About My Kidney Life Plan
What is this tool for?
You may be one of the hundreds of thousands of people each year who learn they will need dialysis. This is scary. Please don't panic! You can keep doing things that matter to you—IF you make a choice that is a good fit for your life. This tool will help you link your values to the treatment options. You can see what might fit you best. Then, talk to your care team about what you want—and why.
Who built the tool?
The non-profit Medical Education Institute, Inc. (MEI) built the tool, which is written at a 5th grade reading level. Our mission is to help people with chronic diseases learn to manage and improve their health. The best way to do well with kidney disease is to become your own expert. Stay positive. Learn all you can. Take an active role in your care. People who do these things have lived for decades after their kidneys failed—and lived well.
MEI staff and consultants who built My Kidney Life Plan are:
- Dori Schatell, MS, MEI Executive Director
- John Agar, MD, dialysis-expert Nephrologist from Australia, and MEI consultant
- Beth Witten, MSW, ACSW, LSCSW, Renal Social Worker and MEI consultant
- Peter Klicko, MEI IT Manager
- Kristi Klicko, MEI Operations Director
The MEI team offers a special thank you to Dr. George Coritsidis; Jennifer Ravert, RN; and Debbie Brouwer-Maier, RN, CNN for their help reviewing the draft tool. Please note that none of the tool developers or reviewers have any stake in which treatment options are chosen.
Where do the data come from?
All of the studies we used—and many more—are cited in the book My Kidney Life: A New Direction, by Dori Schatell, MS; John Agar, MD; George Coritsidis, MD; and Eric Weinhandl, PhD. Email MEI at info@mei.org to request a referenced print version of the tool.
We've also created a summary of the data sources for hospitalization days and 5-year survival.
How can I support MEI's work?
There are lots of ways YOU can help!
- Volunteer to help test this tool, work on future sections, or review materials
- Join our Facebook discussion group for Home Dialysis Central
- Share your story and photo --Help inspire others!
- Make a tax-deductible donation to MEI. For ways to donate, please visit https://meiresearch.org/donate.
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