Marika Mae Cusick

In the U.S., chronic kidney disease (CKD) disproportionately impacts racial and ethnic minorities. These disparities have been impacted by the use of a race-adjusted clinical algorithm, the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) formula, during CKD management decision-making. In an interdisciplinary partnership with Stanford Health Care, my research aims to develop a novel eGFR formula optimized to achieve more equitable CKD outcomes across multiple racial and ethnic groups, leveraging advances in the algorithmic fairness literature. The new eGFR formula aims to better allocate timely and effective healthcare services to minority racial and ethnic populations, narrowing the gaps in CKD outcomes that have persisted for decades.