Peritoneal catheter insertion: combating barriers through policy change.

Barriers to accessing home dialysis became a matter of life and death for many patients with kidney failure during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is the more commonly used home therapy option. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of PD catheter insertion procedures as performed around the world today, barriers impacting timely access to the procedure, the impact of COVID-19 and a roadmap of potential policy solutions.

The value of process evaluation for public health interventions: field-case studies for non-communicable disease prevention and management in five countries.

Complex interventions are needed to effectively tackle non-communicable diseases. However, complex interventions can contain a mix of effective and ineffective actions. Process evaluation (PE) in public health research is of great value as it could clarify the mechanisms and contextual factors associ-ated with variation in the outcomes, better identify effective components, and inform adaptation of the intervention.

Understanding community health worker employment preferences in Malang district, Indonesia, using a discrete choice experiment.

Background: Community health workers (CHWs) play a critical role in supporting health systems, and in improving accessibility to primary healthcare. In many settings CHW programmes do not have formalised employment models and face issues of high attrition and poor performance. This study aims to determine the employment preferences of CHWs in Malang district, Indonesia, to inform policy interventions.

Perceived usefulness of trauma audit filters in urban India: a mixed-methods multicentre Delphi study comparing filters from the WHO and low and middle-income countries.

Objective: To compare experts' perceived usefulness of audit filters from Ghana, Cameroon, WHO and those locally developed; generate context-appropriate audit filters for trauma care in selected hospitals in urban India; and explore characteristics of audit filters that correlate to perceived usefulness.

Design: A mixed-methods approach using a multicentre online Delphi technique.

Setting: Two large tertiary hospitals in urban India.

Effects of social determinants on children's health in informal settlements in Bangladesh and Kenya through an intersectionality lens: a study protocol.

Introduction: Several studies have shown that residents of urban informal settlements/slums are usually excluded and marginalised from formal social systems and structures of power leading to disproportionally worse health outcomes compared to other urban dwellers. To promote health equity for slum dwellers, requires an understanding of how their lived realities shape inequities especially for young children 0-4 years old (ie, under-fives) who tend to have a higher mortality compared with non-slum children. In these proposed studies, we aim to examine how key Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) factors at child and household levels combine to affect under-five health conditions, who live in slums in Bangladesh and Kenya through an intersectionality lens.

Kidney complications of parasitic diseases.

Parasitic agents have been known to cause human disease since ancient times and are endemic in tropical and subtropical regions. Complications of parasitic diseases, including kidney involvement, are associated with worse outcomes. Chagas disease, filariasis, leishmaniasis, malaria and schistosomiasis are important parasitic diseases that can damage the kidney.

Global eHealth capacity: secondary analysis of WHO data on eHealth and implications for kidney care delivery in low-resource settings.

Objective: To describe the use of electronic health (eHealth) in support of health coverage for kidney care across International Society of Nephrology (ISN) regions.

Design: Secondary analysis of WHO survey on eHealth as well as use of data from the World Bank, and Internet World Stats on global eHealth services.

Setting: A web-based survey on the use of eHealth in support of universal health coverage.

Pharmacist's time spent: Space for Pharmacy-based Interventions and Consultation TimE (SPICE)-an observational time and motion study.

Objective: To describe the pharmacists' workflow, including tasks and time spent, to better understand their work capacity.

Design: Cross-sectional, observational, time and motion study.

Setting: Community pharmacies in Western Australia and New South Wales, Australia.

Social media interventions targeting exercise and diet behaviours in people with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs): A systematic review.

Background: Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death globally. Promoting physical activity and healthy eating is essential to help manage the NCD burden and reduce mortality. Social media may be a potential platform for delivering and scaling health promotion initiatives.

Implementation and Experiences of Telehealth: Balancing Policies With Practice in Countries of South Asia, Kuwait, and the European Union.

This viewpoint summarizes the discussion that occurred during the "Translating Policy to Practice in Telehealth-Lessons from Global Implementation Experiences" panel that was held virtually at Telemedicon2020, December 18-20, 2020. This panel brought together policy and implementation experts from some countries of South Asia, Kuwait, and the European Union to share their experiences in the development and implementation of telehealth standards and of the scale up of telehealth interventions within health systems. Several common themes arose from the discussion, including the significant role of people; encouragement by respective government policymakers; addressing concerns, particularly related to privacy, confidentiality, and security; and capacity building of human resources.

Estimates of Sepsis Prevalence and Outcomes in Adult Patients in the ICU in India: A Cross-sectional Study.

Background: Sepsis is a global health problem. Limited data exist on the prevalence of sepsis using current definitions in ICUs in India.

Research Question: In adult patients admitted to ICUs in India, what is the prevalence of sepsis using the previous (Second International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock [Sepsis-2]) and current (Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock [Sepsis-3]) definitions?

Study Design And Methods: Prospective, observational, multicentre, 1-day, cross-sectional study.

Antihypertensive drug effects on long-term blood pressure: an individual-level data meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials.

Objective: Evidence from randomised trials of pharmacological treatments on long-term blood pressure (BP) reduction is limited. We investigated the antihypertensive drug effects on BP over time and across different participant characteristics.

Methods: We conducted an individual patient-level data meta-analysis of 52 large-scale randomised clinical trials in the Blood Pressure Lowering Treatment Trialists' Collaboration using mixed models to examine treatment effects on BP over 4 years of mean follow-up.

Governance systems for skilled health worker migration, their public value and competing priorities: an interpretive scoping review.

Background: Governments worldwide participate in skilled health worker (SHW) migration agreements to protect access to health services in their countries. Previous studies have described the value offered by these agreements in separate source and destination country perspectives.

Objective: We sought to identify and summarise existing literature on shared value creation for both source and destination countries.

The Indian Chronic Kidney Disease (ICKD) study: baseline characteristics.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. There is a lack of information on epidemiology and progression of CKD in low-middle income countries. The Indian Chronic Kidney Disease (ICKD) study aims to identify factors that associate with CKD progression, and development of kidney failure and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Indian patients with CKD.

Assessing Global Kidney Nutrition Care.

Background And Objectives: Nutrition intervention is an essential component of kidney disease management. This study aimed to understand current global availability and capacity of kidney nutrition care services, interdisciplinary communication, and availability of oral nutrition supplements.

Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements: The International Society of Renal Nutrition and Metabolism (ISRNM), working in partnership with the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) Global Kidney Health Atlas Committee, developed this Global Kidney Nutrition Care Atlas.

Assessing the impact of screening, early identification and intervention programmes for chronic kidney disease: protocol for a scoping review.

Introduction: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major threat to public health, especially in low-income and lower middle-income countries, where resources for treating patients with advanced CKD are scarce. Although early CKD identification and intervention hold promise for reducing the burden of CKD and risk factors, it remains unclear if an uniform strategy can be applicable across all income groups. The aim of this scoping review is to synthesise available evidence on early CKD identification programmes in all world regions and income groups.

Mindfulness Integrated Cognitive Behavioural Intervention: Effects on Palliative Cancer Care Professionals.

Objective: Being a palliative cancer care professional is challenging and stressful. In recent decades, there has been more interest in mindfulness to improve overall well-being of healthcare professionals. Mindfulness integrated cognitive behavioural interventions (MICBI) are more practical, flexible and understandable than traditional psychological therapies alone.

Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology in India: What Do We Know and Where We Need to Go.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) not associated with known risk factors has been reported from parts of India and is presumed to be similar to CKD of unknown etiology (CKDu) that has been described from Central America. The reports from India have been fragmented without clear description of the disease phenotype or its determinants. This paper summarizes the current state of knowledge around CKDu in India based on a review of literature, multi-stakeholder consultation, and a survey of Indian nephrologists.

The Therapeutic Evaluation of Steroids in IgA Nephropathy Global (TESTING) Study: Trial Design and Baseline Characteristics.

Introduction: Despite optimal current care, up to 30% of individuals suffering from immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) will develop kidney failure requiring dialysis or kidney transplantation. The Therapeutic Evaluation of STeroids in IgA Nephropathy Global (TESTING) study was designed to assess the benefits and risks of steroids in people with IgAN. We report the trial design as well as the baseline characteristics of study participants.

Integrating community-based verbal autopsy into civil registration and vital statistics: lessons learnt from five countries.

This paper describes the lessons from scaling up a verbal autopsy (VA) intervention to improve data about causes of death according to a nine-domain framework: governance, design, operations, human resources, financing, infrastructure, logistics, information technologies and data quality assurance. We use experiences from China, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and Solomon Islands to explore how VA has been successfully implemented in different contexts, to guide other countries in their VA implementation. The governance structure for VA implementation comprised a multidisciplinary team of technical experts, implementers and staff at different levels within ministries.

Challenges in Documenting Non-Fatal Drowning Disability in Bangladesh: A Community-Based Survey.

Limited access to health care and the lack of robust data systems means non-fatal drownings are largely missed in low-and middle-income countries. We report morbidity among individuals who experienced non-fatal drowning in the Barishal Division, Bangladesh. A representative household survey was conducted in the Barishal Division in southern Bangladesh between September 2016 and February 2017, covering a population of 386,016.

Essential Emergency and Critical Care: a consensus among global clinical experts.

Background: Globally, critical illness results in millions of deaths every year. Although many of these deaths are potentially preventable, the basic, life-saving care of critically ill patients are often overlooked in health systems. Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) has been devised as the care that should be provided to all critically ill patients in all hospitals in the world.

Serum catalytic iron and progression of chronic kidney disease: findings from the ICKD study.

Background: The non-transferrin bound catalytic iron moiety catalyses production of toxic reactive oxygen species and is associated with adverse outcomes. We hypothesized that serum catalytic iron (SCI) is associated with progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Methods: Baseline samples of the Indian Chronic Kidney Disease participants with at least one follow up visit were tested for total iron, iron binding capacity, transferrin saturation, SCI, ferritin and hepcidin.