Summary: Carna Health is revolutionizing chronic kidney disease (CKD) detection by integrating AI-driven analytics with real-time, point-of-care testing, aiming to improve early diagnosis and personalized treatment strategies worldwide.

Takeaways:

  1. Widespread CKD Underdiagnosis: Approximately 90% of adults with CKD in the U.S. are unaware of their condition, underscoring the need for increased awareness and accessible testing solutions.
  2. AI-Powered Precision Medicine: Carna Health’s AI-driven analytics refine CKD risk assessments and treatment recommendations by analyzing global patient data, moving beyond one-size-fits-all guidelines.
  3. Point-of-Care Testing for Faster Results: By integrating with Nova Biomedical’s diagnostic devices, Carna Health provides real-time, minimally invasive CKD testing outside hospital settings, enabling faster diagnosis and early intervention.

By Andy Lundin

A troubling fact about chronic kidney disease (CKD) is how few people who have the disease are aware of it. According to the CDC, approximately 90% of adults in the U.S. with CKD do not know they have it, and one in three adults has undiagnosed severe CKD1

This lack of awareness highlights the need for both greater public understanding of CKD and more accessible testing, especially considering its potential to lead to serious complications, such as kidney failure requiring dialysis.

Focusing on these needs, Carna Health has developed a comprehensive digital platform integrated with less-invasive CKD diagnostic devices that provide real-time, point-of-care results outside traditional hospital settings. The company’s platform also leverages AI to analyze global CKD data, refining risk assessments and treatment recommendations for more precise, region-specific disease management.

The Carna Health Platform

According to the company, a key strength of the Carna Health platform lies in its global partnerships with organizations that offer solutions dedicated to CKD diagnosis, including Nova Biomedical. 

The Carna Health platform is available on Nova Biomedical’s Nova Pro Max Creatinine and Allegro devices. They provide patients with crucial health metrics instantly such as creatinine, eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate), and uACR (urine albumin to creatinine ratio) from just a few drops of blood, urine, and vital signs. These particular devices are valuable as they allow for diagnosis outside of hospital or lab settings, delivering results during routine doctor or pharmacy visits.

A key advantage of the integration into these devices is the speed at which patients can receive their results, allowing for prompt awareness and timely action.

“When utilizing those two tests, you can assess if patients have the disease and how bad it is, from a stage of one to five,” says Carna Health CEO and Co-Founder Salvator Viscomi, MD. “That will lead you to what are the next steps that patients will need to take.”

For example, individuals diagnosed with symptoms early may simply be encouraged to maintain annual screenings or adopt lifestyle changes (e.g., diet changes). While those in more advanced stages may require early referrals and treatment, with ongoing follow-up being essential.

Significance of Awareness

Viscomi also stressed the significance of AI for the Carna Health platform, in terms of understanding and assessing CKD on a global scale. 

Carna Health is leveraging AI to enhance CKD detection and management worldwide by collecting and analyzing diverse patient data from regions that may be overlooked in traditional healthcare frameworks. 

Unlike conventional CKD guidelines, which were largely developed based on populations in the U.S. and Europe, Carna Health’s AI-driven approach allows for region-specific insights into disease prevalence, risk factors, and progression rates, says Viscomi.


Further Reading:


By collecting longitudinal data from countries like India and China and collaborating with their regional diagnostic organizations (NeoDocs and MedAsia, respectively) Carna Health’s AI-driven analytics can uncover kidney disease trends specific to each population. This approach allows for more precise, targeted interventions rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all model.

“There are many ways chronic kidney disease can develop. It can be caused by high blood pressure, heat stress, diabetes, or an autoimmune disease,” says Viscomi. “We’re trying to get away from the broad brush and really into precision care. The only way you can do that is by capturing data around the world and monitoring changes over time.”

Andy Lundin is an associate editor for Clinical Lab Products.

References:

  1. https://www.cdc.gov/kidney-disease/php/data-research/index.html