Benzinga | Nov 8, 2021 08:41AM EST

Baxter Highlights New Data Indicating Sharesource Digital Health Platform For Home Dialysis May Improve Survival, Reduce Hospitalizations

* Large, randomized study presented during American Society of Nephrology's Kidney Week shows survival rates nearly two times higher in patients using remote patient management

* These data suggest digital health helps support healthcare professionals' ability to reduce patients' unplanned trips to hospitals, which is especially important during COVID-19

DEERFIELD, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX), a global innovator in renal care, announced today new data showing kidney patients may experience a survival rate nearly two-times higher and a prolonged time to an adverse event (AE) and hospitalization when the Sharesource remote patient management digital health platform is used to help manage home automated peritoneal dialysis (APD).1

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Baxter Highlights New Data Indicating Sharesource Digital Health Platform for Home Dialysis May Improve Survival and Reduce Hospitalizations (Graphic: Business Wire)

The new data was presented during the American Society of Nephrology's annual Kidney Week, Nov. 4-7, in abstract session, "Remote Monitoring of Patients with APD May Improve Clinical Outcomes: Analysis by Competing-Risk Regression Models," [PO0965]. The randomized controlled trial of 815 kidney patients spanning 22 hospitals in Mexico evaluated mortality and first AE or first hospitalization for kidney patients on home APD with and without the aid of remote patient management digital health.

"The study indicates Sharesource's role in supporting clinically meaningful outcomes that help kidney patients gain access to home dialysis and remain on therapy for as long as possible," said Peter Rutherford, MB BS, PhD., vice president Medical Affairs, Baxter Renal Care. "As we move through the COVID-19 pandemic, digital health is demonstrating how it may support healthcare professionals to improve clinical outcomes and allow patients to remain at home with reduced unplanned hospital visits."

Sharesource remote patient management allows healthcare professionals to monitor their patients' home dialysis treatments, and then remotely adjust therapy without the need for patients to make unplanned visits to the clinic. Sharesource is the most widely implemented home dialysis digital health platform. It is used to care for nearly 50% of all patients on Baxter's APD systems globally. The digital health platform is available in more than 70 countries, and it has managed more than 32 million treatments to date.

Supporting the broad global adoption of Sharesource is evidence that remote patient management can assist healthcare providers with early detection and intervention of catheter issues,2,3,4,5 peritonitis,6 and adherence-related complications,7,8,9 which can lead to reduced hospitalizations.10

The new study was conducted with hospitals that served >100 prevalent and >50 new patients per year and had >5 years APD experience. Twenty-two hospitals were randomly assigned to perform either remote patient management with APD or conventional APD with equivalent APD equipment. The study followed a total of 815 patients--417 using remote patient management and 398 on conventional APD--over at least one year.

Patients using only conventional APD in the study had a significantly higher all-cause mortality (sHR 1.79, 95%CI (1.15-2.81); p=0.01), CVD-related mortality (sHR2.21, 95%CI (1.07-4.58); p=0.03) and AE (sHR 1.74, 95% (1.34-2.25); p=0.001) in comparison to patients using APD with remote patient management. The data indicate the use of remote patient management may improve survival and prolong the time to a first AE and hospitalization in comparison to those using APD alone, suggesting digital health may improve clinical outcomes of APD patients.