Course:

Reducing Medication-Related Disparities in Black Persons with Chronic Kidney Disease

What medication challenges do Black persons with CKD have? Black persons with CKD experience pharmaco-inequities including lower initiation of new evidence-based medications for reducing CKD progression than White persons, and their risk for developing kidney failure is 3.4 times higher. 


Black persons and health care providers whose practices are mainly comprised of Black persons with CKD will share their insights and possible solutions to these challenges.

We encourage you to take the course modules in order. Free CE: ACCME, ACPE, ANCC and Interprofessional Continuing Education Credit (IPCE).

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, grant UL1TR002494.

Course Modules

Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 modules

Summary

There are significant health and medication-related disparities in black persons with CKD that need to be addressed. In Part 1, we will address some of the history and current experiences that have led to Black community and/or Black individual distrust in the US Health system and healthcare practitioners.

Objectives

  1. Review the historical context for distrust of Black persons in the US health system
  2. Discuss current health and medication-related disparities that Black persons with chronic kidney disease are experiencing
  3. Characterize different types of bias that affect equitable health care
  4.  Identify resources for  health care professionals to educate themselves and others on how to address various biases to improve health equity and pharmacoequity in Black persons

Summary

In Part 2, we use patient voices to show their health care and medication-related experiences, we discuss challenges that interfere with medication adherence and address microaggression by healthcare professionals that can erode patient trust.

Objectives

  1. Discover challenges, fears and frustrations that Black persons with CKD have experienced with their own illness and medication-related experiences
  2. Identify health priorities of Black persons patients with CKD from their own stories of health care encounters
  3. Assess your patient for social determinants of health, health literacy and autonomy in decision-making
  4. Apply practitioner strategies to reduce microaggression and medication-related disparities

Summary

As discussed in Part 1 and Part 2, there is a disproportionate impact of CKD on Black persons. Individuals need to have CKD identified and diagnosed as early as possible in the disease process to attain desired health outcomes. This successful management of CKD and its complications requires an awareness and understanding of the diagnosis. Without awareness, patients are unlikely to become informed and adequately participate in their care and become motivated to adopt healthy behaviors.

Objectives

  1. Develop strategies for screening Black persons at high risk for CKD with serum creatinine (eGFR) and urine albumin to creatinine ratio
  2. Focus on pharmacoequity when creating a medication-related plan
  3. Identify key medication-related facts and medication alternatives that Black patients with CKD want to know
  4. Apply successful practitioner strategies to improve pharmacoequity

Summary

Part 4 looks at building trustful and respectful relationships with Black person’s with CKD and empowering them in their care.

Objectives

  1. Create respectful and trusting relationships with your individual patient
  2. Utilize resources to improve health literacy in Black persons with CKD
  3. Build respect and trust within Black persons' communities
  4. Avoid microaggression (tie back to implicit bias in module 1)
  5. Be visibly consistent
  6. Sustain your commitment (to show that team is committed to the cause for the long-term and not as a ‘photo-op’ or ‘part of a checklist for the office’
  7. Apply successful practitioner strategies

Summary

In Part 5, we will present strategies to overcome the barriers presented in Part 1-4. These strategies include: multidisciplinary team-based care that can provide comprehensive medication management, or CMM; overcoming barriers to access medications; using a shared decision making, patient-centered model of care; and patient / caregiver tools to improve medication use.

Objectives

  1. Assemble and train a multidisciplinary team with well-defined roles
  2. Describe the importance and impact of hiring people that look like those in the community they serve for positions in the public eye (when possible)
  3. Incorporate a pharmacist on the multidisciplinary team to provide comprehensive medication management utilizing AKHOMM resources
  4. Develop a process to address insurance, medication access and refill issues
  5. Create an environment for the shared decision-making process with the patient in the center