Sustainable Community-Based CKD Screening Methods Employed by the National Kidney Foundation's Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP)

Abstract

This year, 2011, the National Kidney Foundation’s (NKF) Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP) celebrates its 11th anniversary, approaching 3,500 cumulative screening events conducted by 48 affiliates and reaching more than 165,000 people in communities across the country. KEEP serves as the largest and most comprehensive and sustained multicenter community-based chronic kidney disease (CKD) screening program in the United States. While focused on CKD, KEEP also functions as a unique means of screening for and discovering obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. The NKF’s approach to social marketing (Fig 1), patient education, and advocacy combined with KEEP’s data capabilities, longitudinal tracking, and feedback to clinicians have made the program the nation’s leading effort to screen for and intervene in chronic diseases. KEEP’s structure as an outreach effort, coupled with a sense of activism in recent years regarding primary prevention of chronic disease, has enabled sustained growth and international expansion.