Outset Medical has created a 37-inch dialysis clinic on wheels for the home
Kidney dialysis machines are bulky and expensive, and haven’t changed much in decades. But a company called Outset Medical has been working on an upgrade so that someday soon patients will be able to get lifesaving treatment at home, rather than at the hospital.
Outset’s technology works through a combination of software and sensors that automates the manual steps typically required to get a machine up and running. It also purifies water and produces dialysate (one of the fluids used in dialysis) in real time, and it takes a patient’s blood pressure. To get it started, the system only needs an electrical outlet and access to water.
All the treatment data it collects gets shared to the company’s cloud, making it an attractive technology play as well as a medical device company.
The company’s CEO, Leslie Trigg, said she realized before joining Outset that healthcare wasn’t a $3 trillion market. In fact, it’s a collection of multimillion- and billion-dollar opportunities. And one lucrative slice is the kidney dialysis segment, which includes software, hardware, and services.
Outset is already approved by federal regulators for its technology, dubbed Tablo, to be used in medical clinics and hospitals. A clinical trial is currently underway to test whether it can also be used by patients in the home. It’s also interested in expanding to retail environments, skilled nursing facilities and urgent-care offices, said Trigg.
