Kidney disease affects approximately 30 million Americans. About 650,000 of these individuals – including nearly 15,000 Virginians – suffer from end-stage renal disease, requiring prolonged dialysis, the mechanical cleansing of blood. The University of Virginia cares for more than 900 of these patients at its 11 dialysis clinics around the state.

“Dialysis patients suffer high hospitalization rates, high health care costs and higher mortality than many patients with chronic diseases,” said Dr. Brendan Bowman, a nephrologist and director of UVA’s dialysis system. “We would like to improve treatment outcomes while also cutting costs for this treatment.” To do this, Bowman and other physicians are working with UVA systems engineers and data scientists on developing predictive techniques to improve medication dosing protocols.

Source: news.virginia.edu
Author: Fariss Samarrai