The Chronic Kidney Disease Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (CKDopps) is seeking nephrology clinics in the United States to join our study of variations in advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) treatment practices and associations with best outcomes for patients.

The CKDopps is a collaborative study, in five countries to-date, that serves as a platform for researchers to identify ways to improve outcomes (including the transition to dialysis or transplantation, mortality, hospitalizations, and patient-reported outcomes) for patients with advanced CKD.

While other CKD studies often focus on participation of academic centers, we want to understand “real-world” practice making it vitally important we include clinics from diverse settings across the country. By joining CKDopps, you will be a valuable contributor to a study that we anticipate will meaningfully improve outcomes of greatest importance to patients with advanced CKD.

Data submitted to the CKDopps are already collected by clinics as part of routine clinical care, minimizing the effort required by staff.

Benefits of study participation include:

• Clinic feedback reports, which provide your clinic’s practice data relative to other US clinics in aggregate (your clinic-level data are confidential)
• Opportunity to contribute to the study’s research directions, e.g., through rotating membership on the US CKDopps advisory board
• Physicians can fulfill their practice performance improvement requirement with the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program; CKDopps is registered as a self-directed practice improvement module for the program.
• Reimbursement for your time
• Building of research infrastructure at your clinic

The CKDopps is already collecting data from a randomly selected group of nephrology clinics in the US, and is now expanding this sample with the addition of volunteer clinics. Participating clinics will target enrollment of up to 60 adult patients with CKD Stage 3b-5 over 12 months, with follow-up for three years.

Contact Chris Kippola at the CKDopps Coordinating Center at 1.800.367.7760 or CKDopps@ArborResearch.org.