Resource Hub: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) screening

Accessing patient data: To view the list of patients, click on the link in your Clinical Insights report ‘Visit POLAR here’.

The link will take you to a live report in POLAR Explorer where you can see a list of your re-identified patients.

If you’re not already logged in to POLAR Explorer, when you click on the link you’ll need to LOG IN first and validate your email address and mobile number before being redirected to your patient list. View various POLAR walkthrough step-by-step guides designed to help you navigate POLAR.

Your clinical software provider can provide support with recalling patients via your clinical software.

• Best Practice
• Medical Director

Recalling patients: Consider which patients on the list should be reviewed. View the below text/email template to support you with patient recalls.  

Chronic Condition Management Plan: Some patients may be eligible for a GP Chronic Condition Management Plan. Guidance and templates for Chronic Conditions Management Plan is available via Services Australia: GP chronic condition management plan – Health professionals – Services Australia 
Latest news as of 1 July 2025 for Chronic Conditions Management Plan items can be found via the following news article: New GP Chronic Conditions Management Framework and MBS Items in effect from 1 July 2025 – EMPHN

POLAR walkthroughs are short step-by-step guides designed to help you navigate POLAR.

How to log onto POLAR:

1. Go to: polarexplorer.org.au/login

2. Note if you do not have a user login set up contact your POLAR administration or digitalhealth@emphn.org.au.
3. The first time you login you will be asked to validate your details with a code that will be sent to your email address and mobile phone number.

How to re-identify patients from your report:

1. Once logged in, select Report then the appropriate report.
2. Select Patient List (top right-hand side) to export to Excel.

Clinical considerations to help you navigate the report
These are some clinical considerations from KHA guidelines regarding eGFR

• GFR is accepted as the best overall measure of kidney function and can be estimated (eGFR) from serum creatinine
• eGFR is a more sensitive marker for CKD than serum creatinine alone
• In the context of normal urinary ACR results, further investigation of reduced eGFR is usually only required if the eGFR is <60 mL/min/1.73m2 or declining
• eGFR may be unreliable/misleading in the following clinical situations:
  • Acute changes in kidney function (e.g., AKI)
  • People on dialysis
  • Recent consumption of cooked meat (consider re-assessment when the individual has fasted or specifically avoided a cooked meat meal within 4 hours of blood sampling).
  • Exceptional dietary intake (e.g., vegetarian diet, high protein diet, creatine supplements)
  • Extremes of body size
  • Conditions of skeletal muscle, paraplegia, or amputees (may overestimate eGFR)
  • High muscle mass (may underestimate eGFR)
  • People under the age of 18 years
  • Severe liver disease is present
  • eGFR values above 90mL/min/1.73m2
  • Drugs interacting with creatinine excretion (e.g., trimethoprim)
  • Pregnancy
  • Minor changes in eGFR (≤15% change) could be due to physiological or laboratory variability 

• The recommended frequency of Kidney Health Check.

Source: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Management in Primary Care (5th edition). Kidney Health Australia, Melbourne, 2024.

Kidney Health Australia (KHA) Health Professional Hub
The KHA Health Professionals Hub is an online platform where clinicians can register to access resources, news, latest research and educational webinars.

Clinicians can refer patients to KHA via the Kidney Helpline. Referring patients to Kidney Health Australia gives them access to KHA staff to provide relevant information and answers to their questions.

HealthPathways Melbourne
HealthPathways Melbourne is a clinical management and referral resource designed for use during consultations. It gives clinicians a single website to access clinical referral pathways and resources.

• Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) pathway

The Kidney Health Australia (KHA) website has several consumer resources to support your patients with understanding and managing CKD.

Highlighted resource from the website: How to Ask for a Kidney Health Check educates consumers who are at risk of CKD and empowers them to ask for a Kidney Health Check.

Data are only extracted from designated fields within the clinical software—not free text progress notes. Using standard codes can improve data quality and report accuracy.

Blood pressure can be captured if it is recorded in the below shown locations in the respective clinical softwares.

Medical Director:

1. From within the Clinical Window, select Tools > Tool Box > Blood Pressure. The Blood Pressure tab appears.
2. Enter values manually or via a device.

Best Practice:

1. From the patient record, select Observations from the tree on the left-hand side.

2. Click Add in the top-left corner of the observations screen. The Observations screen will appear.