Remote Patient Management for Home Dialysis Patients.

Overview

Remote patient management (RPM) offers renal health care providers and patients with end-stage kidney disease opportunities to embrace home dialysis therapies with greater confidence and the potential to obtain better clinical outcomes. Barriers and evidence required to increase adoption of RPM by the nephrology community need to be clearly defined. Ten health care providers from specialties including nephrology, cardiology, pediatrics, epidemiology, nursing, and health informatics with experience in home dialysis and the use of RPM systems gathered in Vienna, Austria to discuss opportunities for, barriers to, and system requirements of RPM as it applies to the home dialysis patient. Although improved outcomes and cost-effectiveness of RPM have been demonstrated in patients with diabetes mellitus and heart disease, only observational data on RPM have been gathered in patients on dialysis. The current review focused on RPM systems currently in use, on how RPM should be integrated into future care, and on the evidence needed for optimized implementation to improve clinical and economic outcomes. Randomized controlled trials and/or large observational studies could inform the most effective and economical use of RPM in home dialysis. These studies are needed to establish the value of existing and/or future RPM models among patients, policy makers, and health care providers.