Health registry could transform chronic kidney disease care

A registry of health care information on patients with mild to moderate chronic kidney disease (CKD) could help physicians improve care for affected individuals, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The results suggest that officials could use such a registry to develop a national surveillance system to identify and track various aspects of CKD.

The incidence and health care costs of CKD are growing. A national reporting system that collects health care details on dialysis patients and kidney transplant patients across the United States has helped clinicians and researchers identify ways to improve advanced kidney disease patients' quality of care. No such nationwide database exists for patients with mild to moderate stages of CKD who do not yet require dialysis.

Sankar Navaneethan, MD (Cleveland Clinic) and his colleagues recently developed a kidney disease registry at the Cleveland Clinic based on electronic health care records that could serve as a model for the rest of the country.

The registry at the Cleveland Clinic houses information on the demographics, medical conditions, laboratory details, medications, and other characteristics of 57,276 CKD patients. The investigators verified the information collected in the registry and noted that it is reliable for helping physicians follow the course of disease in patients as they progress from early to later stages of CKD. The registry could also help clinicians evaluate the effectiveness of various treatment strategies in these patients. "This registry, which will interface with other national registries, is uniquely designed to track the management of CKD over the entire care spectrum, ranging from the primary care environment to therapy with dialysis or transplantation," said Dr. Navaneethan.