Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The University of Pittsburgh received a $753,479 Project Grant awarded June 24, 2026, by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases under the Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.847) to evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of an enhanced population health management (PHM) intervention for chronic kidney disease (CKD) care delivery. The award funds research and implementation of K-CARE (Kidney-Coordinated Health Management Partnership), an electronic health record-based, multifaceted intervention designed to optimize collaboration between primary care physicians and nephrologists in delivering evidence-based CKD management. The intervention leverages a learning health system approach and includes centralized, remotely delivered services comprising nephrology electronic consultations, pharmacist-led medication management, nurse-led patient education, and physician academic detailing. The program has been scaled to 101 primary care practices within the health system, serving approximately 24% rural-living patients.

The study will evaluate the long-term effectiveness of the K-CARE intervention while addressing therapeutic inertia among primary care providers and unfamiliarity with current CKD guidelines through reinforced education and experiential case-based learning. Enhanced program components include a renal social worker to address medication affordability and social risk factors, along with expanded clinical capacity through renal dietitians and renal-palliative specialists. The project extends through March 31, 2030, and is expected to generate evidence supporting scalable, resource-efficient approaches to optimize population-level CKD care delivery across diverse healthcare settings.