KDIGO Hepatitis C Guideline: Implications for regional guideline development and implementation

The Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) organization recently published its ‘Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, Evaluation and Treatment of Hepatitis C in Chronic Kidney Disease’ in a supplement to Kidney International1 (accessible via http://www.kdigo.org). This first‐published clinical practice guideline from KDIGO has implications not only for local clinical practice in the area of Hepatitis C, but also for guideline development in Australia, New Zealand and the wider Asia–Pacific region, which deserve consideration.

KDIGO is an independently incorporated, not‐for‐profit foundation that seeks to ‘improve the care and outcomes of kidney disease patients worldwide through promoting coordination, collaboration and integration of initiatives to develop and implement clinical practice guidelines’. This mission statement clearly articulates KDIGO's desire to rationalize guideline development processes worldwide, on a background of numerous guideline groups producing different recommendations from the same evidence base. Its governance is a large board of directors from across the globe, including many eminent names in nephrology, and it has largely eschewed formal organizational representation from the various guidelines groups (including Caring for Australasians with Renal Impairment, CARI) in favour of consultation at various forums in the guideline development process.