Hema Metrics Partners with Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Disease Management Firm, KiDNE, to Create First-Ever, Collaborative Life-Saving Preventative Treatment Program for Kidney Hemodialysis
BOSTON--April 8, 2003---Partnership brings together providers, dialysis clinics and device manufacturer to improve patient health and prevent costly hospitalizations through innovative vascular access management tool for enhanced patient monitoring-
Hema Metrics, a leading manufacturer of a non-invasive blood monitoring system, announced today that it has partnered with Boston-based disease management firm, KiDNE, to provide its proprietary Crit-Line(TM) patient monitor for hemodialysis vascular access management. Through closer monitoring of kidney dialysis patients' vascular access with Crit-Line, KiDNE case managers can identify potential obstructions and infections before patients suffer extensive damage to the access or other life-threatening complications such as congestive heart failure and cardiac arrest. This proactive, collaborative disease management program also has a high rate of return for the healthcare industry: hospitalization avoidance saves thousands of dollars for the insurance company and the provider who is paid on a capitated basis, while preserving revenue for the dialysis company by enabling the patient to maintain their treatment schedule.
KiDNE, formed through a partnership of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dialysis Clinic Inc. and Partners Healthcare, is a disease management company focused on caring for chronically ill kidney dialysis patients. An estimated 370,000 Americans with kidney disease rely on dialysis machines to cleanse blood of waste, salt and excess water while balancing other chemical levels. Insurers spend more than $18 billion a year on kidney dialysis, as costs for a single dialysis patient can reach $65,000 or more per year.
As a way to reach its dual goals of improving the quality of care for Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates' patients and curtailing patient costs through avoiding hospital admissions and complications, KiDNE case managers have begun using Hema Metrics' Crit-Line monitors to better evaluate the status and function of patients' vascular accesses during dialysis. The formal selection of Hema Metrics follows a five-month pilot project conducted by KiDNE's two case managers with 24 Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates patients throughout Eastern Massachusetts.
"With the remarkable success of this pilot project, KiDNE's innovative partnership has shown the industry how easy and cost-efficient it is to use Crit-Line to effectively monitor vascular access to prevent costly complications and damage to patient health," said Michael Magliochetti, Ph.D, CEO of Hema Metrics. "Before long, I think more health insurance and disease management companies nationwide will see the wisdom and bottom-line value of this collaborative approach to using new technologies to proactively manage patient health and control costs."
The access monitoring process
A vascular access is a way to reach the blood for hemodialysis; typically through a fistula or graft that joins an artery and vein in the patient's arm. At the beginning of each dialysis treatment, a nurse places two needles into the access that are connected to the dialysis machine by soft tubes. Blood goes to the machine through one of the tubes, gets cleaned in the dialyzer, and returns to the patient through the other tube.
KiDNE case managers visit patients once a month or more at their regular dialysis locations and use the Crit-Line monitor to measure the velocity of the blood volume through the access and then compare it to the patient's previously recorded levels. A decrease in the volume could be an indication of an obstruction or clotting in the access, which prevents the patient from receiving the correct amount of dialysis and could result in multiple complications including damage to and loss of the access, build up of toxins in the blood, congestive heart failure, and cardiac arrest.
With the close monitoring enabled by Crit-Line, case managers can intervene at the earliest signs of an obstruction and recommend testing and non-invasive, radiologic treatments for the obstruction. This preventative treatment saves the patient from losing a fragile access, extensive and expensive hospitalizations, and major life-threatening complications.
"Our case managers are extremely pleased with the initial results," said Jane Connor, clinical manager of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates. "We've been able to prevent obstructions and complications in at least three patients thus far, saving them stress, pain, expense and improving the quality of their care. The patients have been very receptive to the program and appreciative of the investment KiDNE and Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates have made to provide this preventative care, which could mean the difference between life and death for them."
"The Crit-Line monitor has the potential to make a difference to the care of our patients," said Dr. Ajay Singh, medical director of KiDNE and renal division clinical director of Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Early intervention and proper maintenance of the vascular access is crucial to the health and welfare of dialysis patients. Reducing the need for hospitalization with easy, consistent access monitoring with Crit-Line would be in the best long-term interests of patients."
About Hema Metrics
Hema Metrics, a privately held medical technology company, currently manufactures and sells the Crit-Line(TM) product platform which enables the continuous real-time measurement of vital whole blood parameters such as hematocrit, percent change in blood volume, saturated oxygen and access blood flow as an adjunct to hemodialysis therapy. Hema Metrics has established a product portfolio encompassing both extracorporeal and transcutaneous blood parameter monitoring. Expectations reflected in any forward looking statements cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. For more information about Hema Metrics, visit us at www.hemametrics.com.