NEPHwork: creating a quality improvement and research network for UK renal trainees

• Published in: BMJ open quality Vol. 11; no. 3; p. e001980
• Main Authors: Crowe, Kirsty, Savino, Manuela, Williams, Jennifer, Amaran, Muhammad, Humphrey, Toby, Medcalf, James, Ryan, Dr Rebecca, Lee, Dr Keegan, Cooper, Dr Dan, Carr, Dr Edward, Marthi, Dr Amar, Swift, Dr Oscar, Hull, Dr Katherine, Nimmo, Dr Ailish, Liew, Dr Hui, Tariq, Dr Behram, Whitehead, Dr Jenny, Edney, Dr Naomi, Whitbread, Dr Daniel, Mohamed, Dr Maha, Duffy, Dr Sam, Edwards, Dr Gwenno, Czajka, Dr Rachael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London British Medical Journal Publishing Group 01.09.2022; BMJ Publishing Group LTD; BMJ Publishing Group
• Subjects: acute kidney injury; Audits; Collaboration; collaborative, breakthrough groups; Curricula; Data analysis; Data collection; Hospitals; Kidneys; Laboratories; medical education; Mortality; Pandemics; Participation; Patients; Quality Education Report; Quality improvement; quality improvement methodologies; Quality of care; registries; United Kingdom > UK; England; Wales
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjoq-2022-001980
• ISSN: 2399-6641

NEPHwork was established in 2020 as a renal specialty trainee-driven national quality improvement and research network with the aim of coupling the benefits of trainee-led collaboration with the rich data collection infrastructure established by the UK renal registry. NEPHwork was established to support the development, coordination and delivery of audit and research projects by renal trainees on a national scale. The first collaborative project centred on the compliance with care quality standards in managing acute kidney injury. The project enabled a large amount of data to be collected over a relatively short period of time and allowed comparison between renal units involved in contributing to the data. The initiation of the NEPHwork collaboration had to overcome delays and service pressure related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the method of linkage analysis used in the data collection and lack of cohesion with regional information technology (IT) services prevented trainees from certain regions from contributing to the project and this is a key priority for the next NEPHwork collaboration.