Nomenclature for kidney function and disease: Executive summary and glossary from a Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Consensus Conference

sible, professional, and expeditious delivery of knowledge from researchers and practitioners to the wider community [1]. The task of journal editors, therefore, rests not merely in selecting what to publish, but in large measure judging how it can best be communicated. The challenge of improving descriptions of kidney function and disease in medical publishing was the impetus for a Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Consensus Conference held in June 2019. The conference goals included standardizing and refining kidney-related nomenclature used in English-language scientific articles and developing a glossary that can be used by journals [2]. The rationale for the conference was that the worldwide burden of kidney disease is rising, but public awareness remains limited, underscoring the need for effective communication by stakeholders in the kidney health community [3-6]. Despite this need, the nomenclature for describing kidney function and disease lacks uniformity and clarity. Two decades ago, a survey of hundreds of published articles and meeting abstracts reported a broad array of overlapping, confusing terms for chronic kidney disease (CKD) and advocated adoption of unambiguous terminology [7]. Nevertheless, terms flagged by that analysis as problematic, such as “chronic renal failure” and “pre-dialysis,” still appear in current-day Nomenclature for kidney function and disease: Executive summary and glossary from a Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Consensus Conference Andrew S. Levey, Kai-Uwe Eckardt, Nijsje M. Dorman, Stacy L. Christiansen, Michael Cheung, Michel Jadoul, Wolfgang C. Winkelmayer Division of Nephrology, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA Department of Nephrology and Medical Intensive Care, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany Managing Editor, American Journal of Kidney Diseases Managing Editor, Journal of the American Medical Association Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO), Brussels, Belgium Cliniques Universitaires Saint Luc, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium Selzman Institute for Kidney Health, Section of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA Special Article