(Brussels, Belgium) – – – Following a major global conference on guideline implementation in low and middle income countries (LMICs), KDIGO has re-affirmed its commitment to making its guideline and conference recommendations more useable in countries with high demand and limited resources.

The KDIGO Implementation Strategies Conference on Understanding Needs in Low and Middle Income Countries was held in Bangkok, Thailand on June 18 to 21, 2015 under the leadership of Vivek Jha, India and Goce Spasovski, Macedonia. More than 70 nephrology clinicians and public health experts spent three days discussing issues relevant to improving care in LMICs and developing new strategies for KDIGO. The conference report from the meeting is being developed by its Steering Committee and will be submitted to Kidney International in the next few months.

KDIGO is a global guideline development not-for-profit organization headquartered in Brussels that develops and implements recommendations from its guidelines and conferences. Global guidelines are written in English and then translated into numerous other languages with adaptations for local circumstances.

Bert Kasiske, KDIGO co-chair said, “This conference was truly exciting for the prospect of ensuring KDIGO recommendations can be used throughout the world, even in difficult economic or resource-constrained environments. We asked these experts to guide us in making sure that KDIGO produces usable, relevant and culturally sensitive documents.   In that regard, this conference was a major success.”

Physicians from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America were present. David Peiris of the George Institute in Sydney, Australia and Brenda Hemmelgarn of the University of Alberta, Canada presented guidance they had developed on the theory of evidence implementation for clinical practice use. Allan Collins, University of Minnesota, USA and Gregorio Obrador, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico presented experiences with improving government understanding and appreciation of the burdens associated with kidney disease.

Among others, these steps were suggested to KDIGO: translate recommendations into local languages; develop tools to accompany the recommendations that are easily used by physicians and other health care workers; disseminate materials electronically; provide detailed information that can be used to influence government policy; assist local experts in gathering local data on kidney disease in their countries; and make summaries that are simple and easy to use in the clinical setting.

David Wheeler, KDIGO co-chair reported that, “KDIGO makes its resources available around the world free of charge, electronically accessible and regularly updated. We now plan to provide slide sets, speaker kits, algorithms, clinical guides and priority suggestions with every publication. We hope that these tools will be helpful in adapting, for example, guideline recommendations to fit a country’s specific resource limitations.”

Dr. Wheeler added, “KDIGO is committed to improving outcomes for patients, not simply by publishing. We want to assist in clinical decision making with simple ideas that can be used by patients and their doctors when discussing the next steps in treatment.”

Kidney disease is a common, harmful and treatable condition that is prevalent all over the world. According to 2005 estimates from World Health Organization, chronic kidney disease caused 35 million deaths and more than 80% of these deaths occurred in LMICs. It also is a major burden as patients progress through early stages where proper treatment could save lives and money.

As a global guideline organization, KDIGO seeks to arm local practitioners with the latest global science translated into recommendations they can use. This conference was specifically designed to focus on countries without sufficient resources, finances and manpower to manage the burden of kidney disease. KDIGO will implement this new focus on LMICs throughout its program of work in the coming years.

For further information please contact KDIGO at [email protected].

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