Osprey Medical (ASX:OSP) has announced a collaboration with GE Healthcare on its Be Kind to Kidneys campaign.
The company said the campaign aims to raise awareness of strategies to help address acute kidney injury (AKI) following normal heart imaging procedures (angiograms) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Osprey Medical and GE Healthcare will sponsor a number of educational programs and seminars for healthcare professionals on how to address the risk of AKI.
AKI is sudden damage to the kidneys that causes them to not work properly. It can range from minor loss of kidney function to complete kidney failure.
Patients with impaired kidneys are at a significantly increased risk for negative outcomes and for longer hospital stays.
The American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association have issued joint guidelines for the reduction of AKI. These guidelines recommend that physicians should screen patients for risk of AKI, ensure they are properly hydrated, and minimise the volume of contrast dye used.
Osprey and GE Healthcare’s campaign intends to reinforce these guidelines and increase awareness so that healthcare professionals can help patients with CKD.
The campaign kicks off in September with a series of two-day educational programs in the US for nurses and technicians. The programs will focus on strategies to reduce contrast volume using Osprey’s DyeVert Plus system, the only system cleared by the FDA for contrast reduction and real-time monitoring of dye dose to patients throughout the angiogram.
The programs will also focus on approaches to help reduce the risk of AKI in patients with poor kidney function undergoing heart imaging procedures.
According to Osprey president and CEO, Mike McCormick, “We are pleased to be collaborating with GE Healthcare on these joint educational efforts to address heart imaging procedures for patients with poor kidney function.”
“We are very excited about the collaboration with Osprey,” added Erin Schardt, general manager Contrast Media, US and Canada, GE Healthcare. “We share a similar goal that is rooted in improving patient outcomes through a variety of measures, including the educational efforts that we will jointly be undertaking.”
