Seeking out SDGs in Dialysis Medicine—Selected Articles from the JSDT Conference, Yokohama 2022

The 67th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy (JSDT) was held in Yokohama City from 1 to3 July, 2022 [1] and took as its theme ‘Seeking Sustainable Development Goals for Dialysis Medicine.’ The JSDT was founded in 1968 as the Dialysis Research Association and comprises some 18,000 members [2].

The Annual Meetings of the JSDT have always focused on dialysis medicine per se, but their scope is now expanding to encompass modality selection for renal replacement therapy. Since last year, cases of patients who have ’withdrawn’ from dialysis have become a social issue, and the publication of a formal guide for palliative care in renal failure patients, which is essential for patients who have withdrawn from dialysis therapy, was published in 2021. The objectives of the dialysis medicine should include not only the quality of dialysis therapy but also the selection of dialysis modality, renal failure complications, the aging of the patient population, healthcare economics, thanatology, multidisciplinary team medicine, and community healthcare.

Rapid changes in society, healthcare economics and dialysis medicine present us with new challenges and opportunities, hence the relevance of the concept of the Sustainable Development Goals to our specific field.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a fundamental part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a ‘shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future’ [3]. The SDGs, 17 in number, are recognized by all UN Member States and apply to everyone, for the benefit of everyone.

Working together as a medical discipline to better serve our patients’ needs will involve maintaining some of our tried and tested approaches, while at the same time embracing new concepts, technologies, and methodologies. The object of our own ‘SDGs’ must be to articulate the totality of this need and present it in a framework that is simple, accessible, memorable, and actionable.

What should we agree are our key goals? How should these be defined and measured? How should they be worded to be concise, clear and unequivocal? How many goals should we have, how many subordinate goals should each contain, and what is the timeline for achieving them? These are the key questions that the 67th Annual Meeting of JSDT in Yokohama City sought to address.

This Special Issue presents a selection of the papers presented at the conference. They discuss cardiovascular complication, renal anemia, CKD–MBD, diabetes and nutrition, frailty and sarcopenia, rehabilitation, and environmental issues. It is our hope that the papers collected in this Special Issue will take us a significant step closer to finding the answers. The Guest Editors would like to express their gratitude to all the authors who have contributed to this Special Issue.