North American Companies Innovating in Kidney Care

Like 9/10 Americans, I was unaware that I had kidney issues until routine blood work brought it to my provider’s attention two summers ago.

Thankfully, with time and some lifestyle changes, I was able to get back to normal. However, for many people, that’s unfortunately not the case.

Going through this, I saw firsthand how difficult it is to navigate the kidney care spectrum.

In this article, I wanted to highlight companies innovating in kidney care and provide a resource for anyone navigating CKD.

Having lab work done is typically when someone first realizes they have lowered kidney function of CKD. Because of that, that’s where we’ll start our kidney care journey.

As mentioned earlier, since 90% of people don’t know they have kidney issues, this typically comes as a surprise.

However, for people that suspect they’re having these issues or are monitoring their kidney function, they can order an at-home test.

While companies like Nephrosant are developing urine tests to identify kidney transplant rejection risk, Healthy.io and LetsGetChecked have urine and blood prick tests respectively for identifying CKD and creatinine levels (marker for CKD).

While most diagnoses come from random routine blood work, there are companies working to identify at-risk individuals.

Using AI, pulseData’s model can better diagnose, risk stratify, and “predict adverse events for patients with chronic disease or disorders involving both the heart and kidneys.”

Okay, so you just found out that you have CKD and you want to learn more about your diagnosis and treatment options. In comes Ikona Health which provides educational resources for kidney care through virtual reality to patients, providers, and care partners.

With information and education about CKD provided by a company like Ikona, you can start to evaluate your options for care

According to Aetna, Value-Based Care (VBC) is a healthcare delivery model under which providers — hospitals, labs, doctors, nurses, and others — are paid based on the health outcomes of their patients and the quality of services rendered. [1]

So in theory, organizations like Somatus and Strive Health that provide VBC are incentivized to provide high-quality and engaging patient care.

While VBC organizations are focused on quality of care, so are other kidney care organizations.

Medical groups like Duo Health have been created to focus on providing a higher standard of care, specifically for kidney care.

As with Medical groups, Kidney-Care-Specific Health Plans are also being created.

Gold Kidney’s Medicare Advantage plan is specially designed to help people 65+ with diabetes, dialysis, and heart diseases.

For people who are looking for a more convenient way to access care or have transportation-related issues, home kidney care is another option.
Monogram Health brings together a number of different specialists to provide accessible and affordable home care to people with chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease.

As someone with CKD, you’ll be engaging with your nephrologist on a very regular basis. To help equip them with the tools to provide you with the best possible care, companies like Evergreen are empowering nephrologists, providing financial backing, best-in-class clinical resources, and analytical insights and tools to slow the disease progression, improve clinical outcomes, and increase the quality of life.

While your nephrologist is usually at the “center of your care”, there are many other stakeholders that make up the care team for people with CKD.

A coach is meant to act as a line of support for answering common questions, helping you monitor and solve personal challenges, and providing you with educational resources about your condition. Companies like Hewot Health and Reset Kidney Health are both helping people with CKD get access to a personalized coach and care team.

Another way to get help with managing your condition, appointments, doctors, and dietitians, and create a care plan is by working with companies that provide care management.

As part of an $11 Billion three company merger between Fresenius Health Partners, Cricket Health, and InterWell Health, to create a new organization called InterWell Health, it brought together some of the largest players in kidney care to provide care management and a number of other services to over 270,000 covered lives.

While not a startup, I included CVS’ kidney care program as it’s still relatively new. One other company in the chronic and kidney care management space is Cecelia Health.

With kidney disease, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that dietary changes can help reverse or slow the progression of CKD depending on what stage a person is at.

Many times to help put together things like how much protein you should be consuming, resources about recipes, and meal plans, people will often turn to a renal dietitian or nutritionist. While there are tons of independent practices and practitioners, startups like Fay and Culina offer a network of practitioners who specialize in renal nutrition.

To access the actual food and easily come up with recipes is another thing. For delivery and access to renal-friendly food NourishedRx and Instacart Health provide different avenues for accessing meals. Season Health combines the best of both worlds by giving you access to meal plans, grocery delivery, and pairing you with a dietitian.

While balancing everything else going on in your life, having to go in person for routine check-ups or appointments can be very difficult for many people.

Luckily, with remote patient monitoring (RPM) devices, care teams are able to monitor different vitals and identify any abnormalities without you having to leave your home, job, or wherever.

While Gordy Health, ProtonIntel, and Alio.ai are all providing remote monitoring to people with kidney disease, each is doing a different variation.

Gordy helps people monitor their blood pressure from home to help identify chronic conditions like CKD. Alio.ai, on the other hand, provides a smart patch to people on dialysis to help identify complications. The third variation for kidney disease monitoring is ProtonIntel which is a wearable that monitors potassium levels, allowing clinicians to treat and manage kidney disease patients more safely and precisely.

Unfortunately, of the 786,000 people in the U.S. with end-stage renal disease, 29% either have or will need a transplant after having dialysis. [2]

Companies like Hopewell connect patients, donors, and healthcare providers to help simplify the journey for everyone to help get people off waitlists quickly, improve coordination, and ensure a high quality of care.

First I’d like to thank Michael Tadesse, the founder of Hewot for his comments and suggestions for this piece. Michael, who has gone through the kidney care and transplant journey, has been a great friend as I’ve navigated through my care last year.

While this article was written based on personal inspiration, let us know any companies I may have missed and if you want to see similar types of articles and market maps for other chronic conditions.

Reach out to us at inquiries@tellescope.com or fill out the form below if you have any ideas for future market maps we should put together.