Sensing Savvy

(Gleaned from the 2018 USRDS Annual Data Report: Volume II: Chapter 6)

Kidney transplantation is the renal replacement therapy (RRP) of choice for the majority of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Successful kidney transplantation is associated with improved survival, improved quality of life, and healthcare cost savings when compared to dialysis. In 2014, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network conducted major revisions of the kidney allocation system in order to reduce discards of potentially usable donor kidneys, decrease access disparities, and decrease unrealized life-years from the available organ supply. Changes included the following:

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in July  designed to “improve the lives of Americans suffering from kidney disease, expand options for American patients, and reduce healthcare costs.”

Fresenius Invests in BioIntelliSense

Fresenius Medical Care North America has invested in BioIntelliSense, a remote, continuous health monitoring data platform that provides predictive analytics, clinical insights and real-time data through a medical-grade sensor. With its investment, Fresenius hopes “to improve monitoring, treatment and outcomes for patients with kidney disease.”

Source: Nephrology News & Issues

(Gleaned from 2018 USRDA Data Volume 2: ESRD in the United States)

Prevalence is the ratio of the total number of patients diagnosed and getting treatment of a disease to the total population. It tells how widespread a disease is in a population.

Hospitals in the United States are failing to meet the minimum surgical safety standards for certain high-risk procedures. 
In fact, the majority of hospitals in the U.S. fail to meet hospital or surgeon volume standards, deeming them unsafe. This is according to a study from nonprofit organization Leapfrog, a watchdog group for healthcare purchasers.

The report analyzed data from a 2018 survey of more than 1,300 hospitals. Under the guidance of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine, experts at Leapfrog made these discoveries:

(Gleaned from the 2018 USRDS Annual Data Report: Volume 1, Chapter 4: www.usrds.org)

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death in the United States and most other developed countries. It accounts for approximately 39 percent of deaths among those on dialysis. Among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), death from CVD is far more common than progression to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). CKD has been identified as an independent risk factor for CVD, and arguably should be recognized as a coronary disease risk equivalent, similar to diabetes mellitus (DM). The complex relationship between CVD and kidney disease is thought to be due to shared traditional risk factors, such as DM, hypertension (HTN), physical inactivity, left ventricular hypertrophy, smoking, family history and abnormal lipid levels in the blood.

Surgical training is demanding and stressful. It’s so stressful, in fact, that nearly 70% of surgical residents report feelings of burnout. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), found that without adequate coping skills, overwhelming stress among surgeons can cause performance deficits, surgical errors and poor professionalism.

No individual data source exists that captures the disease experiences of all Americans who live with kidney disease. A large proportion of the USRDS information is drawn from Medicare beneficiaries. However, they are not a nationally representative population. Since 2017, two new data sources have been utilized that have expanded the USRDS’s coverage of the U.S. population.

(Gleaned from the 2018 USRDS Annual Data Report: Volume II: Chapter 3)

Clinical practice guidelines from the National Kidney Foundation in 2006 recommend an autogenous arteriovenous (AV) fistula as the preferred vascular access for hemodialysis. Central venous catheters are associated with higher risks of death, infection and cardiovascular events than other types of vascular access. Patients with a usable AV fistula exhibit the lowest risks for these events.

When a person (or their loved one) becomes ill or injured, they have several choices for where they’ll receive the care they need. In addition to traditional physician’s offices and emergency rooms, patients today can also select from urgent care facilities, retail clinics, telemedicine solutions and home health visits.

To determine how patients and their families choose care settings, the University of California Irvine surveyed more than 5,000 employees and published an analysis in Health Services Research. The survey included 10 clinical scenarios ranging in severity, and participants were asked to select their preferred care setting for each.

Here are a few key findings you need to know.