Real time continuous point of care monitoring of human kidney function

"Across the world today, one fifth of all hospital patients will suffer a kidney injury, and one quarter of these patients will die from this. In the UK alone kidney injury is responsible for an excess of 40,000 deaths per year, and £1bn of NHS spending. We can change this.

We have invented a portable bedside chemical analysis device which continuously monitors a patient's blood for indications of kidney damage using just a standard drip line placed into a vein. From these chemical traces we can use artificial intelligence software to detect and predict any changes in a patient's kidney function earlier than ever before, and automatically warn doctors of any problems.

But our system isn't only useful on critical care units. Because of its small size and simplicity it can be applied to any hospital patient who doctors think needs closer monitoring than is currently possibly with ordinary blood tests.

We are confident that our device will be particularly useful in kidney transplantation, and have interviewed outpatients at Europe's largest hospital to ask their opinions too. Our device can be used to check the quality of a transplant kidney before it gets transplanted, so that surgeons know they are giving their patients the best possible chance at a new lease of life. And then when the same patient comes out of transplant surgery, our device will be right by their bedside to give continuous readings from the new kidney and detect any worrying signals early enough to make a difference.

By monitoring kidney function in real-time, we can guide clinicians to make earlier decisions about implementing therapies for their patients, and to help develop new ones. We believe this approach has the chance of saving thousands of lives, and hundreds of millions of pounds in NHS spending each year."