End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), the fifth and last stage of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), is recognized as a major public health problem and occurs where kidneys are no longer capable of filtering waste products from the blood. With kidney function at less than 10%, a kidney transplant or an external means of filtering of the body waste through a Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT) is needed. This condition in Europe affects 358,000 dialysis patients, 12% of the global number. This builds up an economic burden consuming 2% of EU’s healthcare budget, with reimbursement costs up to 40,000-80,000 €/year per individual. RRT can be performed in two ways: Haemodialysis (HD), and Peritoneal Dialysis (PD). Despite technological advances, dialysis devices still present relevant issues, such as: discomfort and lack of portability, with 89% of dialysis patients having to go to specialized centres to receive the treatment; high risk of infection: 0.24-1.66 episodes/patient/year in PD; low compliance with treatment protocols (53%) due to the lack of automatization of the devices; time consuming treatments, taking 40 mins twice a day for PD, and 4 hours and 3 times per week for HD patients. liberDi overcomes these limitations offering Warrick X1, a truly automated and portable (up 80% lighter and 50% smaller) dialysis machine. PD dialysis machine. Dialysis can be performed in 20 mins anywhere at any time, thus giving ESRD patients the freedom to live a normal life. Thanks to the advanced automated flow control and disinfection system, the device represents a safe and cost-effective solution (over 30% savings of annual dialysis expenses). The IoT based technology and intuitive visual instructions help patients and their physicians to continuously and remotely keep track of the therapy.
