Two-Way Patient Monitoring in PD: Technical Description of Sharesource

Technology, Telehealth, and Nephrology: The Time Is Now

“…Remote monitoring in high-risk dialysis patients has been linked to decreased hospitalizations, improve quality of life, and cost savings in hemodialysis patients (13), and decreased emergency room visits, reduced disease burden, and improve compliance in PD patients (14). Innovative technology is being used to create simpler machines with touch screens, intuitive setup, and verbal feedback to the patient (15,16). Cloud-based platforms now allow a secure connection with many PD cyclers; this allows remote viewing of treatment summaries including prescription details, ultrafiltration, and any lost dwells, and in some cases allows the nurse or the physician to instantaneously change the prescription for the next cycle of PD (15).…”

“…Innovative technology is being used to create simpler machines with touch screens, intuitive setup, and verbal feedback to the patient (15,16). Cloud-based platforms now allow a secure connection with many PD cyclers; this allows remote viewing of treatment summaries including prescription details, ultrafiltration, and any lost dwells, and in some cases allows the nurse or the physician to instantaneously change the prescription for the next cycle of PD (15). Wearable artificial kidneys and implantable artificial kidneys are under investigation, and telenephrology will likely play a central role in the implementation of these once they become available (17).…”

Automated Remote Monitoring for Peritoneal Dialysis and Its Impact on Blood Pressure

“…Alarms with a red flag signified as follows: treatment time lost ≥30 min, bypass drain ≥ twice, bypass dwell/fill ≥3 times, and the number of other events ≥10. Important alarms, which signaled the occurrence of any form of adherence problem through the treatment, were considered as patients missing a treatment, lost connectivity, having 3 yellow flags or 1 red flag [12]. When any important alarms were received, the physician was informed by the nurse, and the physician intervened to solve the problem (i.e., contacting the patients, modification of drugs or dialysis therapy, and call for a clinical visit).…”