Kidney Research in BC

British Columbia is home to a province-wide community of kidney care professionals and research teams involved in a broad range of local, provincial and international research projects. Their work is enabled through a robust provincial research infrastructure that includes various resources, supports and tools offered by academic institutions, health authorities, research institutes, research funders, and organizations focused specifically on kidney care and research.

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By helping BC researchers access resources and engage with the broader kidney research community in the province, the BC Kidney Research Collaboratory plays an important supportive role for enabling high quality kidney research.

BC’s Research Assets

Provincial data source

An important resource for kidney researchers is BC’s Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS). The only database of its kind in Canada, PROMIS is an integrated provincial registry and clinical information system that houses health data for every kidney disease and transplant patient living in British Columbia. The Collaboratory team can help researchers navigate access to the data held in PROMIS and other databases.

Researchers who wish to access PROMIS data must complete an Information Sharing Agreement.

Kidney research specialties

British Columbia is home to clinicians and researchers with expertise in the following areas:

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) management
Dialysis management
Glomerulonephritis (GN)
Genetic and/or rare kidney disease, biomarkers
Outcomes on disease progression
Diet, Nutrition and Metabolism
Infections and complications
Economic impact of CKD
Environment and sustainability
Medication adoption
Risk prediction
Artificial intelligence

Clinical trials expertise

BC has built an international reputation for clinical trial excellence related to kidney disease. BC kidney researchers are involved in or leading many clinical trials to improve quality of care and outcomes for patients.

Patient partners in research

Kidney research benefits from the involvement of BC patients living with kidney disease. In addition to participating in clinical trials, patients can be involved as research partners, helping inform research priorities and processes. The following resources can help you learn more about involving patient partners in your research projects.

Patient Engagement (Can-SOLVE CKD Network)
Patient and Family Engagement (BC Renal)
Lived Experience Expertise (Kidney Foundation)
Patient-Oriented Research (BC SUPPORT Unit)

Improving patient care

BC’s kidney care system features a close connection between research and clinical care. Kidney researchers strive to ensure their research is put into practice, sharing their work at province-wide clinical rounds and collaborating with clinicians to make sure new knowledge is translated into improved patient care.

In addition to more traditional research, health authority renal/kidney program clinicians work to advance kidney care through ongoing quality improvement. In fiscal 2025/26, there were more than 40 quality improvement projects underway across all regions of the province. Projects range from improving physician teaching materials for pediatric kidney care to developing virtual reality training materials for patients who are doing home hemodialysis.

Research productivity

Drawing from PROMIS data and BC’s robust research infrastructure, BC-based kidney researchers have an international reputation for excellence. Their work is regularly published in high-quality peer-reviewed journals. The Collaboratory has supported more than 400 of these papers over the past 10 years, as illustrated in the following graph.

Publications

Below is a partial list of publications involving BC researchers across all nephrology subject categories.