“We hope this calculator will give patients and health-care providers a better idea of what to expect, and help with the development of more personalized treatment plans,” said Dr. Edward Clark.People who receive their first kidney dialysis treatment during a hospital admission often wonder if their kidneys will eventually recover, or if they will need to continue dialysis for the rest of their lives. A new calculator developed by Dr. Edward Clark, Dr. Carl van Walraven and colleagues could help answer this question.

As outlined in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, the research team developed the calculator using ICES data from more than 7,000 Ontario patients, then validated it using data from more than 1,500 Alberta patients.

The calculator uses nine readily available factors (including blood test results, age and type of hospital admission) to accurately calculate the likelihood that an individual who started dialysis in hospital will regain independence from dialysis within a year. It also estimates the risk of death.

“We hope this calculator will give patients and health-care providers a better idea of what to expect, and help with the development of more personalized treatment plans,” said Dr. Edward Clark, a nephrologist and associate scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and associate professor at the University of Ottawa.    

Authors: Clark EG, James MT, Hiremath S, Sood MM, Wald R, Garg AX, Silver SA, Tan Z, van Walraven C.

Core Resources: ICES

Funders: Ontario Renal Network-Cancer Care Ontario, Department of Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital, University of Ottawa

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