title: [Clinical networks in nephrology].
abstract: Networking can be used to create a balance between the fragmentation of care (necessary to favor the accessibility of the service) and the high volumes necessary both to enable staff to develop specific expertise and to justify investments in new technologies and treatments. These requirements, however, are present in the care of any disease requiring expensive technologies and highly specific expertise. What is typical of kidney disease, like most complex chronic illnesses, is that it requires the presence of multiple specialists who work over a long period of time and across multiple stages (prevention, diagnosis, acute care, rehabilitation, follow-up) characterized by different levels of complexity and typically performed by different healthcare institutions. This has led, in different countries and specialties, to the development of managed and integrated care models. These issues were analyzed by the research project ''Strategic and organizational prospects of nephrology in Italy. An economic-business analysis,'' which involved a number of case studies on the organization of nephrology services.
authors.affiliation: Centro di Ricerche sulla Gestione dell'Assistenza Sanitaria e Sociale (CERGAS) e SDA Bocconi, Milano. valeria.tozzi@unibocconi.it
authors.forename: Valeria D
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Tozzi
mesh_terms: D007558:Italy; D009398:Nephrology / Q000458:organization & administration*