Lifeline Vascular Care is using smart wearable technology from Colorado-based Alio to monitor patients suffering from kidney failure.

Illinois-based Lifeline works with physician practices to develop and manage outpatient centres that provide focused and coordinated vascular access procedures to patients receiving haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis treatment for end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

ESRD is a medical condition in which a person’s kidneys cease functioning permanently leading to the need for a regular course of long-term dialysis or a kidney transplant to maintain life.

Alio uses artificial intelligence (AI) and its SmartPatch sensor technology to monitor non-invasively vascular access health and other chronic conditions faced by ESRD patients. Lifeline is a clinical trial partner, a purchaser of the Alio remote monitoring system and an active participant in value-based care arrangements.

Alio’s SmartPatch technology is expected to reduce potential complications and improve dialysis care team efficiency.

Lifeline owns, manages and operates a network of 40 outpatient surgical centres, which since inception have performed over 1.5 million patient encounters in the treatment of dialysis vascular access management and peripheral arterial disease (PAD). The network consists of office-based labs and walk-in surgical centres across the USA.

“We believe Alio’s innovative technology has the potential to provide our nephrologists with a tremendous opportunity to remotely monitor, analyse patient specific data, and direct needed interventions earlier, supporting better patient outcomes and an overall lower cost to the system,” said Barry Brostoff, vice president at Lifeline Vascular Care.

Lifeline has collaborated with Alio’s team to conduct clinical trial studies at its Cincinnati centre with Tony Samaha of the Dialysis Access Center of Cincinnati, and is planning another trial in its Huntsville joint venture, North Alabama Vascular & Dialysis Care, with John Clark of Nephrology Consultants of Alabama, before the end of the year.

Upon FDA approval of the Alio remote monitoring system, Lifeline plans to include SmartPatch products in its formulary, allowing its network of clients to use on a fee-for-service basis. Lifeline will work with Alio to facilitate the implementation of value-based care arrangements with centres within its network.

“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Lifeline, and we believe our dialysis patient management offering and expansion into peripheral vascular solutions will complement Lifeline’s overall growth strategy,” said David Kuraguntla, CEO of Alio. “The clinical trials with Lifeline will compare SmartPatch metrics baselined against current standard of care and support our pathway towards FDA approval across multiple metrics for ESRD and PAD. We are proud to be partnering with Lifeline in transforming the future of care for patients living with chronic disease.”

Alio wearable technology enables insights through clinical grade real-time data. The remote patient monitoring system using proprietary SmartPatch technology leverages AI to monitor multiple chronic conditions.