The US Renal Data System (USRDS) was established in 1988 to collect and analyze information on the incidence, prevalence, morbidity, and mortality of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States.1 Today it has 6 goals: to characterize the patient population; report on the incidence, prevalence, and mortality rates and trends over time; analyze the effects of modality of treatment; describe treatment trends and patterns in chronic kidney disease (CKD), highlight contemporary issues of national importance to the CKD/ESRD population (eg, transitions from CKD to ESRD and early mortality after initiation of dialysis) and opportunities for more focused study; conduct economic analyses of the costs of CKD and ESRD; and make data available to investigators for research studies.