Capacity of Kidney Care in Canada: Identifying Barriers and Opportunities

Evaluation of Virtual Care in Kidney Transplant Recipients in the Early Posttransplant Period

BACKGROUND

Though virtual care was widely adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, evidence to support its use in kidney transplant recipients early after transplantation is limited.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective cohort study comparing post kidney transplant outcomes in patients who received in-person transplant care before the COVID-19 pandemic with those who received mainly virtual transplant care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The usual-care group included 69 patients who received a kidney transplant from March 1, 2019 to September 1, 2019, and the virtual-care group included 64 patients who received a kidney transplant from September 1, 2020 to March 1, 2021.

RESULTS

At 6 months, five patients in the usual-care group and three patients in the virtual-care group died. There was one graft loss and one episode of acute rejection in the usual-care group, and two episodes of acute rejection in the virtual-care group (p = 0.60). Estimated glomerular filtration rate was higher for patients in the virtual-care group (59 mL/min/1.73 m2 vs. 52 mL/min/1.73 m2, p = 0.046) and serum creatinine was not different (138 µmol/L vs. 127 µmol/L, p = 0.27). There was no difference in mean blood pressure or hospitalizations.

CONCLUSION

Outcomes were similar among recipients of a kidney transplant prior to the COVID-19 pandemic when care was mainly in person and during the pandemic when care was mainly virtual, without a signal of harm. Patient and donor selection may have led to unmeasured differences between groups.

Overview of global healthcare policies for patients with chronic kidney disease: an integrative literature review

INTRODUCTION

Chronic kidney disease is a progressive and irreversible loss of kidney function and considerably affects the lives of patients and their families. Its high incidence necessitates efficient public policies for prevention and treatment. However, policies for chronic kidney disease education and awareness are scarce.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate global public policies for the prevention and treatment of chronic kidney disease adopted in various regions, aiming to comprehend the differences between various models.

METHODS

This integrative review followed PRISMA recommendations and included papers published between 2016 and 2021 across several databases.

RESULTS

The 44 selected articles were categorized into three themes: structural and financial aspects of the organization of renal healthcare, access to renal healthcare or management of chronic kidney disease, and coping strategies for chronic kidney disease or kidney health. Critical analysis of the papers revealed global neglect of kidney disease in political agendas. Considerable policy variations exist between different countries and regions of the same country. Our research highlighted that free and universal health coverage, especially for the most vulnerable patients, is crucial for accessing treatment owing to the prohibitively high treatment costs.

CONCLUSION

Social, economic, and ethnic inequalities strongly correlate with disease occurrence, primarily affecting minority groups who lack health support, especially for the prevention and treatment of chronic kidney disease.

Enhancing primary care capacity in chronic kidney disease management: a quality improvement educational initiative

BACKGROUND

Gaps in identification, medical management and appropriate referral for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are evident.

OBJECTIVE

We designed and implemented an interactive educational intervention (accredited workshop) to improve primary care providers' awareness of tools to support guideline-concordant CKD management.

DESIGN

We used the Kern method to design the educational intervention and targeted the accredited workshops to primary care team members (physicians, nurses and allied health) in Alberta, Canada. We conducted anonymous pre-workshop and post-workshop surveys to identify practice-specific barriers to care, identify potential solutions, and evaluate provider confidence pre-intervention and post-intervention. We used non-parametric statistics to analyse Likert-type survey data and descriptive content analysis to categorise responses to open-ended survey questions.

RESULTS

We delivered 12 workshops to 114 providers from September 2017 through March 2019. Significant improvements (p<0.001) in confidence to appropriately identify, manage and refer patients with CKD were observed. Participants identified several patient-level, provider-level, and system-level barriers and potential solutions to care for patients with CKD; the majority of these barriers were addressed in the interactive workshop.

CONCLUSIONS

The Kern model was an effective methodology to design and implement an educational intervention to improve providers' confidence in managing patients with CKD in primary care. Future research is needed to determine if these perceived knowledge and confidence improvements affect patient outcomes and whether improvements are sustained long term.

International Society of Nephrology Global Kidney Health Atlas: structures, organization, and services for the management of kidney failure in North America and the Caribbean

The International Society of Nephrology established the Global Kidney Health Atlas project to define the global capacity for kidney replacement therapy and conservative kidney care, and this second iteration was to describe the availability, accessibility, quality, and affordability of kidney failure (KF) care worldwide. This report presents results for the International Society of Nephrology North America and the Caribbean region. Relative to other regions, the North America and Caribbean region had better infrastructure and funding for health care and more health care workers relative to the population. Various essential medicines were also more available and accessible. There was substantial variation in the prevalence of treated KF in the region, ranging from 137.4 per million population (pmp) in Jamaica to 2196 pmp in the United States. A mix of public and private funding systems cover costs for nondialysis chronic kidney disease care in 60% of countries and for dialysis in 70% of countries. Although the median number of nephrologists is 18.1 (interquartile range, 15.3-29.5) pmp, which is approximately twice the global median of 9.9 (interquartile range, 1.2-22.7) pmp, some countries reported shortages of other health care workers. Dialysis was available in all countries, but peritoneal dialysis was underutilized and unavailable in Barbados, Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos. Kidney transplantation was primarily available in Canada and the United States. Economic factors were the major barriers to optimal KF care in the Caribbean countries, and few countries in the region have chronic kidney disease-specific national health care policies. To address regional gaps in KF care delivery, efforts should be directed toward augmenting the workforce, improving the monitoring and reporting of kidney replacement therapy indicators, and implementing noncommunicable disease and chronic kidney disease-specific policies in all countries.