Chronic Kidney Disease

The clinical faculty group at the Yale Section of Nephrology have been active in increasing awareness of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) among primary care providers. This is in concordance with a national effort in this regard, being lead by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), at the National Institute of Health through the National Kidney Disease Education Program (http://www.nkdep.nih.gov). Past and present efforts at Yale are summarized below:

• Creation of a CKD web site in 2001 for Primary Care Providers, supported by a grant from the National Kidney Foundation of Connecticut. The web site has now been replaced by a series of publications on CKD. (Dr's Ali Abu-Alfa and Robert Reilly). Additional resources can be found at http://www.nkf.org.

• Organization of a Yale accredited-CME conference on CKD for primary care providers in Connecticut, co-sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation of Connecticut, October 2001, Southbury, CT. (Dr's Ali Abu-Alfa and Susan Crowley)

• Organization of a symposium on CKD for primary care providers at the Veterans Administration - Connecticut Medical Center, June 2002, West Haven, CT (Dr's Susan Crowley and Aldo Peixoto)

• Presentations at regional conferences as well as medical grand rounds and fellow/resident teaching conferences at Yale and other affiliated hospitals in Connecticut. (Dr's Ali Abu-Alfa, Susan Crowley, Richard Formica, Rex Mahnensmith, Mark Perazella, Aldo Peixoto and Robert Reilly)

• Committee membership on the VA/DoD National CKD CPG Task Force (Dr Susan Crowley) (http://www.oqp.med.va.gov/cpg/ESRD/ESRD_Base.htm)

• Organizing and speaker roles in a conference on hypertension for primary care providers, entitled "Will the New JNC Guidelines Change Your Way of Treating Patients with Hypertension? The Who, What, When, Where and Why of Hypertension in 2003", organized by Dr John F. D'Avella (Hartford Hospital) and sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation of Connecticut, Meriden CT, October 2003. (Dr Aldo Peixoto).

• Implementation of automatic reporting of estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) using the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease Equation (MDRD) on laboratory reports of creatinine values, as recommended by the National Kidney Disease Education Program (NKDEP) (Dr's Ali Abu-Alfa, Mark Perazella in collaboration with Dr Richard Donabedian, Department of Laboratory Medicine).