What I tell my patients about .....

I always find these articles from the British Journal of Renal Medicine very informative and I was therefore delighted to see that they are now available free of charge to download from http://www.bjrm.co.uk/ thanks to the sponsorship of SHIRE.
The articles go back over 10 years. Many are still very relevant. Recent pieces in the series include a piece by Neil Turner (Professor of Nephrology in Edinburgh), explaining what Renal Patient View can do now and what it might be able to do in the future, Polycystic Kidney Disease from Lukas Foggensteiner (Consultant Nephrologist in Birmingham) – an area where biology is providing new therapeutic targets and an article on the Human Tissue Act which turns the technical language into understandable English by Audrey Hyde (Live Donor Co-ordinator in Salford). Looking back over the years there are some real pearls. David Goldsmith (Consultant Nephrologist in London) wrote a great article on Hypertension and Simon Jenkins (current Vice Chair North West Regional KPA and retired GP from Manchester) who was on haemodialysis but is now transplanted did an excellent paper on Disability Living Allowance – it’s written for patients but extremely useful for doctors! If you like quizzes look at the Renal Diets article by Debbie Sutton (Renal Research Dietitian, Portsmouth), Frances Przygrodzka (Renal Dietitian, Nottingham), Mhairi Sigrist (Renal Research Dietitian, Derby) and Diane Green (Renal Dietitian, Salford). For some reason there are a lot of questions about champagne in Debbie’s section!
Many units have had the articles approved by their Trusts for use in clinics, wards and in the community. At Salford Royal where I work we already have 10 available to hand directly to patients during consultations or to add with their clinic letters.
You might want to bookmark the site or add it to your favourites to have this useful patient facing information at your fingertips.

bedtime reading: health inequalities: progress and next steps

Health Inequalities: Progress and Next Steps was published on 9 June 2008.

The information outlines the Government’s approach to hit the 2010 Health Inequalities PSA targets, assessing what has and hasn’t worked, and setting the direction of travel beyond 2010.

So are your GP friends asking what the QoF means by proteinuria?

..... if so, direct them to the BMA website that states "people with non-diabetic stage 3 to 5 CKD should have an annual test of proteinuria unless they have a previous diagnosis of proteinuria. People with diabetes already have an annual micro-albuminuria test" - and this is preceded by a statement that a lab test is required for diagnosis of proteinuria.

So wherever you're sitting on the ACR/PCR divide please do use the QoF and, in due course, the NICE CKD guideline to drive awareness about the importance of proteinuria.

Indeed, if you are a clinician reading this, why not add this to your clinic letters for the next 3 months or think about how you get the urinary protein is a multiplier for risk message out there in your locality?