DaVita Collaborates with Google Cloud to Develop Customized Clinical Operating System Designed to Transform Kidney Care

Kidney care provider harnesses the power of Google Cloud's leading-edge infrastructure, AI, and analytics tools to help improve care plans and streamline clinical workflows

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA) and Google Cloud today announced that the organizations have collaborated to create a new clinical operating system that sets a foundation for streamlined kidney care for more than 200,000 DaVita patients.

Built on Google Cloud infrastructure and utilizing AI and analytics tools co-developed by the two companies, DaVita's Center Without Walls^TM(CWOW) is now live across the organization's 2,700+ dialysis centers nationwide. With the deployment, DaVita has moved from a decentralized clinical documentation system to a unified platform that leverages data from more than 30 million dialysis treatments per year to generate insights designed to help improve clinical outcomes.

"CWOW gives our caregivers access to the right data, at the right time, so we can improve workflows and help our team spend more time with patients and less time interacting with a computer," said Dr. Mark Kaplan, Vice President of Medical Affairs for DaVita Inc. "CWOW is custom-built for kidney care, and the Google Cloud infrastructure allows us to connect with our physician and hospital partners to establish a consistent flow of information from day one of a patient's kidney care journey."

While every patient's journey is unique, the National Kidney Foundation has divided chronic kidney disease (CKD) into five stages, with stage 5 indicating kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). At this advanced stage, the kidneys have lost nearly all of their ability to do their job effectively, and eventually dialysis or a kidney transplant is needed¹.

CKD affects more than 1 in 7 adults in the United States, an estimated 37 million Americans, and as many as 9 in 10 adults who have CKD are not aware they have the disease². Currently, an estimated 50% of people diagnosed with kidney failure "crash" into dialysis—starting treatment without warning in an emergency situation³. Crashing not only causes physical and emotional stress for patients but also it costs, on average, an additional $53,000 per patient in the first year of dialysis treatment⁴.

By creating CWOW using Google Cloud, DaVita has built a foundational platform that will enable seamless data sharing and increase collaboration between the company's physician partners, hospitals, and internal care teams. Ultimately, the platform is designed to support DaVita's mission to provide integrated kidney care that helps improve patient quality of life, and lower the cost of care.

A leader in kidney care, DaVita has more than 20 years of clinical data, based on the more than 30 million dialysis treatments the organization administers each year. To effectively leverage this data, DaVita built CWOW on Cloud Spanner for scalable database management, BigQuery for analytics, and Vertex AI for AI and machine learning.

"Working with DaVita to develop and deploy CWOW brings together Google Cloud's cutting-edge AI and analytics capabilities with DaVita's passion for treating and preventing kidney disease," said Aashima Gupta, Google Global Director for Healthcare Strategy and Solutions. "DaVita has laid a critical foundation for data interoperability where care teams and partners can access the information they need in near real-time, right when they need it, regardless of care setting."

"Google is the right choice for DaVita – not only from a technical perspective, but also from a collaboration standpoint," said Alan Cullop, DaVita's Chief Information Officer. "Our vision for CWOW required a flexible collaborator that would be willing to iterate as we worked to address the unique needs of DaVita and kidney care. From early-stage architecture and infrastructure conversations, to AI, analytics and IT security, Google has added significant value every step of the way, and we look forward to the next stage of innovation as we continue to enhance the CWOW platform."

About DaVita 
DaVita (NYSE: DVA) is a health care provider focused on transforming care delivery to improve quality of life for patients globally. The company is one of the largest providers of kidney care services in the U.S. and has been a leader in clinical quality and innovation for more than 20 years. DaVita cares for patients at every stage and setting along their kidney health journey—from slowing the progression of kidney disease to helping to support transplantation, from acute hospital care to dialysis at home. As of June 30, 2023, DaVita served approximately 201,000 patients at 2,703 outpatient dialysis centers in the United States. The company also operated 353 outpatient dialysis centers in 11 other countries worldwide. DaVita has reduced hospitalizations, improved mortality, and worked collaboratively to propel the kidney care industry to adopt an equitable and high-quality standard of care for all patients, everywhere. To learn more, visit DaVita.com/About .

About Google Cloud 
Google Cloud accelerates every organization's ability to digitally transform its business. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google's cutting-edge technology – all on the cleanest cloud in the industry. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.

1. https://www.davita.com/education/kidney-disease/stages/stage-5-of-chronic-kidney-disease
2. Chronic Kidney Disease in the United States, 2021. Centers for Disease Control andPrevention, US Department of Health and Human Services.
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/%20health-information/health-statistics/kidney-disease
3. Risk Factors for Unplanned Dialysis Initiation: A Systematic Review of the Literature (2019)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2054358119831684#_i42 
4. 2009–2012 Medicare 5% sample data weighted average across all states for patient costs in first twelve months of dialysis.

SOURCE Google Cloud