After formally announcing the formation of our Patient & Family Advisory Council (PFAC) last month, we convened the group to hold our first meeting on June 16, 2022. The Alio PFAC is an advisory group designed to ensure we keep the patient at the center of everything we do – from understanding unique pain points in disease management to wearability of our SmartPatch – we want to ensure our targeted solution is built with the end-user in mind. The PFAC also allows us to continue to provide value to the dialysis community while engaging with patient advocacy groups.
For far too long innovation in the dialysis space has lagged behind other segments of healthcare and disease management. During the meeting, Alio Co-Founder and CEO Dave Kuraguntla, introduced Alio’s approach, solution and thinking on this topic. He also went into greater detail as to how Alio is closing the gap on remote patient monitoring with clinical evaluations, data collection for important dialysis patient metrics, and the delivery of clinically actionable insights geared toward better health outcomes.
“Since our founding, Alio has put patients first by asking what we should measure and monitor and how we should go about doing it in a way that’s least disruptive to the patient’s daily life,” said Dave Kuraguntla. “I’m thrilled the Patient & Family Advisory Council has come together to help us put patient perspectives at the forefront of remote monitoring, while also providing the clinical care team an understanding of dialysis health metrics that matter most to patient health and well-being.”
The PFAC is integral to Alio’s company philosophy and ethos is engaging with the community. Unfortunately, most remote patient monitoring solutions are not purpose built meaning they’re off the shelf technology not built with a specific disease state or patient group in mind. To help bridge this gap, Alio relies on the PFAC to help orient them to the advocacy landscape while identifying and engaging with key stakeholders. During the meeting, PFAC members offered insights into partnering with patient-focused kidney organizations like AAKP, KHI, and Kidney Fund. Although under clinical investigation currently, the council also expressed enthusiasm for Alio’s approach to remote monitoring, particularly the SmartPatch’s potential to non-invasively measure key metrics like Hemoglobin (Hb), Hematocrit (Hct), and serum potassium (K+) in dialysis patients.
As is true with all other chronic diseases, the council members stressed the importance of coupling education with advocacy efforts. The group identified a considerable gap when it comes to a robust and reliable educational forum for dialysis stakeholders to engage in. Often these forums are led or driven by patients but fail to include the voices and perspectives of other key stakeholders like physicians, clinical care teams, dialysis providers, and payers.
Alio will hold its next PFAC meeting in September.
