Remote Monitoring of Automated Peritoneal Dialysis Improves Personalization of Dialytic Prescription and Patient’s Independence

Abstract

Background: Remote monitoring (RM) supports a healthcare model that enhances patients’ self-management. We evaluated the utility of RM in patients undergoing automated peritoneal dialysis (APD). Methods: We observed 37 ­RM-APD patients, 16 incidents, and 21 prevalents switched from traditional APD (T-APD). We observed the number of changes for APD prescription, the frequency of visits, and PD adequacy parameters during 1 year of RM utilization in APD. Results: The APD prescriptions were modified more frequently in RM-APD vs. T-APD in incident (p = 0.002) and prevalent patients (p = 0.045). Visits were significant less in ­RM-APD than in T-APD for incident patient (p = 0.008). No significant difference was found between prevalent populations. PD adequacy was similar in both groups. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that RM allows an efficient use of healthcare resources, helping to improve personalization of APD prescription and to intervene early with “trouble shooting”, thereby reducing the frequency of in-person visits for emergency problems.