Kidney Thinking. The blog from Think Kidneys

I am sat here looking at my running shoes. I have that guilty feeling since I haven’t gone out for a jog for a few weeks. Instead, I have an Easter egg in my hand. And then there are the headlines. ‘Marathons are bad for your health, scientists warn runners’ screamed the headline in the Daily Telegraph. The article came in response to research published in…

So, the formal programme is at an end. The national AKI programme has completed its project plan and it is always good to reflect on what went well and what could have been better. What are my highlights? Back in 2013, World Kidney Day focused on acute kidney injury. I think it is fair to say that at that time few people recognised the importance of…

When the acute kidney injury (AKI) programme commenced in 2013 the primary objective was to deliver and implement a structure and tools within three years that would lead to a fall in the number of preventable episodes of AKI, and with that a reduction in associated deaths. My first reflection is over the means by which this ambition has been achieved. This has been mainly through:…

Collaboration, Lamination & Adaptation It had been a busy few weeks just finding my way around the hospital, visiting the wards, infiltrating various forums, when I suddenly had a thought… Where is our AKI care bundle? I had a vague recollection of seeing one when I first met Dr Karl Bonnici (Acute Medicine Consultant) at my pre-interview visit to Stockport.  When I asked him the next…

The evaluation of any national quality improvement programme has always proved difficult as it’s challenging to separate out what was emergent change that would have happened anyway, compared to the improvements that were a direct result of the programme. This requires using improvement science techniques based on trials methodologies. It is doubly difficult when the programme had an evolving nature to meet the demands of the…