Summary of the annual meeting of the Okinawa Dialysis and Transplant Association (ODTA40)

<p>The Okinawa Dialysis and Transplant Association (ODTA) holds an annual meeting. Its 40th meeting was held on March 5, 2023. The first ODTA meeting was held in 1983, which was 2 years after the settlement of the University of the Ryukyus. Okinawa is located in the southernmost part of Japan and consists of 47 inhabited small islands. We reviewed past programs to identify the trends of dialysis treatment in Okinawa. The total number of abstracts from the member hospitals and clinics was 1,635 consisting of 492 (30.1％) by physicians, 415 (25.4％) by technicians, and 728 (44.5％) by nursing staff. By reviewing the specially invited lectures, we identified topics that are still important for current practice such as kidney transplantation, continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, computer problems, and patient-reported outcomes including depression, loneliness, insomnia, and itching. In collaboration with the Okinawa Dialysis Physicians Association, we discuss several important management problems such as natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, water, and electric shortage), infection (new strains of influenza, COVID-19), and shortage of medical staff. With the collaboration of all dialysis units, we have been surveying COVID-19 infections since the beginning of February 2020. We found that a total of 1,047 dialysis patients (22.1％ of the total) were infected by the end of August 2022 which was lower than that of the general population (32.7％). We also surveyed the use of hypoxia inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase (HIF-PH) inhibitors from June to August 2021. A total of 196 patients have received treatment with HIF-PH inhibitors since December 2019 in 35 out of 74 dialysis units. Their mean age (duration of dialysis) was 68.5 (7.8) years and 32.7％ had diabetes mellitus. Upon overviewing the ODTA40, we aim to articulate the historical changes in dialysis therapy and future themes for better QOL and survival of dialysis patients. We hope that our findings will empower healthcare staff.</p>