Dialysis has been around for about 80 years now. Unfortunately, compared to other fields like Cardiology and Oncology, this field has seen very little innovation. At best, incremental improvements have been made to the technology available. Recently, however, there have been some initiatives to improve Dialysis Machines and associated equipment that is used in Dialysis Centres. This is most welcome.

NephroPlus was frustrated with one critical piece of equipment that is used widely in Dialysis Centres in the developing world – the Dialyser Reprocessing Machine. Reprocessing is a safe and efficient technique by which a Dialyser, or the Artificial Kidney, which is the most important and the most expensive consumable that is used for Dialysis, is reprocessed for use by the same patient a few times. This process involves a series of steps like cleaning, disinfecting and testing to ensure the efficacy has not dropped below a well-established threshold.

Reprocessing is a good way to save costs for the patient without compromising on the quality. While Reprocessing can be done manually as well, over the last decade or so, many Automated Reprocessing Machines have been developed to ensure this process happens as per the protocol and to eliminate the scope for manual errors which are widely believed to cause cross infections in the Dialysis Centre.

Reprocessing is a good way to save costs for the patient without compromising on the quality.

NephroPlus has Reprocessing Machines in all its centres and we were very frustrated with some of the shortcomings of these machines. We decided to build a machine from scratch that fixes these problems.

Over the last couple of years, our team worked on this machine, building one from scratch, by solving many of the problems that exist in the machines available in the Indian and international markets. We are calling it Renova^TM.

We are proud to announce that Renova^TM has been granted a patent for the several innovations we have introduced. Apart from many hardware aspects we have incorporated, we have also introduced two revolutionary and previously unheard-of features in Renova^TM – Remote Troubleshooting and Cloud-based data storage.

We are proud to announce that Renova^TM has been granted a patent for the several innovations we have introduced.

Renova^TM is a cloud-connected device. Using the power of the internet cloud, Biomedical Engineers can troubleshoot and fix issues remotely. Currently, if there’s a problem with any Reprocessing Machine, a Biomedical Engineer has to travel to the Centre. In an age of Dialysis centres being situated across the length and breadth of the country, it can be a very expensive proposition for Biomedical Engineers to travel to centres for every breakdown. With Renova^TM, they can log in to the machine using the Renova^TM app which allows them to see the status of the machine including observing the functioning of every valve in the machine during operations to figure out what is wrong. After getting some information on the cause of the problem, they can decide if a part needs to be changed or some configuration parameter needs to be fixed. All this saves a lot of time to resolve the issue and also saves on time, cost and effort for Biomedical Engineers.

Another major innovation introduced is Cloud-based data storage. Machines in the market had an archaic printing system where the results of each Reprocessing Cycle were printed on a piece of paper and then stapled to the Case Sheet of the patient. With Case Sheets also going online, it was ridiculous to have to print out the Reprocessing Status. Further, the quality of the printer was also poor resulting in replacement costs being incurred every few months. All this prompted us to shift the entire process to the cloud. In Renova^TM, all Reprocessing data is stored on the cloud enabling this data to be analysed and correlated with Clinical Outcomes which could help to improve processes in order to improve these outcomes.

Apart from several hardware changes, Renova^TM has some pathbreaking features that revolutionize the Reprocessing ecosystem:

1.Remote Troubleshooting

2.Cloud-based Reprocessing Data Storage allowing better data analysis and improving Clinical Outcomes

Apart from this, several other hardware improvements have been made which fix many problems with the machines in the market.

We plan to make these machines available to other Dialysis centres as well so they can also get the benefit of the new features in this machine.

We hope this will improve the efficiency of Dialysis Centres in the developing world and help to provide safe, effective dialysis to all patients.