LAHORE: The new Pakistan Renal Registry (PRR) has been put into operation throughout the country.
The registry is intended to collect analysis and reports on data from renal centers (public and private).
Health professionals say that it is a historical advance in research and that the country has become totally dependent on its own professionals and health resources to create a mega database on kidney diseases and patients.
Dr. Waqar Ahmad, President of the Nephrology Society of Pakistan, Prof., spoke about the development at the twelfth biennial conference of the Society at a local hotel on Friday.
Speaking to Dawn, he said that Pakistan was lagging behind in research on the impact of kidney disease and data recording and that it had to rely on international health organizations.
"For any service to thrive, a mandatory attribute is self-audit and reflection, and those attributes are derived from the data collected and analyzed with the goal of self-correcting and overcoming," he said.
He said the PSN had been working vigorously to develop a comprehensive clinical database of renal patients in the country since its inception in 1995. The project had begun under the leadership of Professor Syed Jaffar Naqvi, who worked tirelessly to make it happen.
“The PSN has been able to take its mission further with all these efforts bearing fruit with the launch of the online Registry. The data covers information from a varied spectrum of patients ranging from chronic kidney disease stage 1 to patients on renal replacement therapy, "he said.
"Through such databases, we as renal health care providers can identify our strengths and weaknesses and determine where more effort is required," said Professor Waqar. In addition, he said, these data could help identify gaps in the provision of medical care to our patients.
An important part of the work on the renal specialty is the treatment of patients with acute renal injury and advanced chronic kidney disease. This may involve renal replacement therapy by dialysis or by kidney transplantation.
"In a country like Pakistan, kidney disease has become a plague that requires enormous efforts through highly dedicated professionals to fight," said the president of PSN.
About the disease, he said, there was a global increase in the entry of renal patients along with a tremendous increase in awareness of kidney disease.
“The Society has always been a spearhead in the progress and prosperity of nephrology by providing a perfect platform for all doctors, professors and researchers to approach and provide all attendees with the latest developments in the respective field.
"Many more new developments in renal medicine required interactive sessions locally and globally to implement them properly," he said.
Nephrologists faced many difficulties in the field since it emerged in Pakistan as a separate specialty. Initially, he said, general practitioners and urologists had been treating patients who belonged to the domain of nephrology. Later, it emerged as a separate field as there was much to do for patients with acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, end stage renal disease and renal replacement therapy that was actually ignored.
The main obstacles had been the financial and administrative barriers of our country, said Professor Waqar.
Posted in Dawn, October 26, 2019
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1512928/online-renal-database-to-help-doctors-patients