If I were to invent a new disease, I would want to give it a name that would grab peoples' attention. I may use the example of the evangelical preacher, whose common strategy is to find words with strong emotional resonance and then juxtapose them. Chronic Kidney Disease. Brilliant.
Your editorial by Brady and O'Donoghue1 is commendably full of talk of holism and encouraging patients to take ownership of their problem. Before, however, I empower one in 10 of my patients to take irreversible ownership of this terrifying label, I feel I ought to at least question both the appropriateness of eGFR as a screening test and the evidence for improved outcomes in earlier diagnosis. I keep typing both into GoogleTM and the results so far aren't good.
Perhaps the faith of the evangelist should be enough for me?
REFERENCE
- 1.Brady M, O'Donoghue D. The role of primary care in managing chronic kidney disease. Br J Gen Pract. 2010;60(575):396–397. doi: 10.3399/bjgp10X502065. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]