Since necessary lockdown measures were put in place at the beginning of March, people living with conditions such as chronic kidney disease have had to minimise routine but necessary testing, due to their vulnerability to COVID-19. This means Healthcare Professionals have had less available information to monitor their patients, which is important for making optimal treatment decisions. Should this limited monitoring continue on a long-term basis, there is an increasing risk of poorer health outcomes.
To combat this problem, we’ve partnered with Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to deliver up to 104 home monitoring solutions to vulnerable patients within their area. The devices we’ve provided allow patients with Anaemia of Chronic Kidney Disease to test their haemoglobin levels from their home, with the results being reported to their healthcare team on a monthly basis. This innovative method of testing will enable those at risk during this pandemic to continue having their condition monitored, allowing treatments to be adjusted and any potential deterioration in health to be detected quickly. All while patients remain in the safety of their homes.
From the week commencing August 17th, these patients started to receive our Luma device along with testing kits, allowing them to be closely monitored by their healthcare professional. Using this information, the Healthcare Professional can plot the progression of their patient’s condition and take this into account when prescribing or adjusting medication. This ensures that they’re only asked to attend face-to-face appointments at the hospital when it’s essential to their care.
Speaking about the collaboration, Professor Bhandari from Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said the following:
“We have been working in collaboration with Entia on Luma to allow many of our highly vulnerable renal anaemia patients to remain safely at home whilst still optimising their haemoglobin levels. This improves their quality of life, empowers them with their own healthcare and potentially reduces the burden on hospitals. This is the future.”
This partnership represents growth in an existing relationship with Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. With support from government funding provided by UK Research and Innovation, we were already working together on a project involving our home monitoring solutions. COVID-19 however, resulted in an accelerated deployment of this solution, which was fully supported by Innovate UK.
As well as the immediate benefit patients will receive from using the Luma device, we intend to also use this deployment to gather insight to further develop our home monitoring solutions. Now, thanks to continued funding from Innovate UK’s COVID-19 response fund, additional NHS partnerships will be commencing in the near future.
This is only the beginning of the work we at Entia have planned to make life-changing health conditions easier to live with, through treating and managing them from home. We are also in the late stages of development for a more advanced device, which has been specifically designed to assist people living with cancer.
