Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects many Australians, however Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote areas suffer the heaviest burden of all Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people tend to be affected at a younger age, are more likely to present late for dialysis, are less likely to receive a transplant and, in comparison to non-Indigenous people, will die younger.
People with CKD suffer poor health outcomes and reduced quality of life. For people living in remote communities, where there are limited dialysis services, the impact on families and communities is devastating.
From past research, we know that kidney disease is strongly linked to other chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. To tackle and lessen the burden of chronic kidney disease in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people we need to understand the factors that predict progression, including the acceptability of different models of care.
The Renal Health Program within the Wellbeing and Preventable Chronic Diseases Division strongly focuses on evidence translation, identifying new and innovative strategies to improve service delivery and program evaluation to inform policy. It works in partnership with government and non-government health services locally and at the national level to identify, develop and support innovative strategies to facilitate improved management of chronic conditions including kidney disease, improve the patient journey and strengthen health systems.
The Renal Health Program aims to develop expertise and provide leadership in digital health, clinical research, consumer engagement, learning and growth of the clinical workforce, and promoting knowledge translation. To that end, the program collaborates closely with other program areas in Menzies to facilitate cross-fertilisation of ideas and create synergies across Divisions.
The program includes a multidisciplinary team of senior researchers and project staff, statisticians, qualitative researchers and evaluators, software developers, nurses, and First Nations consumer engagement officers.
Our research focus:
- To discover the best ways to diagnose, treat and prevent chronic disease such as diabetes, heart and kidney disease.
- To identify ways to improve systems and processes to support patients with kidney disease across the care continuum.
- To translate research findings into policy and practice.
Our research impact:
- In 2016 our research identified the most efficient, cost-effective and acceptable aspects of CKD management programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
- Our findings demonstrated that opportunities existed to design systems to support primary health services with timely, targeted and evidence-based specialist care in the identification and management of people with kidney disease.
- In partnership with the government and non-government health services we have designed and built an integrated clinical decision support tool for early CKD identification and management, to consolidate patient records from multiple source systems and close the information gap between service providers.
- Our research has highlighted the need to include the patient perspective in health care design and delivery. We have worked closely with patient groups, consumers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander co-researchers in a variety of ways to develop sustainable mechanisms for the inclusion of the patient voice in service delivery. From facilitating the development of patient-led cultural awareness programs, to advocating for greater Indigenous knowledge of, and authority over, their data, to understanding ‘what makes a good life and a good life on dialysis’ for Indigenous people.
- With our partners across government and non-government sectors we are working together to determine the most cost-effective dialysis models of care. This work will synthesise the data and information from multiple sources and will include perspectives of efficiency, effectiveness and acceptability – the number, money and people stories.
