Early Adopter in Definitive Genetic Diagnosis for Kidney Disease

Children’s hospitals are leading utilizers of a genetic testing panel for kidney disease that is available at no cost to patients.

In collaboration with leading genetic laboratories, Hackensack Meridian Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital and K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital are the country’s leading utilizers of a genetic testing panel for kidney disease that is available at no cost to patients. The panel, launched in 2019, has benefited over 25 pediatric patients in the Hackensack Meridian Children’s Health network so far by identifying genetic links to perfect their kidney disease treatment and ensure accuracy of their diagnosis. An abstract of the data from the full national cohort was presented at the American Society of Nephrology annual meeting in October 2020.

Kenneth V. Lieberman, M.D., pediatric nephrologist, is one of the leaders of the study and of a new initiative to establish genetic diagnoses in all patients awaiting kidney transplant, adults as well as children.