Somatus Aims to Address Health Disparities in Kidney Care Through Innovative Research Partnerships and Access to Exclusive Data

Somatus has been awarded access to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Virtual Research Data Center through the 2019 Health Equity Data Access Program for Cohort 2 and will be partnering with Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity to co-lead the study.

Somatus, the nation’s leading provider of value-based kidney care, serving more than 150,000 patients nationwide, today announced it has been awarded access to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’s) Virtual Research Data Center (VRDC) through the CMS Office of Minority Health’s Health Equity Data Access Program for Cohort 2 in 2019. The award grants Somatus access to more than 20 years of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiary data, which will be used to examine how demographic data and Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) data, such as race, ethnicity, location, and access to specialty care can impact chronic kidney disease (CKD) outcomes.

Somatus’ Senior Scientific Lead and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Nwamaka Eneanya, will lead the study efforts alongside Dr. Deidra Crews and Dr. Tanjala Purnell, of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity. The study will explore factors that impact the progression of CKD, incident dialysis rates, associated costs, use of kidney-protective medications, and mortality rates in patients documented to have CKD. The results of the study are expected to be released in early 2022.

“There has been no shortage of research done on how kidney disease has disproportionately impacted people of color,” said Dr. Ikenna Okezie, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Somatus. “Through our partnership with the CMS Office of Minority Health and Drs. Crews and Purnell and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, we will be able to uncover the relative impact of primary drivers of the disparities and use evidence-based guidelines and interventions to address them as we provide culturally competent care for hundreds of thousands of patients with kidney disease.”

About Somatus

Somatus partners with leading health plans, health systems, and nephrology and primary care groups to provide integrated care for patients with or at risk of developing kidney disease. As the market leader in value-based kidney care, Somatus' vertically integrated clinical services and technology delay or prevent disease progression, improve quality and care coordination, and increase the use of home dialysis modalities and rates of kidney transplantation. The company is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, and founded by a team of world-class healthcare operators, successful entrepreneurs, and leading clinicians treating kidney disease. For more information, please visit www.somatus.com.

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