Kidney Week Session:
A Look in the Crystal Ball: COVID-19 and the Future of Outpatient Dialysis

Location:
WF2 Tangerine, Orange County Convention Center, West Building

Session Description
This session reviews the impact of COVID-19 on outpatient dialysis. Discussions include the effect of COVID-19 on dialysis staffing and ability to provide safe treatments to everyone in need, the efficacy of vaccines against COVID-19, including new agents in development focused on T cells, and the utility of antibody testing to determine kidney patient immune status. Also considered are the delays in access to new therapies against COVID-19 due to their lack of inclusion in clinical trials, and the ethics of vaccine and booster mandates against COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
ASN thanks the ASN ASN COVID-19 Response Team for assistance with this session.

Learning Objective(s)
• Evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on staffing in dialysis facilities
• List tools to evaluate the immune status of patients with kidney diseases
• Assess the efficacy of current and future vaccines against COVID-19 for patients with kidney diseases
• Discuss the reasons for delays in access to new therapies for patients with kidney diseases and what can be done about them
• Examine the ethics of mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 and other infectious diseases

Learning Pathway(s)
• Dialysis
• Pharmacology

Moderators
• Brigitte Schiller, MD, FASN
• Jeffrey I. Silberzweig, MD, FASN

Presentations
• Dialysis Facility Staffing in the Wake of COVID-19
02:00 PM EDT – 02:30 PM EDT
Jeffrey L. Hymes, MD

• Vaccine Requirements: Are Mandates Ethical?
02:30 PM EDT – 03:00 PM EDT
Olivia S Kates, MA, MD

• ESRD Network Roles: Patient Resources and Regulatory
03:00 PM EDT – 03:30 PM EDT
Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, MD, DrMed, PhD, MPH, FASN

• Most Important Good and Bad Impact of COVID in Dialysis
03:30 PM EDT – 04:00 PM EDT
Dawn Edwards