IKONA Health

Today is a big day for IKONA and our partners across kidney care. We are excited to share our partnership with Lifeliqe to bring XR education and training solutions to the US kidney care market, starting with dialysis. Our partnership will initially focus on deploying select elements of Lifeliqe’s VR and online learning solutions to meet immediate strategic needs, tailored specifically for high-priority use cases such as cannulation training for patients and frontline staff. Our CEO Tim Fitzpatrick shared his thoughts: ”This is an exciting moment for IKONA and our partners who see the power of having effective, accessible learning tools available for their patients and care teams. This partnership with Lifeliqe arrives at a critical time in our industry, as we explore new ways to support high-quality care delivery in clinics and homes. Lifeliqe is a best in class workforce training platform, we’re confident they will play a vital role in helping us reshape kidney care in the US and beyond." It's time to meet your all-in-one kidney care learning platform, designed to tackle some of your toughest challenges from staff training to home adoption and retention. Learn more on AP News: https://lnkd.in/eY34EFzt #health #innovation #healthtech #virtualreality

The first Kidney Innovation Conference held by the Kidney Health Initiative took place on June 13-14 in Washington, DC. Our CEO, Tim Fitzpatrick, joined a panel of investors to discuss funding gaps across the ecosystem, from devices and care delivery to life sciences and pharma. The panel featured: Uptal Patel - HI-Bio, KHI Board Chair Janis Naeve - Cota Capital Paul Grill - National Kidney Foundation Thank you to KHI for the opportunity to meet all those building a better future in kidney care. We're looking forward to the next one! #health #innovation #funding #venturecapital #digitalhealth

Watch this live coffee Q&A with IKONA Clinical Advisor Qasim Butt, MD and CEO Tim Fitzpatrick. Q: How does virtual reality help people on dialysis and those managing kidney disease? A: 😎👇

Hi friends! It's Friday— story time. I wore this sweatshirt earlier this week. Three people stopped me: an older woman on the subway, a guy around my age walking by on the sidewalk, and a high schooler hopping on his skateboard. They all said the same thing: "that's a kidney!" Two of them actually stopped to chat and shared stories of family members on dialysis. This picture is from the HLTH conference, where I wore a different color L[3VE shirt each day of the event. Funny enough, I was stopped more by event staff working at the event (Hi, Maria!) and random people in Las Vegas than by health tech people at the event itself. Some days I feel like I should just ride the NYC subway end to end in a kidney costume talking to people. Let's face it, it would not be the strangest thing happening on the subway. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤'𝐬 𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: In your experience, what have been the most effective ways to raise awareness and engaging the general public about kidney health? I'd love to hear a story or two from you (and pictures welcomed)! Leave a comment or join the Signals thread here: 📡 https://lnkd.in/eVHkkwxU

#health #innovation #virtualreality

Today, the FDA is announcing the launch of a new initiative, Home as a Health Care Hub, to help reimagine the home environment as an integral part of the health care system, with the goal of advancing health equity for all people in the U.S. The hub will be designed as an Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR)-enabled home prototype and is expected to be completed later this year. The Home as a Health Care Hub prototype is the beginning of the conversation—helping device developers consider novel design approaches, aiding providers to consider opportunities to educate patients and extend care options, generating discussions on value-based care paradigms, and opening opportunities to bring clinical trials and other evidence generation processes to underrepresented communities through the home. While many care options are currently attempting to use the home as a virtual clinical site, very few have considered the structural and critical elements of the home that will be required to absorb this transference of care. Moreover, devices intended for use in the home tend to be designed to operate in isolation rather than as part of an integrated, holistic environment. As a result, patients may have to use several disparate medical devices, some never intended for the home environment, rather than interact with medical-grade, consumer-designed, customizable technologies that seamlessly integrate into an individual person's lifestyle. -- This is all word for word from the FDA press release today. If you follow my work and writing, you know this is a big, exciting moment for the future of health/care at home. At IKONA Health, we believe the home-first solutions of tomorrow will prioritize education and training today. On top of this announcement, a new home dialysis bill was just introduced in the House that mandates proper education for patients on all dialysis modalities and expands the universe of HCPs who can provide training and support in patients' homes. [2] Whether it's remote patient monitoring or home dialysis, the glue that connects all of us (and innovation) together will continue to be learning in all its forms. Education and training are essential building blocks of the world we all want to live in and age into. Exciting times ahead, who's with us? -- Sources: [1] https://lnkd.in/ejBfwsuH [2] https://lnkd.in/e6hFeQzs #health #innovation #healthtech #vr #fda

Earlier today the Improving Access to Home Dialysis Act was introduced in the House, which aims to reduce barriers to treatment and increase access to care for patients on dialysis. The National Kidney Foundation issued a statement today that includes important perspectives on this topic from across the kidney community. NKF CEO Kevin Longino said "Patients deserve to know about all options for dialysis so they can make an educated choice for themselves." We too appreciate this effort by Reps. Miller, Strickland, Blumenauer, and Miller-Meeks to address this critical issue in our collective efforts to improve treatment options for patients on dialysis across the United States. Read all info on H.R. 8075: https://lnkd.in/eR6VK2QG Read the NKF press release: https://lnkd.in/eS6QF5me #innovation #health #healthcare #patienteducation

Here's what caught my eye in the Kidneyverse this month! 🤩 https://lnkd.in/exQUavXr Across the Kidneyverse is my monthly recap of top headlines, research, market insights, funding, and perspectives from the kidney community. This month we’re marking major milestones in xenotransplant, biopharma M&A, frictions from CKCC payment cuts, lessons from RPA, and a number of startup financings you should have on your radars. My goal in writing these monthly updates is leave you feeling more curious, optimistic, and knowledgeable about this space. If you find it helpful, please share it with your networks and let us know what you're following! But enough writing, more exploring... This month's Across the Kidneyverse features insights from: Mass General Brigham American Society of Nephrology Benjamin Hippen, MD, FASN, FAST Dr. George Hart Frank Maddux MD, FACP Paul D. Gordon Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Interwell Health Renal Physicians Association Vertex Pharmaceuticals Alpine Immune Sciences, Inc. Biolinq Reshma Kewalramani, MD FASN Mozarc Medical IKONA Health Lifeliqe World Health Organization International Society of Nephrology PitchBook Carta Silicon Valley Bank Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Healio Charlotte Dixon Liz F. The New York Times Uptal Patel Eric Topol, MD DaVita Kidney Care Blake Madden Ian Koons Yubin Park, PhD Signals From [Space] #healthtech #innovation #digitalhealth #valuebasedcare #kidneyverse *** What else should people know about? Let us know! 👇🏻

A few years back one of my closest friends and colleagues, and one of the truly most remarkable people who I have ever met, Dr. Charisse Y. Sparks, M.D., FAAOS, told me something that changed my life and clarified my mission. She said, "Todd, it is ALL about the PATIENTS". That really stuck! Well the partnership between IKONA Health and Lifeliqe announced yesterday on The Associated Press, is a perfect example of this Patient Mantra! The partnership will initially focus on deploying select elements of Lifeliqe’s VR and online learning solutions to meet immediate strategic needs, tailored specifically for high-priority use cases such as cannulation training for patients and frontline staff. That said, the road is clear and the sky is the limit! Keep on truckin for patients! Learn more on AP News: https://lnkd.in/eY34EFzt #health #innovation #healthtech #virtualreality

Curious how the earliest innovations in kidney care get funded? Part 2 of Kidney Capital from Signals From [Space] has you covered! We are fortunate to be part of the group of companies who earned non-dilutive funding from great institutions like National Science Foundation (NSF) and United States Department of Defense. Read the article here: 💰 https://lnkd.in/eM7pE3qY #funding #startups #healthtech #medtech #innovation