Award Cites Courage to Transform Status Quo Patient Care Through Science
Federal Policy and Research Advance Innovation and Organ Transplantation
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), the nation’s oldest and largest independent, non-partisan kidney patient advocacy organization, today announced it has awarded U.S. Senator Susan M. Collins of the State of Maine its 2026 National Leadership Award for Science and Medical Innovation. Collins chairs the powerful U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations and serves on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), including the Primary Health and Retirement Security Subcommittee. The AAKP award cited Senator Collins for her “courage to transform status quo kidney, heart, and metabolic disease care through patient-centered policy and unyielding support for American science, innovation, and organ donation reform.”
Kidney disease impacts more than 37 million Americans and their families. In the State of Maine, based on the U.S. Renal Data System (USRDS), there are over 228,000 people living with diseases, over 2,000 living with kidney failure, over 1,400 living on either in-center or home dialysis, and an additional 700 living with a kidney transplant. Across New England, including Maine, it is estimated that over 6,000 people are on the kidney transplant wait list. Nationwide, interrelated cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic diseases have impacted more than 25% of the adult population and are a leading cause of death. More broadly, an estimated 90% of American adults, or approximately 240 million people, have some degree of interconnected cardiovascular, kidney, or metabolic health conditions according to the American Heart Association.
AAKP President Edward V. Hickey III, a chronic kidney disease patient with family ties to Bar Harbor, said: “AAKP has a long history of policy collaboration with the U.S. Congress, and we have tremendous respect for Senator Collins and her decades-long commitment to building America’s research and science capacity, particularly at federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health and at the academic institutions leading work on kidney, cardiac, and metabolic diseases. Her leadership on patient-centered medicine and medical innovation has had, and continues to have, a profound impact on the lives of kidney and other chronic disease patients in Maine and across the nation. Without taxpayer-funded federal investment in kidney science and medicine, patients’ choices and their access to new, life-saving innovations would be far more limited than they are today.” Hickey is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a former senior Congressional aide. He serves on the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Nephrology Specialty Board, is a patient advisor for multiple clinical trials administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and chairs the AAKP Veterans Health Initiative, the largest kidney health outreach program outside of the VA.
Paul T. Conway, AAKP Vice President and Chair of Policy and Global Affairs, a 49-year kidney patient and 29-year kidney transplant recipient with roots in Bath and Belfast, Maine, stated, “Bipartisan Congressional legislation and federal appropriations, together with greater innovation, are transforming early kidney disease detection, treatment, and organ transplantation in Maine and nationally. Senator Collins has been steadfast in her commitment to improve cardiac, kidney, and diabetes research and to reduce patient and family burdens associated with chronic diseases. The federal research efforts she has championed, including those made through the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies, have resulted in greater life-saving treatment choices for vulnerable people living in rural and urban areas.” Conway is a University of Maine alumnus, former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Labor, and past Chair of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Patient Engagement Advisory Committee (PEAC). He was diagnosed with kidney disease during a routine high school sports physical by his primary care physician, the late Dr. Peter M. Jollie of Belfast, Maine. Dr. Jollie, a retired Royal Air Force Flight Surgeon and veteran of the U.S. government’s U2 aerospace programs, was a proponent of early disease screening and prevention.
AAKP advocates help kidney community efforts, coordinated by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) (view report), to expand Congressional appropriations and taxpayer investments in kidney science and research by up to $1.8 billion, through the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense. Apart from the national impacts across a wide range of heart, kidney, and metabolic research issues, NIH-approved and taxpayer-supported research, science, and training grants have also directly benefited Maine. NIH grants in Maine have supported research related to metabolic conditions including diabetes, with spillovers to aspects of obesity, as well as medical student training in kidney function and diseases through the MDI Biological Institute in Bar Harbor, Maine. Other institutions receiving NIH funding for rural health and conditions such as cancer include The Jackson Laboratories and MaineHealth. In September of 2026, MaineHealth was awarded a five-year, $13.2 million Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. The funding will be used to further develop the COBRE in Acute Care Research and Rural Health established by the MaineHealth Institute for Research.
AAKP kicked off its 2026 award recognition cycle on September 10 at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, during its annual National Patient Meeting with the unveiling of the national Kidney Advocate Hall of Fame. The AAKP Kidney Advocate Hall of Fame showcases advocates and medical professionals whose contributions have forever changed kidney medicine and launches a tradition that will honor individuals whose dedication continues to define excellence in kidney advocacy. AAKP provides advocacy skills and social media training for patients, living organ donors, and families through the AAKP Center for Patient Engagement and Advocacy and an allied network of government affairs and policy experts.
AAKP, alongside a broad coalition of patient organizations, transplant experts, and Congressional allies, is working to secure passage of the bipartisan Living Donor Protection Act (LDPA), S. 1552/H.R. 4582 and H.R. 4583. The legislation protects living organ donors from job and insurance discrimination based solely on their decision to donate a kidney to save another life, barriers cited most often by potential organ donors. The bipartisan bill is led by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). It was voted out of the Senate HELP Committee on February 26, 2026, with full bipartisan support, including Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), the endorsement of AAKP, the united kidney community, and the American Council of Life Insurance (ACLI). In 2018, with bipartisan support from both Congress and the White House, AAKP and transplant professionals worked with the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) legal team and the DOL Wage and Hour Division to have DOL extend Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) protections for living organ donors, based on the original intent of the FMLA’s Congressional co-sponsors (click here to read the letter and click here to watch the video). Congressional passage of the LDPA in 2026 will codify the DOL’s 2018 FMLA job protections and prohibit insurers from discriminating against living donors.
Follow AAKP on social media at @kidneypatient on Facebook, @kidneypatients on X, and @kidneypatients on Instagram, and visit http://www.aakp.org for more information. AAKP patient advocates advance bipartisan kidney policy including: passage of the bipartisan law modernizing the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) (2023); lifetime transplant drug coverage for kidney patients (2020); the historic Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health signed by President Donald Trump (2019); job protections for living organ donors under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) via the U.S. Department of Labor (2018); and Congressional approval of HIV positive organ transplants for HIV positive patients (2013). AAKP is committed to American leadership in the discovery of safe, next-generation kidney technologies while counteracting the pacing threat of China and its efforts to dominate biotech, manipulate the drug supply chain, and limit patient choice.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Brendan LaCivita
October 30, 2026 National and Medical Media Specialist
blacivita@aakp.org
(813) 906-7740
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SOURCE American Association of Kidney Patients
