First International Home Dialysis Roundtable Meeting Leads to Action Agenda on Home Dialysis
Globally, 10.5 million people have advanced kidney disease, and the number is growing by 5-7% annually. Access to life-saving treatments such as kidney transplants and dialysis, however, is far from universal.
Patients dependent on dialysis are more commonly treated in a clinic with in-center hemodialysis (HD) rather than through home HD (HHD) or peritoneal dialysis despite HHD providing significant economic, quality-of-life, and clinical advantages, especially in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To address this discrepancy, kidney care organizations from around the world formed an International Home Dialysis Roundtable (IHDR supported by Baxter Healthcare). They drafted an action plan making recommendations in four key areas to promote home dialysis:
- International Standards and Cooperation: educate and train in-home dialysis and standardize its use across countries
- Patient Empowerment and Education: support and amplify patient education and establish new methods of creating awareness
- Culture of Support for Home Dialysis: develop and share advocacy and educational programs for home dialysis clinicians across global organizations
- Mitigation of Institutional or Governmental Roadblocks: engage policy leaders to close the gap between in-center and home dialysis reimbursement.
