The funding, as part of the NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Connect programme, is worth £150,000 and will support testing of key parts of Kalium Health’s system with volunteers in the UK.

Kalium Health is developing a digital sensing platform to measure critical blood electrolyte levels accurately, and at low cost. This will empower people with kidney, heart and certain rare conditions to monitor their health wherever they happen to be. It will also mean their healthcare provider can personalise their treatment to improve their health and keep them out of hospital.

The funding by NIHR will directly support activities in 2021 including testing of the company’s blood sample measurement methods with volunteers and formative user research with individual patients.

Kidney disease is increasingly recognised as a global health challenge. This is due to its association with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which are both on the rise, and to the disproportionately high cost of treatment. Professor Fiona Karet, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Kalium Health, explains the motivation behind the company: “Patients in my clinic who suffer ill health due to electrolyte imbalances were asking me why it was not possible for them to manage their condition better themselves. I realised that a clinically accurate self-test for blood potassium concentration would be a game-changer for them and for over-burdened healthcare providers”.

Tom Collings, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, said “We very much welcome the enthusiasm of the NIHR team in helping us to conduct this important research work. Thanks to their support we are able to engage directly with patients and the public in our home market to ensure that our innovation will meet their needs and, hopefully, surpass their expectations. The ongoing pandemic is accelerating the move of testing and treatment away from clinical settings and into the home and we are ideally placed to support this transition.”

Article sourced from: https://www.kaliumhealth.com/post/kalium-health-announces-funding-from-national-institute-for-health-research
Published on: 23.03.21