PEAK CAMPAIGN PROGRESS

According to the 2008 U.S. Renal Dialysis System (USRDS) report, mortality of patients in their first year of dialysis (“first-year mortality”) has changed little since 1999, although overall mortality for ESRD patients has improved. 


In 2005, the latest year for which published data from USRDS are available, community-wide,
annualized first-year mortality was nearly 30%–much of it due to the high mortality in months 2-4.

Using more current data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the USRDS methodology, the PEAK campaign is reporting progress toward reaching its goal of improving patient survival of reducing first-year mortality by 20% by the end of 2012. 

To monitor progress toward the goal, the Data/Results Panel comprised of data and research experts from academic and research institutions, dialysis providers, and manufacturers, has reviewed recent data with some gratifying early markers that show progress in reducing first-year mortality in dialysis patients.   Analyzing data received from CMS through September 2010 (i.e., patients who began dialysis October 2008 through September 2009), the PEAK Campaign’s data partner, Brown University, finds that the first-year mortality rate—as well as the 90-day and 120-day mortality rates are on the decline—most importantly, including the period since the launch of PEAK in June 2009.  According to the Brown analysts, if the current rate of decline is sustained, the kidney community will achieve the Campaign’s target reduction of 20 percent by the end of 2012.

Figure 1 illustrates the decline of the one-year mortality rate, and provides a projection (all numbers after the Oct 08-sep09 incident cohorts are based on linear projections) representing the anticipated decline based on the real data available to date.