How this S.F. startup is taking on chronic kidney disease

Using a mix of remote, in-person and at-home care services, the program helps patients manage their CKD, slow down the progression to kidney failure and, if necessary, get prepared so that they’re not starting off dialysis in the hospital.

 Dialysis Is a Way of Life for Many Older Patients. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be

So-called conservative management can ease symptoms without dialysis in some people with kidney disease. But many of them are never given the option.

 Hemodialysis: New research could vastly improve this life-sustaining treatment for kidney failure patients

Hemodialysis is a life-sustaining treatment for kidney failure patients to clean and filter their blood of waste products, salts and excess fluid. However, this membrane-based therapy is not perfect, and hemodialysis patients experience acute side-effects, life-threatening chronic conditions and unacceptably high morbidity and mortality rates.

 John Oliver targets dialysis, a procedure that’s exhausting, deadly, and very profitable

It would be far better for DaVita and Fresenius’s patients to get kidney transplants, which extends your lifespan by about 10 years on average, relative to remaining on dialysis, while avoiding exhausting, time-consuming treatment that makes holding down a job or traveling extremely difficult. But as Oliver notes, many dialysis centers fail to give patients information on transplantation, or actively discourage them from getting on the kidney waitlist. Partly as a result, about 40 percent of people eligible for a kidney transplant aren’t on the waiting list for one.

 The current and future landscape of dialysis

The development of dialysis by early pioneers such as Willem Kolff and Belding Scribner set in motion several dramatic changes in the epidemiology, economics and ethical frameworks for the treatment of kidney failure. However, despite a rapid expansion in the provision of dialysis — particularly haemodialysis and most notably in high-income countries (HICs) — the rate of true patient-centred innovation has slowed.

Dialysis, There's No Place Like Home

Kidney failure and its treatment dialysis is overwhelming the medical systems of many countries. Could home hemodialysis be the answer? Besides that, people may actually live longer and healthier lives!

Kidney Dialysis - Can We Save Billions of Dollars?

Could an existing group of commonly used and relatively inexpensive prescription drugs save billions of dollars worldwide in healthcare costs. A doctor in Missouri seems to think so!

Learning to Say No to Dialysis

People over age 75 are the fastest-growing segment of patients on dialysis, and the treatment’s benefits and drawbacks add up differently for them than for younger patients. A growing number of nephrologists and researchers are pushing for more educated and deliberative decision making when seniors contemplate dialysis. It is a choice, they say, not an imperative.

Recent advances in the management of hemodialysis patients: a focus on cardiovascular disease

The number of patients requiring chronic hemodialysis is rapidly growing worldwide. Hemodialysis both greatly reduces quality of life and is associated with extremely high mortality rates. Management of care of patients requiring chronic hemodialysis is complex, and randomized controlled trials aimed at reducing primary outcomes of cardiovascular disease events, mortality, or both in this population have largely been unsuccessful.

Silicon Isn't Just for Computers. It Can Make a Pretty Good Kidney, Too

EVERY WEEK, TWO million people across the world will sit for hours, hooked up to a whirring, blinking, blood-cleaning dialysis machine. Their alternatives: Find a kidney transplant or die.

The History of Hemodialysis

It was not until the 1940s that researchers finally established a scientific basis advanced enough to support the first therapeutic trials. The discoveries and inventions of dedicated doctors and scientists are to thank for the advances that have cleared the way for continuous technological improvement over the decades.

Why people with kidney disease opt for palliative care over dialysis

It is starting to be recognised that some people with ESRD will not benefit from dialysis, particularly because it can shorten life. The difficulty is in identifying those for whom dialysis might hasten death. Increasing frailty, additional co-morbidities and poor functional status is likely to reduce your chance of effective dialysis. Quality of life is another important issue.

“God Help You. You're on Dialysis.”

Every year, more than 100,000 Americans start dialysis. One in four of them will die within 12 months—a fatality rate that is one of the worst in the industrialized world. Oh, and dialysis arguably costs more here than anywhere else.