Thursday, February 27, 2020
Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA), the nation's leading provider of kidney care products and services, today announced the planned rollout of a new telehealth solution for its home dialysis patients. Telehealth aims to continue the rapid growth of home therapies by improving collaboration among patients, the clinical care team, and physicians.
After implementing a series of pilot programs in 2019, FMCNA signed an agreement this month to seamlessly integrate telehealth into theHub, the company's connected health platform.
"We are excited to bring this user-friendly telehealth solution to our home dialysis patients, part of our effort to improve the experience for patients managing their own treatments," said Joe Turk, President of Home and Critical Care Therapies for FMCNA. "This solution will help people living with kidney disease better connect with their care team, including nephrologists, nurses, social workers, and dietitians."
As a result of federal legislation, Medicare now allows a home dialysis patient to meet with their nephrologist and care team for their monthly clinical visit via telehealth under certain conditions. Many private insurers also support telehealth. The solution seeks to increase access to care and reduce the burden of travel for patients, especially those in rural areas. Telehealth also provides a more frequent visual touchpoint with the care team, helping patients succeed on home therapies.
"We have rapidly accelerated development of new connected health technologies to improve the patient, physician, and staff experience," said Dr. Ahmad Sharif, Chief Medical Information Officer for FMCNA. "When home patients are more connected to their care team through remote monitoring, recent studies show fewer hospital admissions and less technique failure. This new telehealth solution will be critical to expanding the adoption of home dialysis for people living with kidney failure."
While initially launching in select markets, the new telehealth solution is expected to roll out more widely later this year.
In October 2019, FMCNA launched theHub connected health platform, which brought together three separate components under one integrated system. The platform enables patients, care teams, and providers to better collaborate and monitor patient treatments.
