Sensing Savvy

The National Kidney Federation (NKF) is the largest kidney patient association in the United Kingdom. The NKF entered the United Kingdom’s renal landscape in 1979 as a national organization when renal patients realized that individual Kidney Patient Associations (KPAs) needed to band together to have their voices heard in concert. While the current 69 KPAs remain both the ears and the eyes of the NKF, end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients or their caregivers serve as the NKF’s officers, members of its executive committee and its workforce.

On June 22nd, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it has permitted the marketing of two catheter-based devices designed to create a connection to veins and arteries in patients with chronic kidney disease who need hemodialysis.

As a physician, you’ve likely faced some ethical dilemmas throughout your career. These decisions can not only have an impact on the patient’s life but yours as well. Medscape surveyed over 5,000 physicians in varying specialties to see how they felt about common ethical issues. Here is a look at four interesting statistics from that report.

Doctor-patient communication plays a big role in how compliant a patient is with treatment and  his or her outcomes. And identifying and understanding why a patient has made an appointment can encourage and make doctor-patient communication easier. However, recent research has revealed that physicians only ask patients what brings them in about 36 percent of the time, and when they do, it takes about 11 seconds for them to interrupt the patient.

Multiple Comorbidities Increases Risk of Early Dialysis Initiation
Patients who have CKD along with other comorbidities face an increased risk of early dialysis initiation, researchers found. Smoking, older age and proteinuria significantly increased the risk for  two or more comorbidities. The most common comorbidities found in these patients are diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia.

It’s been 10 years since the World Health Organization (WHO) released its surgical care checklist tools to help improve outcomes and decrease postoperative mortality rate. Now, the checklists are receiving a few updates.

Diabetes: Diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure. The results of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) show that moderate exercise, a healthier diet, and weight reduction can prevent the development of type 2 diabetes in persons at risk.

In November, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) issues their final physician payment rule for 2019. Now that the new year is underway, you’ll likely begin noticing the impact of various changes laid out by the new rule. 

Here are the top four points about CMS’ final physician payment rule to know:

A working vascular access is the lifeline for a hemodialysis patient. It is also an Achilles heel, for when it fails, another access (frequently a catheter) must be quickly placed for life preserving hemodialysis to continue. While an arteriovenous fistula (a natural conduit connecting an artery and a vein) is the preferred vascular access, expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) synthetic grafts are frequently used as the second choice for a vascular access, before placing a catheter.

What’s your No. 1 goal for patient care? As a nephrologist or nephrology care professional, it’s likely keeping your patients alive. But, according to a recent study performed at the Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai, NY, many patients have a different leading objective.