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New KDIGO guideline director brings thorough knowledge of evaluation
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Amy Earley, who became KDIGO’s first guideline development director in January, has jumped into a quickly evolving role at an organization with ambitious goals.
The mission of Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) is to develop and implement evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in kidney disease. Its three main areas of focus are guidelines; conferences, which include Controversies Conferences, Consensus Conferences, and Clinical Practice Conferences; and implementation activities, which include sessions at larger events, stand-alone meetings, roundtables, materials, tools, education guides and other offerings to assist in successful execution of the guidelines.
“Having worked as a member of the Evidence Review Team on a number of previous KDIGO guidelines, I jumped at the chance to be a part of the amazing KDIGO staff,” Earley said. “I believe in the KDIGO mission and how their work directly benefits the lives of patients with kidney disease worldwide. The opportunity to work not only with my colleagues but also the volunteers on a daily basis was something I just couldn’t pass up.”
Streamline the process
John Davis, CEO of KDIGO, told Nephrology News & Issues the position will help streamline the process; while guidelines are primarily developed by a work group made up of volunteers who are experts in guideline focus areas, Earley will act as point person for the group and a liaison between the work group and KDIGO’s small group of Staff. KDIGO leaders wanted to find someone with extensive knowledge of the process, he added, and Earley was already familiar with KDIGO’s work and with the guideline development process due to her close work with previous guidelines. Earley worked at Tufts New England Medical Center on the Evidence Review Team (ERT) for several KDIGO guidelines. She continued to work with KDIGO guidelines as a consultant after KDIGO shifted to using Brown University’s ERT.
“She knows so much about the evidence and what it takes to look at evidence and make recommendations based on that,” Davis said. “My role was to conduct the systematic literature review and evidence synthesis for the guidelines,” Earley said. “The tasks involved everything from running literature searches and screening abstracts to working through the [Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations] GRADE system for grading each recommendation statement.”
Expanded reach
One challenge Earley plans to keep in mind is the global nature of KDIGO’s reach: as director of guideline development, she helps ensure guidelines are relevant anywhere kidney disease is present. “My top priorities are to continue to build on the KDIGO’s strong reputation to the deliver the highest quality, most informative guidance to patients and clinicians in an efficient and impactful way,” Earley said. “It is important to me to keep the guidelines up-to-date and as relevant as possible. Additionally, I want to ensure that kidney disease patients worldwide are receiving the best care possible, so implementation efforts across all geographies are a top priority for me.”
In particular, Earley is excited to assist in the implementation of KDIGO guidelines in countries with limited resources. She also looks forward to improving accessibility of the guidelines. “KDIGO is working toward a new presentation of our guidelines both in print and on an online platform,” she said. “From my perspective, this new platform will be more user-friendly with writing specifically tailored to clinicians, while also being rich in guidance for both patients and clinicians.” – by Amanda Alexander
Disclosures: Davis and Earley report no relevant financial disclosures.