Fresenius Medical Care North America Welcomes National Kidney Foundation Spring Clinical Meetings to Boston

FMCNA Welcomes National Kidney Foundation Spring Clinical Meetings To Boston | FMCNA

Company Presents 17 Abstracts Highlighting Commitment to Improving Patient Outcomes and Promise of Remote Monitoring for Home Dialysis Patients

WALTHAM, Mass. – May 9, 2019 – Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA), the nation’s leading renal care company, headquartered in Waltham, Mass., welcomes the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Spring Clinical Meetings to Boston. The company is presenting 17 abstracts and posters highlighting efforts to improve patient outcomes, including a retrospective analysis that suggests home peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients who are remotely monitored by a connected Liberty Cycler machine stay on the modality longer, have higher transplantation rates and lower mortality rates.

“We are pleased to welcome this important clinical meeting by the National Kidney Foundation to our company’s hometown,” said Bill Valle, CEO of FMCNA. “Our many presentations at the NKF Spring Clinical Meetings reinforce our commitment to driving vital industry research to ensure the highest quality of care possible for people living with kidney disease.”

For more than 25 years, nephrology healthcare professionals from across the country have come to the NKF Spring Clinical Meetings to learn about the newest developments related to all aspects of clinical nephrology and to present their research findings. It is being held this year from May 8-12 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

In a poster presentation titled “Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Longevity on Peritoneal Dialysis (PD),” data from 714 patients using remote monitoring with the Liberty Cycler was compared to 12,032 patients using standard communication between 2012-2017. The retrospective analysis shows that patients who used remote monitoring stayed on PD an average of 44 days longer, had an 11 percent lower rate of stopping PD and a 19 percent higher rate of transplantation.

“Our research continues to demonstrate the benefits of connected health platforms for our home dialysis machines, including the Liberty Cycler and NxStage System One,” said Dr. Robert Kossmann, Chief Medical Officer for FMCNA. “We are committed to furthering innovation around connected health technologies to ensure home dialysis is even better and easier for our patients.”

Highlights of FMCNA poster presentations and abstracts at the 2019 NKF Spring Clinical Meeting include:

• Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Longevity on Peritoneal Dialysis (PD): An Analysis Controlling for Confounding by PD Start Year. This data analysis shows how home dialysis patients using remote monitoring with the Liberty Cycler stayed on the modality longer and achieved higher transplantation rates. This poster (number 371) will be presented by Linda Ficociello, DSc.

• Treatment Adherence and Technique Failure Risk in Home Hemodialysis Patients. This observational research demonstrates that higher home hemodialysis (HHD) treatment adherence is associated with lower risk of technique failure. It also suggests that dialysis providers can use Nx2me Connected Health to measure HHD treatment adherence in a timely manner and improve patient retention on HHD. This poster (number 376) will be presented by Eric Weinhandl, PhD.
• Impacts of Ultrasound Guided Access Cannulations in Hemodialysis Patients. This quality improvement pilot shows how ultrasound guided cannulation using a handheld ultrasound device may improve success rates and decrease infiltrations. This poster presentation (number 307) will be given by Sheetal Chaudhuri.

• Algorithm for Scheduling Nurse Visits for Dialysis Patients. This presentation highlights an effort to automate the scheduling of nurses which may improve efficiency, give priority to patients that need more visits and allow for high priority patients to be seen sooner, avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations. This poster (number 430) will be presented by Andrew Long, PhD.

More information about the NKF Spring Clinical Meetings can be found here: kidney.org/spring-clinical 

About Fresenius Medical Care North America

Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA) is the premier healthcare company focused on providing the highest quality care to people with renal and other chronic conditions. Through its industry-leading network of dialysis facilities, outpatient cardiac and vascular labs and urgent care centers, Fresenius Medical Care North America provides coordinated healthcare services at pivotal care points for hundreds of thousands of chronically ill customers throughout the continent. As the world’s largest fully integrated renal company, it offers specialty pharmacy and laboratory services, and manufactures and distributes the most comprehensive line of dialysis equipment, disposable products and renal pharmaceuticals. For more information, visit the FMCNA website at https://fmcna.com.