Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major health problem because of its high prevalence, associated complications and high treatment costs. Several aspects of CKD differ significantly in the Eastern European nephrology community compared with Western Europe because of different geographic, socio-economic, infrastructure, cultural and educational features. The two most frequent aetiologies of CKD, DM and hypertension, and many other predisposing factors, are more frequent in the Eastern region, resulting in more prevalent CKD Stages 3-5. Interventions may minimize the potential drawbacks of the high prevalence of CKD in Eastern Europe, which include several options at various stages of the disease, such as raising public, medical personnel and healthcare authorities awareness; early detection by screening high-risk populations; preventing progression and CKD-related complications by training health professionals and patients; promoting transplantation or home dialysis as the preferred modality; disseminating and implementing guidelines and guided therapy and encouraging/supporting country-specific observational research as well as international collaborative projects. Specific ways to significantly impact CKD-related problems in every region of Europe through education, science and networking are collaboration with non-nephrology European societies who have a common interest in CKD and its associated complications, representation through an advisory role within nephrology via national nephrology societies, contributing to the training of local nephrologists and stimulating patient-oriented research. The latter is mandatory to identify country-specific kidney disease-related priorities. Active involvement of patients in this research via collaboration with the European Kidney Patient Federation or national patient federations is imperative to ensure that projects reflect specific patient needs.

• Keywords
• CKD, ESRD, chronic renal failure, dialysis, kidney transplantation,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Review MeSH

The strengths and the limitations of research activities currently present in Europe are explored in order to outline how to proceed in the near future. Epidemiological and clinical research and public policy in Europe are generally considered to be comprehensive and successful, and the European Renal Association - European Dialysis and Transplant Association (ERA-EDTA) is playing a key role in the field of nephrology research. The Nephrology and Public Policy Committee (NPPC) aims to improve the current situation and translation into public policy by planning eight research topics to be supported in the coming 5 years by ERA-EDTA.

• Keywords
• acute kidney injury, big data, cohorts, guidelines, registry,
• MeSH
• Biomedical Research standards   MeSH
• Renal Dialysis standards   MeSH
• Child MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Cooperative Behavior * MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Nephrology organization & administration   MeSH
• Registries MeSH
• Societies, Medical * MeSH
• Kidney Transplantation standards   MeSH
• Public Policy * MeSH
• Check Tag
• Child MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Geographicals
• Europe MeSH