Table 2.

Addressing challenges in conducting epidemiological research in populations with kidney disease

Challenges	Potential solutions
Unrepresentative denominator populations	Representative registries of patients with CKD, AKI and on KRT. In settings where legislation prevents analysis of data without consent, ensure prospective consent of patients for inclusion in follow-up studies and trials
Incomplete capture of outcomes	Work with health systems to prospectively capture routine clinical care and outcomes in registry populations
Health policy changes without sufficient evidence	Create trial protocols for protective measures taken and/or treatments that can be implemented at short notice
Small samples sizes	Share protocols for case definitions across international registries to enable adequately powered and more representative studies in rare disease populations
Data not generalizable to low-resource settings with different at-risk population profiles	To aid local policy makers, registries should be built globally and not just in high-income settings

AKI, acute kidney injury; CKD, chronic kidney disease; KRT, kidney replacement therapy.