The National Kidney Foundation's program, Kidney Early Evaluation Program, has saved many lives of patients dealing with kidney failure -- all with a simple test.

The nationwide program offers a free screening test which can serve as an early warning sign for a disease that often shows no warning signs or symptoms until the patient is on the verge of total kidney failure, the New York Times reports. The test uses a formula to create the creatinine reading to a better measure of how well the kindeys are filtering wastes from the blood.

According to the New York Times, "the kidney foundation undertook the KEEP program nine years ago because family doctors and internists often fail to order an EGFR when performing routine blood tests on patients at risk for kidney failure." Adding this test to routine blood work could potentially save billions of dollars spent on the very costly side effects of kidney failure that could potentially be avoided altogether.

Perhaps KEEP's success is a red flag that screams that this test should be added as a standard procedure for diagnosing kidney disease.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/health/15brod.html?scp=29&sq=September+15+2009&st=nyt