VvE Publication Award Junior Researcher 2022

The board of the Netherlands Society for Epidemiology is very pleased to offer the VvE Publication Award Junior Researcher to:

Edouard Fu

With the publication: “Timing of dialysis initiation to reduce mortality and cardiovascular events in advanced chronic kidney disease: nationwide cohort study”

The jury, consisting of Prof. Bart Kiemeney from Radboudumc Nijmegen, Prof. Myriam Hunink from Erasmus MC and Prof. Jos Twisk from Amsterdam UMC, has drawn up the following jury report:

“In this paper, Edouard Fu and colleagues investigated what the optimal estimated glomerular filtration rate is to start dialysis among patients with advanced chronic kidney disease. In theory, this research question can best be studied using a clinical trial. Although one such trial is available, this trial compared only two filtration rate levels and the results did not lead to clear guidelines, allowing a lot of variability in clinical management. A new multi-arm trial would be very difficult to conduct. For that reason, Fu and colleagues used observational data from Sweden. But such observational data create specific methodological challenges: immortal time bias, lead time bias and survivor bias. To cope with these challenges and mimic an RCT they used cloning, censoring and a weighting method. Instead of only impressing the reader with methodological terminology, they went the extra mile by including a detailed supplement of nine pages with an explanation of the possibilities of bias and their remedy against them. The result is a very convincing answer, despite the observational design, that mortality and cardiovascular events can be reduced by an earlier start of dialysis, but that these risk reductions may not outweigh the burden of a longer period spent on dialysis. The Jury would like to congratulate the authors, not only for the excellent research but also for teaching the research methodology to their readers. The paper fits perfectly in the motto of this congress: Epidemiology is an art indeed.”

The VvE Publication Award Junior Researcher was awarded on 10 June 2022 during the annual epidemiological conference (WEON), organized by Radboudumc Nijmegen.