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Nearly two years after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) announced the first-ever disease-specific innovation model, the first performance period of the ESRD Seamless Care Organizations (ESCO) program is slated to begin in January 2015. Large Dialysis Organization (LDO)-based ESCOs will be the first to participate in the program, followed by ESCOs operated by Small Dialysis Organizations (SDOs) in July 2015. Speaking at a meeting of the Council of Medical Subspecialty Societies in late November 2014, CMMI Seamless Care Models Group Director Hoangmai Phan, MD, confirmed the early 2015 launch date.
But as 2014 wound to a close,
In an attempt to control Medicare spending on physicians’ fees, Congress enacted the SGR formula in 1997. Although it has called for dramatic reductions in payments over the past decade, each year Congress has temporarily overridden the cuts and kept the SGR in place. According to the formula, if no changes are
Suppose you’re seeing a new patient with kidney disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. What if you could order a single lab test that would assess all known gene variants that might affect his response to common drugs—not just medications he’s currently taking, but also common drugs that may be prescribed in the future? That’s the approach being studied by The University of Chicago’s Center for Personalized Therapeutics and other centers nationwide.
The goal is to develop a “medical system model” to overcome barriers to personalized medicine, incorporating patient-specific pharmacogenomic results into everyday patient consultations. The model is being
The dust is still settling from the election of November 4, 2014, when Republicans gained control of both chambers of Congress. Whether a Republican Congress and a Democratic administration can work together to address the many domestic and foreign challenges confronting the country today is one of the biggest questions as we head into 2015.
One thing most Democrats and Republicans agree on, though, is that medical research is one of the smartest investments the United States can make. Funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the global leader in medical research, creates jobs, drives the economy, and most
Insights from recent research into the nephrology workforce will inform discussions about nephrology’s future in 2015. Researchers from George Washington University (GWU) will continue their collaboration with the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and expand upon their initial nephrology workforce research. Discussion of workforce trends and developments in the specialty is timely and has become more urgent after results of the Match for appointment year (AY) 2015–2016 were released on December 3, 2014.
In February 2014, ASN Council approved 50 initiatives to increase interest in nephrology careers among medical students and residents. Included was an analysis of
Although last fall’s anxiety about the spread of the Ebola epidemic has receded, the outbreak continues in Africa. The possibility that U.S. hospitals will be treating more Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases cannot be discounted, and advance preparation is the key to coping with any infectious disease.
EVD treatment calls for special protocols—one in particular is the need to perform renal replacement therapy (RRT) in a biocontainment room. Several guidelines and resources have already appeared, including a proposal in an article, “Successful Delivery of RRT in Ebola Virus Disease,” in the
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasingly recognized as a growing global challenge, affecting up to 16 percent of the adult population (
The therapy of proliferative lupus nephritis (LN) is generally divided into an initial phase of high-intensity immunosuppression to induce prompt clinical improvement, followed by a maintenance phase of lower-intensity immunosuppression to consolidate improvement into remission. Induction most often lasts 3 to 6 months, but maintenance lasts years and often indefinitely. The average duration of maintenance therapy in several recent randomized clinical trials was 3.5 years but ranged beyond 5 years. In fact, one of the most difficult management decisions in the care of LN patients is how long to continue maintenance immunosuppression. The most recent Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes
The main goal of the Nephrotic Syndrome Study Network, NEPTUNE, is to build a translational research infrastructure for diseases manifesting as nephrotic syndrome (NS), which includes focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), minimal change disease (MCD), and membranous nephropathy (MN) (
The treatment of idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) has been a matter of discussion for many years. Given the variable clinical course and potential toxicity of current regimens, the main issue nephrologists face at the moment are who to treat and with what regimen. Conservative management is justified for patients with subnephrotic proteinuria, inasmuch as spontaneous remission occurs more frequently in these patients, and their long-term prognosis is usually excellent.
By contrast, patients with nephrotic syndrome (NS) may show a progression to ESRD and are more frequently affected by any of several extrarenal complications. Thus, initiation of specific therapy is indicated
