Mark your calendar for BC Nephrology Days 2008!

BC Nephrology Days 2008 has been scheduled for October 2-3 at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside, the same hotel used for last year’s conference.

Themes planned for next fall’s event – soon to be confirmed – include:

Stay tuned: A call for 2008 poster abstracts will be issued soon

A primary objective for the 2008 event is to attract more general practitioners and to offer presentations targeted to their specific professional interests and needs. Registration for BC Nephrology Days 2008 begins in June, but in the meantime, you’ll hear more about our plans.

Last year’s event was the most successful Nephrology Days conference ever, attracting more registrations and more sponsorship dollars than any of the years previous. Feedback from people who attended the 2007 conference was also extremely positive. Nearly three-quarters of attendees had been to a previous Nephrology Days conference, and 82 percent of attendees said they would attend a future conference. Regarding the scope of information presented at the 2007 conference, 94 percent of attendees rated it good or excellent, while 92 percent said the quality of the presentations was good or excellent, and 95 percent said the quality of the guest speakers was good or excellent. Perhaps most importantly, 88 percent of attendees felt the conference had value for improving their professional effectiveness.

The annual BC Nephrology Days conference brings together renal care and other professionals from BC and across North America to discuss the latest research, trends, clinical treatment breakthroughs, and other subjects concerning improvements to renal care. For information on the event in general, as well as presentations from last year's speakers, visit the Nephrology Days site.

A virtual walk across Canada

Fraser Health takes it one step at a time

It takes a lot of footsteps to complete a return trip across Canada, from Victoria to Halifax and back. Nineteen million, to be exact.

Undaunted by the distance, Fraser Health renal unit staff members and their patients took on the challenge – a "virtual" walk across this great country of ours, one step at a time.

The project was organized by Fraser Health’s renal dietitians and involved patients at all stages of kidney disease (from predialysis to dialysis), along with nephrologists, managers, nurses, unit clerks, renal technicians, and dietitians from the program’s renal units. The challenge was launched on March 10, 2007, with a walk at Queens Park in New Westminster and Mill Lake in Abbotsford. Shad Ireland, the first dialysis patient to complete an Ironman Triathlon race, was the inspirational guest speaker.

Participants were divided into four teams, and each participant received a pedometer and log sheets to record how far they walked each day, step by step. The steps were converted into kilometres and tracked along the Trans Canada Highway.

The trip took three months, over which time the progress of each team was displayed in Fraser Health dialysis units and clinics, as well as on its website, which helped inspire some friendly competition. To keep participants motivated, all those who submitted steps were entered into a monthly draw for prizes.

Based on an earlier project developed by Vancouver Island dietitian Nancy Clogg, the virtual walk’s purpose was to promote awareness about the importance of daily physical activity. Acknowledging the efforts of the organizers, in June 2007 Fraser Health awarded its renal dietitians the Above and Beyond award, which recognizes employees whose "actions or attitudes help move the organization forward in a meaningful way by nurturing relationships, inspiring colleagues, clients or patients, or demonstrating a high level of integrity and compassion."

Our PROMIS keeps growing

The BC Renal Agency’s PROMIS database is generating impressive statistics in its work towards providing support and value to the renal community across the province. During the last year the system was called upon to generate over 250,000 end-user reports – a 30 percent increase from the previous year.

The technical team behind PROMIS – which stands for patient record/registration and outcome management information system – currently provides help to 600 users and responds to 15 calls for support every day. Over the past year the group has also provided training sessions for 113 new system users.

Within the PROMIS database, the volume of data increases by about 35 percent each year. During 2007 there were 5.2 million individual lab results automatically uploaded to the system, and 250,000 results entered manually. Altogether, the system contains 22.7 million lab results. For more information about PROMIS, please contact Mirek Piaseczny, Director, Health Information and Statistics: mpiaseczny@bcpra.ca

Orientation DVD introduces BC renal network to new staff

Renal care professionals joining the BC renal community will now receive a DVD explaining how the province’s renal network functions and how kidney patients in BC benefit from our provincial approach to treatment.

The new orientation DVD features interviews with members of the renal community from around the province explaining the various components of BC’s renal network, and how they all work together within our collaborative model of care.

Copies of the 11-minute orientation DVD have been sent to renal managers around the province. Additional copies are available on request by contacting bcpra@bcpra.ca.

New strategic plan provides direction to BCPRA and renal community

The BC Provincial Renal Agency is in the final stages of revising its three-year-old strategic plan. The revised plan is designed to provide essential direction and guidance for our operations for the next few years.

The strategic plan is built upon a vision providing "an innovative, integrated health system resulting in outstanding care for patients living with kidney disease." In support of this overarching goal, the agency’s mission, working in partnership with the renal community, is to combine knowledge and practice for better kidney health.

The strategic plan also defines our values and lays out our priorities and goals. Our four strategic priorities are:

Profiles in kidney care

Hilda Gregory knew at age 15 what she wanted to do with her life. The former school principal and recipient of the Order of British Columbia, the Order of Canada and a YWCA Women of Distinction award – who also happens to be on peritoneal dialysis – saw a film about a deaf child whose mother was determined to teach her to speak.

Visit our website for the full story

Contract update

Work has begun on the community and home hemodialysis supplies contract – which is currently held by Fresenius, but due to expire at the end of 2008.

By law, contracts this large must go through a competitive bid or "RFP" (request for proposals) process. To this end, a provincial sub-committee with expertise in the existing contract is reviewing all products listed in the contract, and developing a "wish list" of new products.

Through our affiliation with PHSA, the Renal Agency is fortunate to have Medbuy (a national health care group purchasing organization) as a partner in this process. As with all the provincial contracts, we work in partnership with the renal community to ensure we can achieve the highest clinical standards in patient care while balancing the need for fiscal responsibility.

Pharmacy & Formulary

Coming in April...A special feature

The next issue of Renal News – scheduled for April 2008 – will be dedicated to the topic of pharmacy and formulary for renal care. The primary focus will be medication reconciliation, however the special feature will also explore:

If you have other ideas for pharmacy and formulary topics you’d like to see covered in the next issue, please contact Dan Martinusen: Dan.Martinusen@viha.ca