News

Emerging Institution: Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Fiji;
Supporting Institution: Concord Repatriation General Hospital, Australia.

When the partnership was formed in 2014, the goal was to establish the first Nephrology service in Fiji, acting as a hub for the development of Nephrology in the Pacific Islands.

Supported by the program, the hospital published a paper demonstrating that Fiji has one of the highest rates of end-stage kidney disease worldwide. The conclusions of this analysis were pivotal in the Fijian government’s decision to provide funding to set up a National Kidney Research and Treatment Centre to improve access to kidney care for all.

The Sister Renal Center Program was directly responsible for establishing organized renal care in Fiji. The Colonial War Museum Hospital now has a dedicated renal clinic team and has established and maintained a renal biopsy program as well as a hemodialysis for acute kidney injury program that has treated hundreds of patients. The Fiji Nephrology Symposium has been run annually for five years and is now aligned with the Fiji Medical Association conference.

An electronic dialysis registry has been established to support improved data collection on the characteristics and outcomes of chronic dialysis in Fiji. A nascent culture of research has emerged with one peer-reviewed publication and seven abstracts accepted and presented, ensuring an improved scorecard on the Global Kidney Health Atlas between 2017 and 2019.

Fiji now has a nephrology workforce comprising one nephrologist, one ISN Fellow, general physicians supporting nephrology, and a network of motivated and increasingly experienced renal nurses able to benefit the next generation of clinicians.