In brief

Lead organisations: St George’s, University of London and Kidney Research UK

Partners: Renal Association, Royal College of General Practitioners

This project aimed to help GPs in south west London, Surrey, Leicester and Manchester better identify and manage patients with chronic kidney disease.

It looked at three different quality improvement techniques, in a mix of inner city and suburban practices. The project included a patient empowerment programme to try to increase patients’ understanding of the disease and its implications for their lifestyle. 

An audit-based education was also used to feed back data to groups of practices about their quality of care, with a local clinical champion presenting comparative data in an educational context. Another aim was to look to offer new ways of caring for people with chronic kidney disease.

Project clinical lead Dr Simon de Lusignan said linking cause and effect is one of the 'big challenges' in quality improvement research. ‘We’addressed this by collecting data at multiple points and looking to link changes to the dates of interventions.’