Primary Care
Primary care providers have a significant influence on their patients’ participation in the early detection and prevention of chronic kidney disease. They also provide much-needed care and support for people with chronic kidney disease and their families throughout their kidney care journey.
Purpose
We equip primary care providers with tools to help them recognize early signs of chronic kidney disease, and to identify and manage people at risk to reduce their chances of developing end-stage kidney disease.
Major Initiative
KidneyWise Toolkit – Developed in 2015 and updated in 2018, this evidence-informed toolkit supports primary care providers to identify, detect and manage people with early stages of chronic kidney disease. It also recommends when to refer to nephrology for assessment.
Why Our Work in Primary Care is Important
- For someone at risk of chronic kidney disease, receiving proper primary care is critical to delay or prevent the loss of kidney function and the need for renal replacement therapy such as dialysis or a kidney transplant.
- Early detection of chronic kidney disease can reduce the risk of other conditions that may happen at the same time, particularly heart disease.[1]
- A 2017 study showed that people with early stages of chronic kidney disease are generally cared for by primary care providers who do not know the guidelines for care for those people.[2]
- People with early stage kidney disease often do not show any symptoms, so their disease is not diagnosed until it is at an advanced stage.[3]