Introduction: Public Policy Series—Data in Nephrology

[摘要] Nephrology, at least the portion that deals with ESRD, is perhaps the best documented of the medical specialties. The composite rate developed in the early 1980s has been called the “first diagnosis-related group.” Bundled payment for dialysis is widely viewed as a precursor for the way Medicare will pay for care in the future, and our Quality Incentive Program is Medicare’s first pay-for-performance program. As we increasingly move toward evidence-based medicine, it is apparent that these programs can be successful only if there are timely, high-quality data to construct, monitor, and modify them. This issue begins a series of three articles that explore the nature and quality of the nephrology database. The first of these articles describes the databases of the two largest dialysis organizations that account for almost 70% of dialyses in the United States. The next two articles will focus on the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study data and the U.S. Renal Data System, respectively. Each article will describe the strengths and weaknesses of their data and should help all of us better understand the data used for clinical, regulatory, and payment decisions.

[学科分类] 泌尿医学

[关键词] Bone marrow necrosis;Sickle cell disease;Hyperhemolysis syndrome