In a recent Editorial published in AJKD, Harish Seethapathy and colleagues make the case that a kidney emoji would promote better health by improving communication between healthcare providers, patients, and their families.

AJKDBlog’s Interviews Editor, Timothy Yau @Maximal_Change sat down with Drs. Seethapathy @BetterCallSeeth, Caitlyn Vlasschaert @DrFlashHeart, and Jade Teakell @jmteakell to discuss this topic.

If the embedded player above doesn’t work, please click here to watch the video interview.

Proposal for the kidney emoji: a timeline. The Unicode consortium was established in 1991, with the first emoji proposal in 2000. Organ emoji accepted include the brain (2017), the heart (2019), and the lung (2019). Upcoming organ emoji proposals include the liver and the kidney. Figure 1 from Seethapathy et al, AJKD © National Kidney Foundation.

Special thanks to Drs. Seethapathy, Teakell, and Vlasschaert for taking the time to talk with us!

Title: The Case for a Kidney Emoji
Author: Harish Seethapathy, Jeffrey Beach, Marion Gillcrist, Paul T. Conway, Jade Teakell, Jarone Lee, Caitlyn Vlasschaert, Shuhan He, and Edgar Lerma
DOI: 10.1053/j.ajkd.2022.03.012