Research Awards Recipients

General Audience Summary

Background: Kidney disease affects many people and is costly. Kidney care in Ontario costs an estimated 650 million dollars per year. In Ontario, patients with low kidney function are cared for in specialty clinics called Multi-care Kidney Clinics. These kidney clinics have a team of health professionals that includes kidney doctors, nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, and social workers. The goal of Multi-care Kidney Clinics is to improve patient health, protect kidney function, and better prepare patients for dialysis and kidney transplant. Prior to 2016, any patient with kidney function estimated at 30% or lower could receive care in a Multi-care Kidney Clinic. In April 2016, the Ontario Government changed what types of patients could be followed in Multi-care Kidney Clinics. Patients now need to have lower kidney function or a higher risk of kidney failure to receive care in these specialty clinics. Our study will look at how this change affected the health of patients with low kidney function.

Methods: We have access to information collected from all healthcare visits across Ontario. We expect to study approximately 70,000 patients with low kidney function (30% or lower) followed by a kidney doctor. We will look at patient health outcomes such as preparation for dialysis, proper medication use, kidney function and hospital admissions. We will measure these outcomes both before and after April 2016 (when the change in patient access to Multi-care Kidney Clinics occurred). If a change in patient outcomes is seen after April 2016, this suggests that restricting access to Multi-care Kidney Clinics affected patient health.

Importance to patient care: Patients, doctors and healthcare administrators have asked that this research be done. Our results will guide future changes to Multi-care Kidney Clinic access in Ontario. However, our study results are also relevant to other provinces with similar types of kidney clinics. The information gained from this study will be shared across Canada and internationally. The results of this research will help ensure that patients with low kidney function have access to the right care.