Fresenius Medical Care, a global leader in dialysis treatment, has taken another step in moving dialysis from clinical settings to the home.
Fresenius introduced the Kinexus Therapy Management Platform for home dialysis, which connects clinicians to patients and helps create more personalized care. The cloud-based system supports management of peritoneal dialysis on the Liberty Select cycler and is designed to improve workflows, productivity and patient outcomes.
The company said the new platform aims to accelerate the adoption of home dialysis by making it easier for patient data to flow more easily to care teams.
“The patient doesn’t actually see anything different on their end, but they may no longer have to fill out paper flow sheets documenting their treatment, because that information is transmitted to the clinic electronically,” Joe Turk, president of Home and Critical Care Therapies for Fresenius Medical Care North America, told McKnigt’s Home Care Daily. “The patient may also have peace of mind knowing they are now connected to their care team.”
Fresenius said using a connected platform like Kinexus could reduce hospitalizations and patient dropout.
The trend to move dialysis aways from centers and into patients’ homes has gained momentum since the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched the Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative two years ago. As part of the initiative, the End Stage Renal Disease Treatment Choices (ETC) Model ties Medicare payments for some patients to in-home dialysis.
About 37 million Americans — 15% of the adult population — suffer from chronic kidney disease. Roughly 800,000 of those patients require dialysis.
This article originally appeared on McKnight's Senior Living
