Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative: methodology.

The area of acute renal failure has lagged behind other areas of critical care medicine such as acute respiratory distress syndrome or sepsis in terms of clinical focus, assimilation and interpretation of currently available evidence, and availability of clinical trials. Furthermore, there has been a lack of attention concerning present therapeutic needs and future clinical research direction. These shortcomings stem, in part, from the fragmentation of acute renal failure care and expertise into the fields of nephrology and critical care medicine. To advance the quality of care, make the evidence base for clinical practice more readily available and suitably interpreted, reduce fragmentation, and refocus the goals of future research in this field, a new quality initiative, the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative, was launched. This initiative brings together experts from different fields and continents, applying an expert-enhanced evidence analysis to achieve its goals. This brief report details the process of the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative and its goals and methodology.