NKF and RenalytixAI Partner to Improve Management of Early Stage Kidney Disease

Program focused on improving disease management and outcomes beginning at the primary care level

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Dec 02, 2020, 08:04 ET

NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) announced today a partnership with Renalytix AI (NASDAQ:RNLX) to improve kidney disease diagnosis and assessment in the earliest stage of the disease that will ultimately guide clinical interventions and treatments for improved outcomes and quality of life.

Kidney disease affects an estimated 37 million adults in the U.S. and can lead to life-threatening kidney failure. Most of those with the disease don't know they have it and won't know until it has progressed to critical late stages.

"We must reach people early in their disease in order to slow or even stop the progression," said NKF Chief Executive Officer Kevin Longino, who is also a kidney transplant recipient. "As a result of this collaboration, we believe lives will be improved and saved."

NKF and RenalytixAI will collaborate for the first time in their histories on future studies to assess current care standards in early stage kidney disease, identify barriers to better care and opportunities for improvement. Long-term initiatives will be developed as the partnership unfolds.

With as many as 90 percent of the people today who have early-stage kidney disease unaware that they have the dangerous disease, scientists, investigators and clinicians are trying to understand how we can increase understanding and promote patient specific care, engagement and monitoring.

KidneyIntelX is an in vitro diagnostic platform that uses a machine learning enabled algorithm to interpret proprietary biomarkers from a simple blood draw and electronic health record features to generate a patient specific risk score for disease progression. The KidneyIntelX risk score categorizes a patient as low, intermediate or high risk for kidney disease progression and kidney failure. The individual patient's score will be integrated with risk appropriate NKF recommended clinical actions and education resources as part of a comprehensive approach to improve outcomes.

"This partnership with RenalytixAI will potentially improve kidney risk stratification, using artificial intelligence to evaluate the combination of important kidney function biomarkers and electronic health record information more accurately than measuring biomarkers alone," said NKF Chief Medical Officer Joseph Vassalotti, MD. "This kidney disease severity information is designed to help Americans living with early stages of kidney disease partner with their primary care clinicians to consider which interventions best fit their individualized risk of kidney failure, including lifestyle modifications, kidney protective medications and whether or not interdisciplinary care with a dietitian and kidney specialist is necessary."

"The partnership with NKF, the leading American kidney patient advocacy organization, will allow RenalytixAI to better consider the patient perspective and leverage the educational resources of NKF to help improve patient quality of life, reduce suffering and potentially reduce the number of patients suffering from kidney failure," said Michael Donovan, Chief Medical Officer at RenalytixAI.

Kidney Disease Facts
In the United States, 37 million adults are estimated to have chronic kidney disease—and approximately 90 percent don't know they have it. 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. are at risk for chronic kidney disease. Risk factors for kidney disease include: diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and family history. People of Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian American, or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander descent are at increased risk for developing the disease. Blacks or African Americans are almost 4 times more likely than White Americans to have kidney failure. Hispanics are 1.3 times more likely than non-Hispanics to have kidney failure.

About the National Kidney Foundation
The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) is the largest, most comprehensive, and longstanding patient-centric organization dedicated to the awareness, prevention, and treatment of kidney disease in the U.S. For more information about NKF, visit www.kidney.org.

About RenalytixAI
RenalytixAI is a developer of artificial intelligence-enabled clinical in vitro diagnostic solutions for kidney disease, one of the most common and costly chronic medical conditions globally. The Company's lead product is KidneyIntelX.com (visit www.kidneyintelx.com) which is being designed to help make significant improvements in kidney disease prognosis, transplant management, clinical care, patient stratification for drug clinical trials, and drug target discovery. For more information, visit www.renalytixai.com.

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SOURCE National Kidney Foundation