Kidney care giant DaVita is partnering with digital kidney health company RenalytixAI in a bid to combine a technology that provides early risk assessment of kidney decline with comprehensive care management, the two companies announced Tuesday.
The program will launch in three major markets this year and is expected to expand into risk-sharing arrangements with healthcare providers and payers, they said.
The program is expected to provide "meaningful cost reductions for healthcare providers and payers by enabling earlier intervention" with early-stage kidney disease through actionable risk assessments and end-to-end care management, officials said.
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“Almost 50% of people whose kidneys fail find out after it is too late, and we are on a mission to change that,” said DaVita's CEO Javier Rodriguez in a statement. “Our partnership with RenalytixAI could allow us to help slow disease progression for the millions of people living with kidney disease.”
The program will utilize KidneyIntelX, an in vitro diagnostic platform from RenalytixAI that uses a machine learning algorithm to assess a combination of biomarkers from a simple blood draw with features from the electronic health record to generate a patient-specific risk score.
The KidneyIntelX risk score identifies Type 2 diabetic patients with early-stage chronic kidney disease as low-, intermediate- or high-risk for progressive decline in kidney function or kidney failure.
Officials said they expect the outcome of the partnership to be used to expand indicated use claims for KidneyIntelX.
“This is the first clinical-grade program that delivers advanced early-stage prognosis and risk stratification, combined with actionable care management right to the primary care level where the majority of kidney disease patients are being seen,” said James McCullough, Renalytix AI CEO, in a statement. “Making fundamental change in kidney disease health economics and outcomes must begin with providing a clear, actionable understanding of disease progression risk.”
The integrated program may also help reduce kidney disease misclassification, which leaves some higher-risk patients without recommended treatment, officials said.