Odisha Samaya

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The Renal Physicians Association (RPA) has planned its plenary sessions and workshops at its 2015 annual meeting to support its role as the recognized advocate for excellence in nephrology practice, representing and serving the interests of nephrology practitioners in their pursuit and delivery of quality renal health care.

In addition to the valuable updates provided on the latest developments affecting nephrology practice from the legislative, executive and administrative branches of government, speakers will address topics important to dialysis facility medical directors, opportunities for building strategic relationships to strengthen nephrology practices, and patient engagement opportunities to improve practice performance.

At the conference, Louise Aronson, MD, a geriatrics professor at UC Davis and author of the book, “A History of the Present Illness”, will present the Louis Diamond Lecture. Dr. Aronson uses story telling and narratives as an effective form of communication to engage patients in their care, and her talk entitled, “Improving Health Care One Patient at a Time” will challenge nephrology practitioners to rethink care delivery approaches.

Several sessions will focus on success factors for nephrology practices and how to prepare for participation in Medicare performance incentive programs such as the Physician Quality Reporting System  and Meaningful Use. Building relationships with primary care physicians, health systems and others will be critical to position practices for success in new value-based care models, such as accountable care organizations and others. Representatives from kidney care companies and health systems will share their perspectives on this topic. For those considering joint ventures, experts will address questions and concerns.

The Conference

Annual meeting

Renal Physicians Association

March 19-22 (includes pre-conference workshops)

Baltimore Hilton

To register and for program information, go to www.renalmd.org

At the individual nephrologist level, experts will share strategies for meeting the requirements for Maintenance of Certification and benchmarking for the value based payment modifier. With all of the additional regulatory requirements placed on practitioners in addition to their delivery of high quality kidney care, this meeting will address how to maintain the optimal work/life balance to avoid burnout and offer unique perspectives from female and young nephrologists.

The important and diverse roles of the dialysis facility medical director will also be addressed. What are the keys to effective leadership of the kidney care team? How can the medical director insure patient safety, manage difficult patients, and maximize patient engagement in their care? These questions will be answered to assist nephrologists with fulfilling their responsibilities as medical directors.

The last day of the meeting has a more clinical focus where speakers will review lessons learned from treating Ebola-related acute kidney injury, share what is new (and on the not-too-distant horizon) that may revolutionize vascular access care, and present the most important clinical trials and research that impacted nephrology patient care in 2014. The concluding session will provide attendees with the first results from a powerful, new data collaboration in ESRD patient care – the PEER Kidney Care Initiative.

The RPA annual meeting provides nephrologists and practice administrators an opportunity to exchange ideas for improving care delivery and patient outcomes, obtain solutions to practice challenges, and gain practical tools and resources to implement to enhance practice performance. It is critical for nephrology practitioners to attend to better understand the environmental changes affecting the specialty and learn how to succeed within the regulatory and legislative parameters.

Special pre-conference RPA workshops

For those who come one day early, the RPA is hosting three pre-Conference workshops.

• A Maintenance of Certification Learning Session will provide participants with 10 points in ABIM’s Self-Evaluation of Medical Knowledge (Part II) requirement.
• RPA is also holding its annual workshop for renal fellows. Transitioning from Training to Practice will equip fellows with knowledge about practice structure, employment models, contracts, coding and billing requirements – and other topics to prepare them to find the right practice situation in which to begin their career. This workshop is free for fellows and limited travel grants are available.
• Fundamentals of Nephrology Coding and Billing will provide attendees with a full day of nephrology specific coding information geared to administrators, billing staff, and practitioners who must comply with complex coding questions on a daily basis.

The workshops will be held on March 19.

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In a study, 6.6% of women had CKD that could not be attributed to diabetes, hypertension, or glomerulopathy.

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) mortality in El Salvador and Nicaragua is 4 times higher than anywhere else in the world. Studies have shown male agricultural workers, such as sugar cane harvesters, suffer and die from CKD at relatively early ages. Now a pioneering study of CKD in Salvadoran women further describes risk factors associated with the health crisis.

“Our research tends to support the hypothesis emerging from other studies, that the most plausible cause is a multifactorial one where an existing environmental and occupational nephrotoxic exposure is compounded by agrochemicals and heavy metal contamination which may constitute the trigger event,” stated Carlos M. Orantes Navarro, MD, of the Ministry of Health in San Salvador, and colleagues.

For the study, the investigators assessed CKD and its risk factors in 1,412 women from 1,306 families in 3 disadvantaged agricultural communities in El Salvador. Only 15% of the women were agricultural workers themselves.

According to results published online by Clinical Nephrology, CKD developed in 14% of women. About 9% had diabetes, 23% hypertension, 21% obesity, and 31% central obesity. Many women also had strong family histories of CKD, diabetes, and/or hypertension, ranging from 16 to 32%.

Remarkably, 6.6% of women had CKD as a result of non-traditional causes. “In our study, the low frequency of urinary renal damage markers may suggest the possibility of primary tubulointerstitial damage rather than primary glomerular damage,” according to the researchers.

About a third of women, for example, had contact with agricultural chemicals, including non-occupational exposure by inhalation, ingestion, or skin contact. Investigators identified 11 different chemicals, some pesticides, which are more prevalent in the region compared with other parts of the world. In addition, 84% of women took NSAIDs and 52% used medicinal plant products.

Future research may reveal and clarify the characteristics of CKD in this region, which too often proves a life-threatening problem.

1. Orantes Navarro, CM, et al. Published online by Clinical Nephrology; doi: 10.5414/CNP83S024.

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Daijiworld.com

Fathima Health Foundation launches Mangaluru Dialysis Club Daijiworld.com Mangaluru, Mar 11: Fathima Health Foundation in collaboration with Indiana Hospital has launched Mangaluru Dialysis Club (MDC) for the benefit of patients suffering from renal failure. This was revealed at a press meet held here on Wednesday March 11.

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