Population Health for CKD and Diabetes: Lessons From the Indian Health Service

摘要

Despite extensive clinical guidelines, innovative efforts to improve care, and well-funded efforts to raise awareness, limited progress has been made in reducing the burden of kidney disease in the United States, and prevalence continues to rise worldwide. The Indian Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported a 54% decrease in the incidence of kidney failure among American Indian and Alaska Native people with diabetes. This decrease in ESRD incidence was associated with a population-based approach to diabetes care based in the community and the primary clinical setting. The effort focused on integrating better care for kidney disease within the context of routine diabetes care. While the American Indian population and the Indian Health Service may be unfamiliar to many clinicians and health system administrators, the demonstration that simple evidence-based interventions implemented in a comprehensive and consistent way can reduce the burden of ESRD suggests that population-based approaches to chronic disease offer significant potential benefits. Large pragmatic trials may offer the best way to rigorously test this hypothesis.