PGIMER research advances evidence-based approaches for better kidney health in India

Research led by Dr Ashok Kumar Yadav, Additional Professor, Department of Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, has been featured by the Department of Biotechnology/Wellcome Trust India Alliance in its “Health Systems in Practice: Research Shaping Healthcare Delivery” series for advancing evidence-based approaches to improve kidney care in India.

The study team included the expert from departments of Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology, Nephrology, Biochemistry, Pharmacology andSchool of Public health at PGIMER, Chandigarh.

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The study benefited from extensive national and the international collaborations with experts from JIPMER, Puducherry, the George Institute for Global Health, New Delhi; Tufts University School of Medicine, USA; Evelina Children’s Hospital, United Kingdom; and the University of Liège, Belgium.

Dr Yadav’s research focuses on improving the diagnosis, monitoring, and management of kidney diseases through the development and validation of clinically useful biomarkers and more accurate methods for estimating kidney function in Indian populations. These have important implications because accurately assessing kidney function is critical for diagnosing and staging chronic kidney disease, determining medication dosages, evaluating potential kidney donors, and guiding treatment decisions.

The commonly used kidney function estimation equations were primarily developed in European and North American populations and not accurate in Indian population.

Compared with the Western population, Indians tend to have lower muscle mass and different dietary patterns, factors that may influence the accuracy of these estimates.

Dr Yadav and his team have demonstrated the importance of developing and validating kidney function equations specific to Indian populations. Their recent work on recalibrating the European Kidney Function Consortium (EKFC) eGFR equation for the Indian population represents an important step toward more accurate kidney disease assessment and risk stratification.

The work highlights a broader message for healthcare research in India: solutions are most effective when they are built around local realities. High-quality evidence generated from Indian populations is essential for developing diagnostic tools and clinical practices that are accurate, relevant, and implementable within the country’s healthcare system.

Prof H S Kohli, Head of Department of Nephrology at PGIMER who mentored this work and facilitated the collaborations, emphasized the need of fostering collaborations and sharing expertise so that the larger goals of public health could be achieved. Prof Dibyajyoti Banerjee , HoD, Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology appreciated the endeavour and encouraged all faculty to undertake such task.