Fresenius Medical Care (FME) is a leader in addressing complex health challenges and is working to meet the complex needs of individual dialysis patients. People living with kidney disease deserve more personalized and targeted therapy choices, better clinical outcomes, and the greatest possible quality of life, no matter where they are in their treatment journey.

The future of healthcare will be personalized within a standardized framework and approach. For global health conditions like chronic kidney disease (CKD), genetic and genomic information will one day influence prescriptions and treatment decisions for an individual. Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will accelerate connecting care to not only the right person at the right time, but the right treatment at the right time. People will have greater access to better and diverse targeted therapies, giving them more power and choice.

For Fresenius Medical Care (FME), evolving the standard of kidney disease care toward this personalized future goes beyond a mere “box checking” exercise. Addressing the global expansion of recognized kidney disease while improving clinical outcomes, health, well-being, and quality of life for people living with advanced kidney disease requires a focus on meaningful measures that underpin what high-quality and efficient effective care looks like.

Clinical and Quality Agenda: A Structured Focus on Excellence in Kidney Care and Science

FME’s Clinical and Quality Agenda (CQA) is the foundation of the company’s global medical strategy and provides focus on several aspects required to deliver high-quality dialysis care today, and the research needed to advance quality care for the future.

First, the CQA articulates key areas of care with a focus on improving clinical outcomes and reducing complications (Figure 1).

The CQA also seeks to increase the use of individualized kidney replacement therapies and aims to work with people to identify the therapy that will help them achieve the best outcomes and experience (Figure 2).

For people on dialysis, integrating patient-reported measures into care is necessary to improve the quality of care (Figure 3).

We are sharpening our focus by increasing global access and diversifying therapeutic options for people with critical illnesses (Figure 4).

As significant weather events increase in strength and frequency, pandemics and epidemics occur, and geopolitical conflicts impact key regions of the world, the need to solidify our emergency preparation and response plans to support people on dialysis, as well as our clinic staff and physicians, is evident. Whether it’s a natural disaster, epidemic, pandemic, or geopolitical conflict, we need to be ready to respond efficiently and effectively (Figure 5).

FME takes pride in its strong collaboration with leading researchers in the field of kidney disease and uses the findings to innovate and improve care (Figure 6).

We are committed to reducing health disparities and advancing health equity (Figure 7).

Innovating Optimal Therapies: Power and Choice for People

Achieving the best health outcomes, with the greatest independence and highest quality of life, requires diverse therapies that can meet each person’s complex and unique needs. Therapies should help people feel better and live more productive lives on their own terms, while spending less time in healthcare facilities. Creating new therapies that continually improve the quality and efficacy of existing treatments is central to evolving an improved standard of care. Whether a person chooses in-center hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, or home dialysis, or is a candidate for a kidney transplant, FME provides therapy options that meet each individual’s needs based on where they are in their care journey (Figure 8).

Expanding Access to Kidney Transplants

For many patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), kidney transplantation is the optimal therapy for improving survival and quality of life. In addition to the shortage of available kidneys for transplantation, patients face several barriers and delays in navigating the transplant referral and evaluation process, culminating in reduced access to the transplant waiting list.

The evaluation, testing, and waitlisting practices of transplant centers are heterogeneous and are frequently not transparent to patients nor referring physicians. As a result, reliably tracking the progress of patients through the evaluation toward waitlisting remains difficult, with ample opportunities for patients to get stuck or simply lost in the process. At FME, we are working to identify process gaps for targeted interventions, so that more people who are referred for transplant complete their evaluation and are added to the waiting list when they are deemed acceptable by the transplant centers.