Finalist
Helping foster an unlikely partnership between Endocrinologists and Nephrologists: the European Hyponatraemia Network (EHN)
Summary of work
Hyponatraemia is the most common electrolyte disorder in hospitalised patients and is associated with poor prognosis and extended hospital stays. There is an increasing evidence of the association between hyponatraemia and increased morbidity, mortality and healthcare resource utilisation. The challenge this condition faces, however, is that there is no specialist who deals with this under-recognised condition. In addition the specialties most likely to come across this condition are not naturally associated with it and they required some form of fostered collaboration in order to encourage dialogue to improve treatment. The success of this European programme is due to the engagement of National stakeholders who feed back into the European group. This in turn has been aided by the development of tools that enable easy information exchange to be put into practice at a National level. Indeed the quote from one of the Chairs from Italy summarises this well. “I liked a lot the idea to have together endocrinologists and nephrologists, because they look at the … problem (HN) from a different perspective. The ‘cascade’ strategy was of fundamental importance … starting from the European level many national activities were started and already produced positive results. Overall, I feel that the EHN … should be continued in the years to come.”
Judges’ comments
Hyponatraemia is an under-treated condition that falls between the cracks. The programme was well-designed to share ideas about hyponatraemia, identify criticisms and find solutions. We would be interested to see the impact of the programme over time in terms of improved quality of life, utilisation of resources and potential cost savings.
