CKD ‘Closing the Gaps’
The ISN CKD ’Closing the Gaps’ initiative will provide a comprehensive strategy to address issues related to chronic kidney disease (CKD) care delivery worldwide. The strategy involves international leaders to understand and address issues related to gaps in clinical care delivery, research and advocacy.
Through different projects, ’Closing the Gaps’ sets out to define the global needs, the current state and a ’blueprint’ for moving forward and closing the gaps in CKD care, using research, education and advocacy activities.
It is a complementary strategy to the ISN 0by25 initiative (https://www.isn-online.org/topics/acute-kidney-injury#0by25-initiative), which aims to eliminate preventable deaths from acute kidney injury (AKI) worldwide by 2025.
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Kidney disease is increasingly seen as a public health problem, a risk multiplier for many other conditions, and for its association with cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes and infections. Its fastest growth rate is in low- and low-middle-income countries, which will require support to face the challenge of this growth.
Although renal replacement therapy has been available for decades in high-income countries, relatively little is known about the optimal way to coordinate, finance and regulate the care for people with CKD throughout the spectrum ( from diagnosis, care and access to renal replacement therapies). Throughout the world inequalities exist within emerging countries as well as in wealthier countries.
ISN Global Kidney Health Atlas
The ISN Global Kidney Health Atlas will gather data to determine the world status of existing resources, structures and organizations available to patients with CKD and AKI.
The Atlas is designed to document the degree to which the six principles of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) (http://universalhealthcoverageday.org), (Health Finance, Health Policy, Service Delivery and Safety, Essential Medications and Health Products, Health Information and Statistics, and Health Workforce) are available in each country, or region.
In so doing, the Atlas will serve as a baseline to define current state (2016-7) and key gaps in specific areas and regions. This information will inform local and international bodies regarding key activities that are needed to improve outcomes, including implications for health care policy within the global health agenda. Future work will include tools and implementation of regional and national strategies to address these gaps in the longer term.
As the Atlas will be regularly updated, it will give a ’scorecard’ or ability to track progress in each region and country.
Data is currently being compiled thanks to input from a balanced representation of national nephrology societies, policy makers, kidney foundations, patient organizations and advocacy groups.
Policy
There are two policy activities that make up the ISN CKD ’Closing the Gaps’ initiative: The ISN Global Kidney Health Summit and the ISN Global Kidney Policy Forum.
The ISN Global Kidney Health Summit will take place from July 26 to 28, 2016 in Vancouver, Canada. Some 75 key global opinion leaders and researchers will attend, representing the international community, ISN committees and programs, scientists, policy-makers and patients.
The Summit’s overarching goal is to develop a blueprint for action to change the status of kidney health worldwide, building on present knowledge, research and clinical activities.
It will discuss CKD issues of global relevance, in the context of the ISN Global Kidney Health Atlas (preliminary data from the Atlas will be presented), the interfaces between CKD and AKI, and the link between kidney disease and cardiovascular and metabolic disorders.
Its outcome will form the basis of one or several publications for a special Commission in The Lancet. The Commission publication will coincide with the World Congress of Nephrology (WCN) 2017 in Mexico City.
To access ISN previous The Lancet AKI Commission: http://www.thelancet.com/commissions/0by25-acute-kidney-injury
The ISN Global Kidney Policy Forum is intended to be a recurring event, which will take place in various world regions, where policy and advocacy issues, based on information generated from the Summit and the Atlas, will be discussed with Ministers of Health, World Health Organization representatives (both central and local). The first such Policy Forum will be held in Mexico, with involvement of government officials and clinicians, health economists and researchers.
The goal is to improve the understanding of regional issues related to delivering kidney care and its funding, highlighting and addressing the gaps identified in The ISN Global Kidney Health Atlas, and contextualizing this within the Global burden of kidney disease.
The first Forum will take place at WCN 2017 in Mexico City.
The ISN Global Kidney Health Summit is sponsored by the following organizations:
Publications
The Lancet Kidney Campaign (http://www.thelancet.com/campaigns/kidney)
On World Kidney Day (WKD) 2016, ISN and The Lancet launched The Lancet Kidney Campaign to raise awareness about acute and chronic kidney diseases and bring together the best available evidence to inform strategies to reduce national, regional and global burden of the disease and its risk factors.
This Campaign builds on the ISN’s 2015 Lancet Commission, which amplified ISN’s call for the elimination of preventable deaths from AKI by 2025.
Hosted on The Lancet website, the Campaign brings together research and analysis on AKI, CKD, and dialysis and transplantation from across the journal’s database. It also provides monthly updates on advances in nephrology as well as expert commentaries and interviews on key health and policy issues relevant to kidney disease.
The Lancet Commission (http://www.thelancet.com/commissions/0by25-acute-kidney-injury), a major new Commission from ISN and The Lancet, calls for the elimination of preventable deaths from AKI by 2025.
It sets out a strategy against AKI, establishing its true burden of acute kidney injury and include it on the global health agenda. By raising awareness about AKI at all levels of national health systems, it will improve patient care based on risk, recognition, response, renal support and rehabilitation.
Partners & Supporters
The ISN CKD ’Closing the Gaps’ is possible thanks to grants provided by the ISN and is partly supported from various sponsors and partners.
The ISN Global Kidney Health Summit is sponsored by the following organizations:
Leadership & Team
The ISN CKD ’Closing the Gaps’ initiative is led by ISN President Adeera Levin.
For further information about the different projects within this initiative, please contact the relevant Project Manager.
The ISN Global Kidney Health Atlas
- Aminu Bello (Canada)
- David Johnson (Australia)
- Project Manager: Sandrine Damster (Belgium)
The ISN Global Kidney Health Summit
- Adeera Levin (Canada)
- Kai-Uwe Eckardt (Germany)
- Marcello Tonelli (Canada)
- Project Manager: Ilaria Pastorino (Belgium)
The ISN Global Kidney Policy Forum
(taking place at WCN 2017 in Mexico City)
- Magdalena Madero (Mexico)
- Gregorio Obrador (Mexico)
- Ricardo Correa-Rotter (Mexico)
- Project Manager: Matthieu Van Der Straten (Belgium)
The Lancet Kidney Campaign