Our strategy

La Isla Network conducts independent, scientific investigations together with leading research institutions to provide evidence-driven policy recommendations, protecting the workforce, supporting industry leaders, and giving technical support to companies and governments seeking to address CKDnT.

There are four general components to our work to address CKDnT:

  • Standardizing prevalence research methods to improve disease surveillance around the world through the DEGREE Study. As we discover the geographic scale and burden of CKDnT, researchers can better allocate resources to investigating CKDnT’s causes.
  • Studying causal associations to better understand the risk factors of CKDnT, supporting interventions to protect at-risk populations from the disease. Read more about our recent Nicaraguan cohort study via the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
  • Taking an intervention approach, exemplified by the WE Program, which applies leading hypotheses of the disease’s causes in order to make targeted improvements of working conditions for at-risk populations. Resulting changes in workers’ health and productivity provide data for policymakers to respond to CKDnT. The WE Program provides the foundation for the Adelante Initiative, a multi-sectoral collaboration to improve workplace practices and ensure learnings from the WE Program are applied in the agricultural sector and beyond.
  • Recommending evidence-based policy changes to governments and companies seeking to respond to the CKDnT crisis. (e.g., the 2015 Costa Rican decree, our work with OSHA and CDC-NIOSH on the WE Program, and legal consultations with Nicaraguan ministries of health and labor.)