Chronic diseases also known as incommunicable diseases have become the main threat to human health, leaving behind diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. They characterized by being diseases of few symptoms in their early stages and high cost in their treatment. This is the case of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and two of its main causes: Arterial Hypertension and Diabetes.
The CKD has not played a leading role because it accounts for only about 2% of global deaths compared to 30% of cardiovascular diseases. This leads the CKD to belong to the group of Forgotten Incommunicable Diseases, significantly limiting the development of treatment and advances in adequate diagnoses. This, coupled with a growth of about 6% per year of patients rings alarms worldwide especially when taking into account the high cost of renal replacement therapy in its advanced stages.
The CKD affects developing countries more, places where access to health systems is insufficient. The growth of the disease and its causing pathologies generates great pressure for the health systems, more so when, due to the difficulties in the diagnosis, the majority of people identified with the disease are already in the most advanced stages. The treatment of CKD then presents two fundamental challenges: To improve diagnostic techniques in the early stages and to increase access to patients in advanced stages.
The situation of CKD in Colombia is similar to the international scene. The efforts of the health authorities associated with the creation of the High Cost Accounts and the continuous follow-up to the treatment, show how the management of this pathology represents a great weight for the national budget.
Renal Replacement Therapy has reached a greater number of people nationwide due to the funds associated with the treatment and intervention of the Health Care Companies (EPS), but it is necessary that there is greater progress to guarantee treatment prevalence similar to that of leading countries like USA Or Japan, approximately 1420 ppm and 2505 ppm respectively. Colombia meanwhile has a treatment prevalence of about 600 ppm being slightly below the Latin American average.
Within renal replacement therapy, both in Colombia and in most countries of the world, the preferred therapy is hemodialysis. In our country about 70% of the treatments are done under this technique where about 30% is performed by independent treatment; Is in this area is where companies such as Renal Medical Marketing Limited have focused on developing devices that enable organizations to decrease the impact of inputs on the total cost of treatment, especially in relation to dialysis concentrates.
The difficulties presented by the treatment and diagnosis of CKD opens up possibilities for both providers and traffickers. The challenge for both groups today must be to generate innovative cost-effective solutions that translate into less traumatic treatments for the patient, while ensuring greater access to them.