Alio | Top Nephrology And Urology Products Company 2022

MedTech Outlook Magazine

Alio
Non-Invasive Remote Monitoring of Renal Patients

David Kuraguntla, Co-Founder and CEO , AlioDavid Kuraguntla, Co-Founder and CEO
Remote monitoring for end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) is invasive, expensive, and inadequate. ESKD is a chronic condition often underdiagnosed and rapidly increasing in prevalence. There are approximately 800,000 ESKD patients in the United States with nearly 150,000 new patients diagnosed each year. While these patients make up one percent of the U.S. Medicare population, they account for 7.2 percent of spending.

One of the main drivers of this spending are frequent, potentially preventable hospitalizations, which amount to almost $14 billion a year. Conditions responsible for frequent hospital visits are vascular access complications which have a high chance of failure, retention of fluid - resulting in a risk of fluid overload or cardiac arrest, and electrolyte imbalance in the body - especially high potassium concentration.



Alio is taking ESKD treatment to the next level by developing a noninvasive and cost-effective SmartPatch technology using artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor ESKD patients undergoing hemodialysis. The innovative technology reduces potential complications and offers medical personnel actionable clinical insights to enable timely interventions and lower hospitalization costs.

“The ability to get clinically actionable metrics on dialysis patients completely noninvasively and continuously are the key differentiating features for Alio,”says David Kuraguntla, Co-Founder and CEO, Alio.

Alio’s SmartPatch monitors the parameters most important to clinicians for monitoring the health of ESKD patients on dialysis including their vitals, potassium, hemoglobin, and hematocrit through an all-in-one noninvasive wearable patch. Alio detects imbalances and abnormal vital parameters that may cause serious health issues, with high sensitivity and specificity. Alio captures actionable clinical data through continuous sensing technology and creates care team notifications.

Unlike other remote patient monitoring devices which require patients to partake in acquiring these metrics, the SmartPatch seamlessly collects and transmits data to the care team.
Mr. Kuraguntla explains, “While wearing an Alio SmartPatch, the patient does not have to press any buttons to collect or transmit data — or manually enter their numbers. It all happens without their interaction. The care team can receive notifications or log into the Alio Portal at any time to assess their dialysis patients’ status and see who may require an intervention.”

Mr. Kuraguntla explains, “A bedrock value of Alio is aligning what we call the ‘4 Ps’— attending to the unique needs and interests of the Patient, the Physician, the Provider, and the Payer.” In terms of the Patient perspective, SmartPatches are self-adhesive, non-invasive, and easy to use. “The most common feedback we receive from patients is they forget they are even wearing the SmartPatch, and that it can restore a sense of control over their lives—which is hugely rewarding to our team,” says Mr. Kuraguntla. To ensure the patient perspective is captured in their ongoing work, Alio created a Patient and Family Advisory Council, which meets regularly to discuss developments with the product, provide feedback, and discuss advocacy challenges and opportunities.

The ability to get metrics non-invasively that are clinically actionable and the potential to look at vascular access are the key features that set us apart.

Alio’s product is designed to fit into the current clinical workflow, improving the efficiency of nephrologists and dialysis clinic staff for obtaining key metrics they are already federally mandated to monitor. Alio has created a robust ecosystem of global partnerships allowing the company to not only get the technology into the hands of those who can benefit from it most, but also create a tight feedback loop for product refinement. Alio’s Hub automatically sends real-time SmartPatch measurements to healthcare staff through a web-based portal enabling timely interventions—thereby improving health outcomes and reducing the significant avoidable costs to the Payer of complications, hospitalizations, and readmissions.



Alio works with widely respected entities like Intermountain Healthcare, U.S. Renal Care, KidneyX (a US based public-private partnership for innovation in kidney care sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services and the American Society of Nephrology), Lifeline Vascular Care, DaVita KSA, the National Health Service (NHS) of the UK, the Academic Health Sciences Network (AHSN), and more.

Alio welcomes inquiries for potential clinical partnership opportunities and expects to receive its commercial clearance in early 2023. Mr. Kuraguntla concludes, “Our mission is to deliver peace of mind to people on dialysis and reduce the significant burden of preventable costs to the health system. We believe Alio is exactly the type of forward-thinking innovation that’s been needed by dialysis patients for far too long.”

Top 10 Nephrology and Urology Products Companies - 2022

Company
Alio

Management
David Kuraguntla, Co-Founder and CEO

Description
Alio provides a non-invasive and cost-effective SmartPatch technology that detects vital imbalances and monitors complications in patients with end-stage kidney disease. The innovative technology reduces potential complications and offers medical personnel actionable clinical insights to enable timely interventions and eliminate avoidable healthcare costs.

Alio News

Alio wins 2023 IoT Breakthrough Winner award, announces new CMO

Alio, a medical technology company reinventing the management of chronic disease, has announced that it has been selected as winner of the “IoT Health & Wellness Company of the Year” award. This is the seventh annual awards program conducted by IoT Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organisation that recognises the top companies, technologies and products in the global Internet-of-Things (IoT) market today.
Alio’s technology works 24/7 to provide clinical-grade remote patient monitoring. The company’s SmartPatch product is non-invasive, wireless, and continuously collects metrics from patients while they go about their daily lives. The SmartPatch has the ability to monitor metrics such as heart rate, temperature, auscultation, haemoglobin, haematocrit and potassium. While Alio currently serves patients on dialysis, the remote patient monitoring system is capable of serving other patient populations faced with chronic conditions.
By capturing and sharing clinical-grade data, Alio makes it possible for clinicians and care teams to enable better patient care and avoid adverse health events. Traditionally, most metrics for dialysis patients have been monitored through a monthly blood draw but this approach leaves a considerable gap in data and insights available about the patient’s wellbeing throughout the rest of the month. The Alio platform provides clinicians with actionable analytics and notifications, capturing trend data and insights where there previously werenot any. Alio’s approach to remote patient monitoring is designed to improve health outcomes while decreasing avoidable healthcare costs.
“Chronic conditions affect more than one in three people globally and they can be better managed by accommodating and managing care outside the clinical setting. Remote monitoring for chronic conditions today is invasive, expensive, often provides inadequate data, and does not deliver a positive user experience – this decreases patient compliance”, said James Johnson, managing director at IoT Breakthrough. “Alio gathers important metrics with one simple SmartPatch and meets or exceeds the current standard of care. Alio insights brings remote monitoring into a new era of precision by providing quality data and better outcomes. Weare thrilled to recognise Alio as ‘IoT Health & Wellness Company of the Year!’”
The mission of the IoT Breakthrough Awards program is to recognise the innovators, leaders and visionaries from around the globe in a range of IoT categories, including Industrial and Enterprise IoT, Smart City technology, Connected Home and Home Automation, Connected Car, and many more. This year’s program attracted more than 4,000 nominations from companies all over the world.
“We are so incredibly honoured to receive this recognition from IoT Breakthrough. We know that intermittent monitoring while at the doctor’s office or hospital is not enough. Care does not just occur for patients with chronic conditions at the doctor’s office. To provide better care and close the gap on chronic conditions, we must create better insights into patient care outside the clinic,” said David Kuraguntla, co-founder and CEO of Alio. “At Alio, we donot rely on one-metric devices, use ‘off-the-shelf’ sensors, or look for insight from fitness trackers – Alio is designed to produce clinical-grade, accurate data, aggregated into actionable insights. Our mission is to provide peace of mind for patients in and – importantly – out of the clinical setting, empower patients to take back control of their lives, and prevent avoidable hospitalisations.”
David Whittaker joins as chief medical officer
Alio also recently announced its new chief medical officer (CMO), David Whittaker. Whittaker brings a combination of clinical, engineering, innovative, and entrepreneurial experience to Alio. As a practicing vascular surgeon, his clinical expertise spans the full breadth of minimally invasive endovascular procedures and open vascular reconstructions. His work in both the private and academic sectors enables a wide-ranging perspective on the clinical and economic factors that affect patient care and medical device development.
During his tenure as the CMO for the Defense Health Agency (DHA), he led innovation and design for the 51-hospital, US$52 billion + system serving nearly 10 million lives. In addition, Whittaker was responsible for positioning US$200 million in Department of Defense (DoD) investments and significant direct investments spanning 20 portfolios and five major program lines including management systems for emerging threats, autonomous systems, human performance, operational medicine, and integrated systems. Another central function of his role at the DHA was the assessment of available technologies and processes to revolutionise military healthcare.
“Understandably, providers are hesitant to implement new technology as it often creates greater friction within their workflows, it may be unclear how to bill for it, or there is not a substantial return on investment for the intended patient population,” said Whittaker. “Alio has not only proven the value it can provide, it is also a drastic improvement from the status quo, particularly for patients on dialysis. The Alio SmartPatch provides us with actionable patient metrics we would otherwise have zero insight into—and establishes important trends we can use to improve patient care.”
Alio adds Whittaker to the leadership roster after hitting a number of key milestones last year such as its first US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance, the opening of its new Denver area office—which now has more than 20 employees, and the launch and completion of a number of clinical studies.
In addition to Whittaker, Alio also brought on a new head of marketing, Dana Schroeder. Schroeder has worked in marketing and communications within a number of factions of healthcare including health benefits, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and international healthcare policy. Applying her experience working for seed-stage startups to Fortune 100 organisations, she will be responsible for preparing for commercial launch while expanding the company’s reach and influence in the digital health space.

Alio starts trial to expand label for remote monitoring device

The FDA has cleared the company’s SmartPatch for measuring multiple health metrics including haemoglobin and potassium levels, in patients undergoing dialysis.
Alio plans to increase the use case for its wearable remote monitoring SmartPatch technology to monitor health metrics in dialysis patients without vascular accesss sites.
The CAVA study is expected to validate the use of SmartPatch technology for non-invasive monitoring of critical health metrics from the calf. The health metrics monitored include haemoglobin, haematocrit, potassium levels, SpO2 level, blood volume and heart rate.
“By validating additional placement locations on the body with CAVA, we aim to expand on our prior regulatory clearances and serve a wider range of patients with critical health insights, including those with chronic kidney disease, heart failure, and other chronic conditions,” said Alio’s CEO, David Kuraguntla.
“Alio’s non-invasive, longitudinal and patient-friendly solution is ideally suited to address the insufficient and resource-intensive nature of managing such patients and elevate the standard of care at the same time.”
The SmartPatch technology was first cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to measure skin temperature, auscultation sound data and heart rate from arm-based vascular access sites in patients with end-stage kidney disease undergoing dialysis, in 2022. The following year, the company expanded the health metrics being measured to include haematocrit, haemoglobin, and potassium monitoring.