Project summary
Diabetes kidney disease mostly affects older people with type 2 diabetes. It can progress over time until the kidneys stop working and can result in further serious complications, like heart attack or stroke. Professor Dasgupta’s team will find out whether a prompt, which appears on computer screens, could improve how doctors give advice to older people with type 2 and kidney disease. And if this better guidance could help to slow kidney damage, helping people live healthier, happier lives.
Background to research
Over time, high blood sugar levels in people with diabetes can damage blood vessels and filters in the kidneys, leading to kidney disease. It affects four in ten people living with diabetes. Although fewer people now reach the later stages of kidney disease nowadays, those that do will eventually need dialysis (a procedure which filters the blood of waste products as kidneys usually do) or even a kidney transplant.
People with diabetes have their kidneys monitored by their GPs. Getting the right care, which includes support to eat healthily, manage blood pressure and medications, can help to stop kidney disease from getting worse. But, time pressures on GPs can mean these guidelines aren’t always followed. Previous research has shown that computer-generated prompts can help GPs to follow guidelines better.
Research aims
Professor Dasgupta wants to explore if an on-screen prompt, which will outline five key treatment recommendations for kidney disease, could support doctors to give better advice. He’ll then look at whether these prompts help slow kidney damage in older people with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease.
The researchers will develop the computer prompt, working with computer experts, people with diabetes and GPs. They’ll first test it out in 10 GP practices to make sure it’s working as they hoped.
They’ll then run a bigger study in 60 GP practices, involving 1,500 people with diabetes and kidney disease. Half the GPs will be picked randomly to test the prompt and the other half will carry on giving standard care.
Professor Dasgupta will see whether there is a difference in long-term kidney function between people cared for by doctors who used the prompt and people whose doctors did not. If kidneys work for longer in people whose doctors used the prompt, it will indicate it helps doctors to give better care.
Finally, the research team will check if the prompt gives good value for money to the NHS.
Potential benefit to people with diabetes
The computer prompt developed in this research could transform how people with kidney disease receive treatment in their routine doctors’ appointments. If the prompt encourages doctors to follow treatment guidelines more effectively and offer better care, it could give us a simple new way to help slow kidney disease and improve the lives of people living with it.
Diabetes UK contribution: £200,000
