Racial Gap in Kidney Transplants Combated by Policy Change

September 3, 2015

(Scientific American) – Although racial disparities continue to plague the health care system there is one bright spot: the gap in kidney transplants appears to have closed. For the first time rates of such transplants among white and black patients are at equal levels, according to an analysis of almost 200,000 end-stage kidney disease patients. The change comes mostly as a result of deliberate policy changes made to help eliminate the racial gap rather than any particular medical improvement in transplantations.