June 1, 2023

[Brussels, Belgium] At the 60^th Congress of the European Renal Association (ERA) in Milan, Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) will host a gala reception to celebrate its 20-year history, including ten years as an independent international organization. In attendance will be hundreds of kidney disease experts who have volunteered their time in KDIGO Guideline Work Groups, Controversies Conferences, and implementation programs.

Over the past decade, KDIGO has become the leading organization developing and disseminating global clinical practice guidelines on kidney health and disease. KDIGO guidelines are a widely-used and respected resource for practicing kidney care and have been translated into over a dozen languages.

KDIGO Co-Chair Wolfgang Winkelmayer said, “KDIGO has assumed an important and trusted role in the global nephrology community. Our guidelines and conference reports have provided rigorously-vetted recommendations, actionable practice points, and insightful observations that have furthered clinical practice and substantiated further research efforts.”

Dr. Winkelmayer continued, “We continue to launch new initiatives for clinicians across the world, including exciting conferences on dialysis care and kidney precision medicine. We have a specific focus on the intersection between kidney and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The forthcoming update of the KDIGO Guideline on the Diagnosis and Management of Chronic Kidney Disease includes a review of evidence on mitigating cardiovascular complications in CKD.”

Building upon the success of the KDIGO CVD Controversies Conference series, which focused on cardiovascular events and conditions in persons with CKD, the KDIGO 2023 CKD Guideline Update includes evidence-based recommendations and practice points aimed at reducing the unacceptably high rate of cardiovascular events. The guideline also has an extensive section on cardiovascular complications in CKD. It will be available for public review in mid-June. Public review is an essential component of the KDIGO guideline development process, ensuring transparency and broad stakeholder engagement. All comments received are provided to the Work Group for review and consideration.

KDIGO’s next focus on cardiovascular disease will be a Controversies Conference on Heart Failure and CKD, which will build on a previous conference held in 2017. A great deal of new evidence has emerged since that time, and KDIGO anticipates subsequently launching a formal clinical practice guideline. Clinical practice guideline development is a rigorous process, as codified in the KDIGO Methods Manual, and begins by appointing a multidisciplinary Guideline Work Group that will include patients, methodologists, clinicians, and scientists; contracting with an independent expert Evidence Review Team; and inviting broad input through two periods of public review.

According to KDIGO Co-Chair Michel Jadoul, “KDIGO’s rigorous and transparent methodology sets our guidelines apart. We have a Methods Committee, chaired by Marcello Tonelli, which has developed a Methods Manual now available on our website. Anyone can view our process and see the intricate steps involved in the systematic review and appraisal of the evidence; grading of the evidence and recommendations; and the formulation of text and figures, with two rounds of public review for all stakeholders to provide their input.”

Dr. Jadoul added, “KDIGO has two decades of experience in guideline development, before and after independence. That experience and rigorous process come together to produce not only valuable guidance to aid decision making and improve outcomes for our patients but also research agendas that help to advance nephrology research.”

KDIGO Co-Chair Morgan Grams said, “This is an exciting time for KDIGO and for all of us in nephrology. I am thrilled to facilitate the development and implementation of kidney guidelines and very much support our priority to provide guidance in cardiovascular disease, a core need in nephrology. The contributions by KDIGO and the enormous number of global volunteers are exceptionally important in our field and for our patients.”