Om mig

Research group leader Clinical renal epidemiology, Renal unit, Department of Clinical Intervention and Technology

Consultant nephrology, Karolinska University hospital, ME Renal medicine, Attending physician at Rosenlunds dialysis department

Member of the Swedish Renal Registry steering committee, Medical director of the CKD registry (SRR-CKD)

Member of Region Stockholm’s drug expert committee of chronic kidney disease

Chair of the national network in clinical nephrology research

Forskningsbeskrivning

The main purpose of my research projects is to better characterize the prognosis of chronic kidney disease and its various stages, with a focus on cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. We further aim to find risk factors and biomarkers of CKD, CKD progression and CKD-related cardiovascular disease. We also aim to describe changes in uremic symptoms and quality of life in people who experience CKD progression and kidney replacement therapy initiation and to explore their associations with different types of treatments.

We use different sources to study our research questions, such as general population registries, renal registries, and clinical cohorts.  Among the epidemiological projects, I mainly use existing registers linked to other health data sources (particularly the Swedish Renal Registry - chronic kidney disease [SRR-CKD] and Stockholm Creatinine Measurement project [SCREAM].  Currently I am leading an initiative to start the first registry-randomized controlled trial (INITIATE) in the Swedish Renal Registry.

My projects also include research in clinical cohorts. I am the national coordinator for the EQUAL study in Sweden. EQUAL is a European multicenter study where about 1700 patients are recruited in 6 countries. Sweden participates with 305 patients and 13 clinics. I have coordinated the Swedish part of the study which is now just completed; I am part of both the steering group and the publication committee. In the EQUAL study we collected data at study visits every 3-6 months for 4 years. In addition to routine clinical information, nutritional status and patient questionnaires, we have recorded repeated body composition, hand-grip measurements, and biobank samples (blood, DNA, plasma, serum, urine). Another clinical cohort is the recently started RENAL-QS where we will follow clinical symptoms, quality of life and biomarkers in patients with advanced stage CKD before and after dialysis initiation, and investigate their relationship with different treatment alternatives and dialysis modalities.

Research group

Joakim Österman, MD

Ehab Al-Sodany, MD, PhD-student

Ulrika Hahn-Lundström, MD, PhD-student

Karin Windahl, Rd, PhD-student

Helena Rydell, MD, PhD, post-doc

Pedagogiska meriter

Teacher at Karolinska Institutet Medical Program, T4-T6

Course leader (SK-kurs) Renal medicine 2015-ongoing

1 week post-graduate course

Clinical teaching assistant T4, Institution of Medicine 2007-2009

Utbildning

2016-2017 Post-doc United Kingdom Renal Registry, affiliated with Bristol University, Bristol, United Kingdom

2013 Specialist Internal Medicine

2011 Specialist Nephrology

2010 PhD Karolinska Institutet (Renal epidemiology) Title: Prognosis and progression in chronic kidney disease – decline in estimated renal function and mortality

2003-2004 Research school in clinical epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet

2001 Licence to practice (certified by the Swedish National Board of health and welfare)

1998, MD Karolinska Institutet

Akademiska priser och utmärkelser

Elected member of the ERA-EDTA Registry committee

Invited member of the FDA/EMA/NKF Workshop on GFR and ACR as endpoints for clinical trials in CKD, Silver Spring, MD 2018