End-Stage Renal Disease Models in the Americas: Optimizing Resources to Achieve Better Health Outcomes

End-stage renal disease, the last and most severe stage of chronic kidney disease, represents a major and rising concern for countries in Latin America, driven in large part by aging populations and the near-epidemic rises in diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. This places a great clinical, economic, and social burden on the region's health systems. During the ISPOR 6th Latin America Conference held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in September 2017, an educational forum debated on value-based decision making in the treatment of end-stage renal disease in Latin America. We summarize the current state and how to build strategies and implement actions to move to a more patient-centered, outcomes-based approach for renal care in the region, taken from the discussions in the conference and also from a literature review. Models of renal care used in Ontario (Canada), Colombia, and a Chilean hospital stress the importance of empowering and supporting patients and their families, allowing for a better coordination between primary care providers and specialists, providing financial incentives to health units, and establishing an entity that holds insurers and providers accountable for health outcomes and costs of treatment. The study uses the framework of value-based health care for the evaluation of different dialysis options-peritoneal dialysis, hemodialysis, home dialysis, and so forth-and calls for the countries to adopt an integrated care model. We emphasize that countries in Latin America need to recognize the chronic kidney disease challenge and develop health systems and efficient renal care models to be able to reduce the burden of the disease.