Grant: Network Catalyst - Diabetes, Obesity, Digestive and Kidney

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common, affecting 1.9 - 2.3 million Canadians and occurring in up to 1/4 of people over the age of 65. It typically occurs in conjunction with, and as a complication of diabetes, hypertension, and vascular disease. Care of patients with CKD, who often have multiple medical problems is complicated by the lack of data from relevant clinical trials. Even when trials have been done, their results are often not translated into practice. Studies show that the care of patients with CKD is neither optimal nor consistent with available data. To date, the kidney health community has been unable to effectively partner with primary care physicians to translate knowledge into clinical practice to enhance and optimize care for CKD patients. In 2008, the Canadian Society of Nephrology (CSN) published clinical practice guidelines for the care of CKD patients. Their release highlighted two main issues. First, the impact of the guidelines was attenuated given limited formal linkages between the CSN Clinical Practice Guideline Group, kidney researchers, decision makers and knowledge users such as primary care users, regional renal programs, and the Kidney Foundation of Canada. Second, the guidelines identified many areas where further knowledge is required to guide care. A network of Canadian kidney researchers could address both of these limitations but such a network currently does not exist. We will create a network linking Canadian kidney disease guideline producers, knowledge translation specialists and knowledge users. The core mandate of this network will be to produce clinical practice guidelines, disseminate the findings to primary care physicians, and ensure that the recommendations are adopted in clinical practice to improve the care of patients with CKD. To ensure that our network is relevant and responsive to the needs of knowledge users, our network will partner with key knowledge users and all relevant partners in kidney health.