Nephrology Guideline Database

Guideline Coordination Initiative

Introduction

This web page is a project of KDIGO, whose aim is to promote coordination, collaboration and integration of initiatives to improve the care of CKD patients by developing and implementing clinical practice guidelines worldwide. It establishes an interactive, easily accessible database of existing clinical practice guidelines in nephrology, which will be used as a tool to harmonize and standardize disparate guideline recommendations.

To do this, comparative tables of recommended guideline targets for various physiological parameters have been compiled and displayed here under “Compare Guidelines”. Subsequently, representatives of work groups that developed the guidelines have provided a brief report on the rationale for defining targets different from those recommended in other guidelines. Controversies conferences will be organized subsequently to bring together selected international experts to explore the possibility of reaching a consensus in adopting uniform targets worldwide.

KDIGO is committed to the principle that the development of guidelines is merely a first step, with the final aim being their translation into clinical practice to improve outcomes. To this end, successful implementation strategies and tools developed internationally will be posted on this web page. These could be adopted with or without modification at local levels worldwide.

This process is progressing stepwise. As a beginning, data from guidelines developed by the following sources were selected: the Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (K/DOQI); the Caring for Australians with Renal Impairment (CARI); the European Best Practice Guidelines (EBPG); the United Kingdom Renal Association; and the Canadian Society of Nephrology. A brief overview of each of these guidelines is provided in the “Guideline Overviews” section. It is the intent of KDIGO to expand the scope of the website by the gradual addition of guidelines developed in other countries, written in English or other languages. The principal requirement for inclusion would be that they be evidence-based, the methodology used in developing them explicitly stated and their evidence reports accessible. The material now posted on the page is a first step in an evolutionary process that is meant to be inclusive and encompassing.