Telenephrology: a novel approach to improve coordinated and collaborative care for chronic kidney disease

In this special feature article, we discuss the development of collaborative care models in chronic disease management and the need for such initiatives in chronic kidney disease (CKD). We identify telemedicine as a potential key element to collaborative care in CKD. Telenephrology-as telemedicine would be referred to as it is applied in CKD-would be comprised of various technology platforms and applications, which are described here. We describe a range of scenarios in which telenephrology would facilitate collaborative care in CKD and how it would be the basis for patient-oriented research to assess improvements in outcomes in the future.