Project Overview

Home therapy is an important and often underutilized dialysis option. Peritoneal dialysis (PD) affords chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients the independence to maintain their quality of life compared to in-centre hemodialysis (ICHD) (1). In 2016, across Canada (excluding Quebec), 50.4% of PD patients were 65 years of age or older (2). Clearly, to increase the use of home dialysis especially in this population segment, initiatives that consider and facilitate the challenges faced by elderly end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients are critical. Obstacles to increasing the use of home dialysis include the complexity of PD therapy machines and patients with limited care-taker support (3). The Amia automated PD system with Sharesource connectivity platform provides real time monitoring and recording of the therapy as well as an interactive interface with the care team and patient. This allows for acute trouble shooting and remote evaluation of the patient. We hypothesize that the use of Amia with Sharesource coupled with the addition of a nurse navigator (NN) will increase the number of ESRD patients choosing home therapy. The expected cost savings to the health-care system of Amia with Sharesource will be important, as the cost of home dialysis is much lower compared to the cost of ICHD (4).