The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) with release of a KDOQI 20th Anniversary Video. The video highlights the importance of the guidelines to kidney patient care and includes interviews with some of the most prominent nephrologists, many of whom worked on the original DOQI and KDOQI guidelines.

NKF published its first evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in nephrology under the Dialysis Outcomes Quality Initiative (DOQI) banner in 1997. DOQI was soon expanded to KDOQI as the need to treat kidney disease earlier to improve outcomes for all patients with kidney disease was recognized.

Now, 20 years later, NKF has published 18 sets of KDOQI guidelines addressing early identification, staging/classification, prevention and management of kidney disease and related conditions, as well as recommendations for the optimization of renal replacement therapy. 

The face of kidney patient care over the last 20 years through these NKF guidelines:

• Since introduction of the Guidelines, the mortality rate of U.S. end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients has declined by 30%; the mortality rate in the general dialysis population has declined by 26%.

• In 2002, the Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Guidelines provided the first standard definition and classification system for kidney disease based upon its severity. This provided better communication about the disease through use of a common language and is used to define benchmarks and goals to improve outcomes across all stages of CKD.

• The original Vascular Access Guidelines highlighted the benefits of early placement of an arteriovenous fistula to reduce the complications and increased mortality associated with grafts and fistulas.