Dear Colleague,
Do you know that 100 million people suffer from Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in Europe? It will become the fifth leading cause of death globally by 2040. Ageing, poor diet, smoking, physical inactivity, obesity and excess salt contribute greatly to the development of CKD.
Though occurring regularly in comorbidity with other diseases, CKD is a specific entity with its own pathophysiology in need of specific therapeutic approach. The disease usually develops slowly, with no initial symptoms and therefor is mostly detected too late, but can progress to total loss of kidney function. It has a major impact on patients’ quality of life by causing frequent complications, necessitating a high drug intake and interventions such as dialysis and kidney transplant.
The sooner CKD is detected, the better. The European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) wants to develop a CODE for CKD Prevention & Screening and GPs/FDs play a major role in this. The first step in initiating this primary care friendly CODE is to identify if/how screening is done by GP’s at this moment throughout Europe.
Together with the WONCA Europe we would like to invite you to fill out the following survey https://www.survio.com/survey/d/EKHA-screening-survey-eu-gp to understand the CKD detection/screening in your current practice. Your input is highly valued and important for the prevention of progression of kidney disease. The survey will take approximately 10 minutes.
Thank you very much for your time and collaboration!
Prof. Em Raymond Vanholder
EKHA President
www.ekha.eu
Prof. Shlomo Vinker
Wonca Europe President