as the National Nephrosis Foundation
Foundation programs: Public education on kidney disease and organ donation; support, counseling and financial assistance for kidney patients; free screenings for kidney disease for those at risk; $3 million a year in grants for research on treatment and prevention.
Web site:
www.kidney.orghttp://www.madison.com/wsj/home/biz//index.php?ntid=316390
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