RICORS2040: the need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease
Alberto Ortíz, Marta Roger, Víctor Jiménez, José Carlos Rodríguez Pérez, Mónica Furlano, Laia Sans Atxer, Daniel Gallego Zurro, Carlos María Romeo Casabona, Daniel Gallego Zurro, Clemente Gómez Gómez, Pilar Pérez Bermúdez, Manuel Arellano Armisen, Santiago Albaladejo López, Inmaculada Gutiérrez Porras, Josefa Gómez Ruiz, José Manuel Martin Orgaz, Marta Moreno Barón, Patricia de Sequera Ortiz, Gabriel de Arriba de la Fuente, Borja Quiroga Gili, Gema Fernández Fresnedo, Sagrario Soriano Cabrera, Javier Pérez Contreras, Miquel Blasco Pelícano, Auxiliadora Mazuecos Blanca, Mariano Rodríguez Portillo, J. Emilio Sánchez Alvarez, María José Soler Romeo, Manuel Gorostidi Pérez, Marian Goicoechea Diezhandino, Domingo Hernández Marrero, Constantino Fondevila Campo, Eduardo Miñambres García, Dolores García- Cosío Carmona, Armando Torres Ramírez, Luis Muñoz Bellvis, Marina Berenguer Haym, Manuel Barrera Gómez, José M. Cifrián, Josep María Cruzado Garrit, Rafael San Juan Garrido, Javier Briceño Delgado, Marta Bodro Marimont, María O Valentín Muñoz, José Miguel Pérez Villares, Ángel Salvatierra Velázquez, Luis Almenar Bonet, Miguel Ángel Gómez‐Bravo, Francesc J Moreso Mateos, Manuel Muro Amador, Auxiliadora Mazuecos Blanca, J. A. Pons Miñano, Amado Andrés Belmonte, Amparo Solé Jover, Daniel Casanova Rituerto, Fernando Pardo Sánchez, María Dolores Arenas, Roberto Martín Hernández, Blanca Miranda Serrano, Alberto Ortiz Arduan, Ana B. Sanz, Adrián M. Ramos, Gina Córdoba‐David, Jorge García-Jiménez, Miguel Fontecha‐Barriuso, Juan Guerrero‐Mauvecin, Ana M. López-Diaz, María Dolores Sánchez-Niño, Lara Valiño‐Rivas, Leticia Cuarental, Marta Ribagorda, Aránzazu Pintor‐Chocano, Chiara Favero, Gloria Álvarez‐Llamas, Martín Cleary Catalina, Beatriz Fernández‐Fernández, María Vanessa Pérez-Gómez, Emma Raquel Alegre de Montaner, Raúl Fernández Prado, Jorge Rojas Rivera, Ana María Ramos Verde, Sergio Luis‐Lima, Jinny Sánchez-Rodríguez, Soledad Pizarro Sánchez, Marta Ruiz‐Ortega, Emilio González Parra, Sandra Rayego Mateos, Pablo Javier Cannata Ortíz, Laura Márquez Expósito, Antonio Tejera‐Muñoz, Vanessa Marchant, Lucía Tejedor-Santamaria, Matilde Alique Agilar, Fritz Diekmann, Beatriz Bayés Genís, Federico Oppenheimer Salinas, María José Ramírez-Bajo, Elisenda Bañon Maneus, Marta Arias Guillén, Jordi Rovira Juárez
Abstract
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true.