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NxStage releases details on new dialysis systems
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NxStage Medical is working on a new home hemodialysis machine that can also be used in-center, as well as a peritoneal dialysis machine, and a critical care system.
CEO Jeffrey Burbank unveiled details about the dialysis product manufacturer's pipeline during a second quarter earnings call. The pipeline, he said, is the result of efforts that began more than five years ago, and the products are "truly game-changing."
Home hemodialysis system creates dialysate
The new home hemodialysis system, which he said they expect to release in the fourth quarter of 2016, produces carbonate buffered dialysate on demand from tap water, at "significantly higher flow rates than offered today." The system also includes touch screen display, and remains portable. And the dialysis machine can also be used in-center.
Read also: New smaller dialysis machine purifies water, creates dialysate
"We believe it is game changing to deliver a system that can be successful in multiple treatment paradigms, including traditional in-center, which has been the toughest to successfully bring these capabilities within the economic constraints," Burbank said. "… I'm not saying providers have to remove patient care staff to match current in-center economic performance. With this new system, we will not require patients to do more, so that patient care staff can be reduced to achieve the desired treatment cost."
Peritoneal dialysis system without the need for bags
Burbank said they are also developing a peritoneal dialysis system that eliminates the need for bags of PD fluid, which he said will dramatically reduce the supply and storage requirements, and the amount of lifting patients must do.
"We are planning to reinvent peritoneal dialysis the same way we reinvented hemodialysis," Burbank said. "…The design is intended to improve simplicity and use, and dramatically reduces the historical Achilles heel of PD, the number of connections, and improve on the un physiologic fluid use."
Burbank said they plan to release the system in 2017, about a year after the release of the hemodialysis machine.
He said more details about the new technology will be released at the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week. -by Rebecca Zumoff