Home - Illinois Kidney Care Alliance

About Us

The Illinois Kidney Care Alliance (IKCA) is a coalition of organizations, community groups and advocates, health professionals, and businesses from across Illinois banding together to ensure that patients’ needs come first.

With over 30,000 dialysis and transplant patients in Illinois, the well-being of patients and their families is our top concern. IKCA supports and helps craft public policy that protects those with end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

Currently, more than 785,000 Americans suffer from kidney failure. Of these, about 70 percent are on dialysis, while the rest are able to survive with a functioning kidney transplant. The incidence rate of ESRD is expected to rise in the U.S. in over the next decade – and is higher among African-Americans, Latinos and people of color than among whites.

Kidney disease in its early stages often has no symptoms and therefore remains undetected until it has reached an advanced stage. For this reason, some call it a “silent disease.” It kills more people than breast or prostate cancer in the U.S. every year, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Inspiring Stories

Michael Torti (right) helped Jacob Fill receive a kidney. They were neighbors in Elmhurst more than 20 years ago.

Michael Torti and Jacob Fill were neighbors over 20 years ago in Elmhurst, Illinois. When Torti learned through social media that Fill, now 27, needed a kidney transplant due to complications from polycystic kidney disease, he decided to help. Although Torti’s kidney wasn’t a direct match, he participated in a paired exchange program, donating his kidney to someone else in need, which in turn helped Fill receive a better-matched kidney from a younger donor.

After multiple surgeries and months on dialysis, Fill is now healthy and back at work. Torti later visited Fill and his family in California, emphasizing the importance of kidney donation—whether direct or through an exchange—to save lives more quickly. Fill expressed deep gratitude for Torti and the medical teams involved, saying he feels like he has his life back.

Read their story on our news page here!