Commissioning of Work Group and ERT The KDIGO Co-Chairs appointed the Work Group Co- Chairs, who then assembled the Work Group of domain experts, including individuals with expertise in internal medicine, adult and pediatric nephrology, cardiology, hypertension, pharmacology, epidemiology, and endocrinol- ogy. The Tufts Center for Kidney Disease Guideline Development and Implementation at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, was contracted to conduct systematic evidence review and provide expertise in guideline development methodology. The ERT consisted of physician methodologists with expertise in nephrology, a project coordinator and manager, and a research assistant. The ERT instructed and advised Work Group members in all steps of literature review, critical literature appraisal, and guideline development. The Work Group and the ERT collaborated closely throughout the project. Defining scope and topics The Work Group Co-Chairs first defined the overall scope and goals of the guideline and then drafted a preliminary list of topics and key clinical questions. The Work Group and ERT further developed and refined each topic and specified screening criteria, literature search strategies, and data extraction forms (Table 5). Given the lack of robust evidence, the Work Group decided not to make guideline recommendations for patients with kidney failure (CKD 5D). The Work Group decided instead to refer readers to the KDIGO Controversies Conference paper on this topic.4 Establishing the process for guideline development The ERT performed literature searches and organized abstract and article screening. The ERT also coordinated the methodological and analytical processes and defined and standardized the methodology for performing literature searches, data extraction, and summarizing the evidence. Throughout the project, the ERT offered suggestions for guideline development and led discussions on systematic review, literature searches, data extraction, assessment of quality and applicability of articles, evidence synthesis, grading of evidence and guideline recommendations, and consensus development. 