Implementation of an Open Telenephrology Platform to Support Home Monitoring

Abstract

Clinical experience on the field of telenephrology validates that televisit sessions effectively support Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) therapies for homebound patients. After achieving the initial priority to enhance the relationship between health professionals and patients, by establishing audiovisual contact through videoconference systems, the next step is to securely integrate biomedical data with telenephrology services. This paper details a validated open interoperable platform for PD home monitoring that provides reliable wireless acquisition and integration of blood pressure, weight and other measurements like peritoneal ultra filtration. The availability of this supplementary information positively enhances the benefits of telenephrology at home. This implementation takes advantage of HL7 CDA and XML standards to integrate data within the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) at hospital premises. The resulting platform provides clinicians at distance with critical information to look for edema, signs of cardiac insufficiency or results of the peritoneal ultrafiltration and the daily urine volume, this way increasing the quality of care and preventing severe renal crisis. The ongoing clinical validation, supported by clinicians and renal homebound patients, shows high acceptation for successful and effective support to PD home patients.