Best-Practice Perspectives on Improving Early Detection and Management of Chronic Kidney Disease Associated With Type 2 Diabetes in Primary Care

What is it about?

People living with type 2 diabetes are at risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD), so healthcare professionals (HCPs) use treatment guidelines to help them decide when people with type 2 diabetes should be tested for CKD. People with type 2 diabetes and CKD may also develop problems with their heart and blood vessels. CKD gets worse over time, so it is important that CKD is diagnosed early and that treatments that can help slow the progression of CKD are started early. Treatment guidelines are also used by HCPs to help them decide which CKD-slowing drug treatment might be best for people with type 2 diabetes and CKD and when this drug treatment should be initiated. HCPs will work with people who have type 2 diabetes and CKD when deciding on the most appropriate drug therapies. Some HCPs who work in primary care are unfamiliar with treatment guidelines, and this means that some people with type 2 diabetes are not being tested for CKD when they should be and some people with type 2 diabetes and CKD are not receiving CKD-slowing drug treatments when they should be. In this article, three HCPs who work with people who have type 2 diabetes and CKD, and are also authors of this paper, consider the reasons why some HCPs are not using the treatment guidelines and offer their thoughts on improving the processes and methods used for testing for CKD and deciding which drug treatments to use.

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