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New trial to focus on patients with multiple chronic diseases
A new NIH-funded, multicenter, clinical trial will be the first to focus on the management of patients with chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and hypertension in multiple health care settings, according to a press release.
“Most of the prior studies have focused on each disease in isolation, which is not the real world for clinicians,” Miguel Vasquez, MD, professor of internal medicine, clinical director of nephrology and medical director of kidney transplantation at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said in the release. “Many people have kidney disease plus diabetes plus high BP or other issues. We want to study what are the most effective treatments for patients with multiple coexistent diseases.”
The trial is part of a $19.4 million research award over 5 years funded by the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaborator. It is one of three projects that will focus on multiple chronic conditions.
The project, called Improving Chronic Disease Management with PIECES (ICD PIECES), will utilize information technology designed by Ruben Amarasingham, MD, president and CEO of Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, to alert physicians of clinical risks for patients with chronic disease using data from patient electronic health records. It will be used for early disease detection and to identify patients at high risk in real time, according to the release.
Parkland Health and Hospital System, Texas Health and Resources System, VA North Texas Health Care Systems and ProHealth Physicians Inc. will partner with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center for the trial. Various health care systems are involved to ensure the results are relevant to different patient populations, according to the release.
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the NHLBI will be the primary and secondary administrators of the trial, respectively.
According to the release, in the US adult population, about 14% have chronic kidney disease, 10% have diabetes and 33% have hypertension. About 50% of patients with chronic kidney disease have diabetes and many have hypertension.