Enhancing Community Engagement Through a New Combined Renal-Endocrine Screening Program in West Philadelphia

Background: Diabetic chronic kidney disease (CKD) disproportionately affects underserved populations who are less likely to receive optimal treatments. Early detection and patient education through screening events in underserved regions offers a simple, low-cost effort to address disparities. Kidney Disease Screening and Awareness Program (KDSAP) is a student-run organization dedicated to screening community members for CKD and providing CKD education nationally. Since 2016, KDSAP’s University of Pennsylvania chapter has screened 650 participants across 27 events for CKD. Given the intersection of diabetes and CKD in underserved areas, we aimed to expand KDSAP screenings to include diabetes education and screening in West Philadelphia through a novel combined Renal-Endocrine health screening program. Methods: KDSAP, Penn Renal, and Penn Endocrine developed an integrated CKD-Diabetes screening events in West Philadelphia. Screenings included vital signs, blood glucose + urine protein levels, nephrology consultation, endocrine consultation, and patient education. We tracked community participant attendance, student volunteers, physician volunteers, and number of new sites. Secondary endpoints included the addition of new stations and expansion of educational material into new languages (Arabic, Spanish, Mandarin). We conducted focus groups with community members to gauge the usefulness of educational material. Results: KDSAP held 10 screenings in West Philadelphia with 110 community participants, 100 student volunteers and 18 physician volunteers. Physician volunteers expanded to include endocrinologists and primary care physicians. Health screenings expanded to four new locations. We incorporated 3 additional stations to meet with diabetes health educators, nutrition health educators, and social workers. Five screening participants attended the focus groups. Additional data from health screenings/focus group will be available at time of presentation. Conclusion: Early data suggest that the KDSAP Renal-Endocrine health screening program meets the needs of community members, integrates a broader physician and volunteer workforce, and expands educational resources. While more data are needed to better understand its long-term impact, KDSAP should consider scaling an integrated program to other sites to broaden our impact on CKD and diabetes.