A guide to remote monitoring of kidney function

Technology-enabled remote monitoring is the use of technology, devices, or apps to support patients to monitor and manage their health or long-term conditions. 

This technology makes it possible to safely and securely exchange health information between a person living with kidney disease and their clinical team, to assist in monitoring their health status and quality of life.

As yet, there aren’t devices approved for use in the NHS that allow this to happen in kidney care. However, we know there are devices in development that will ultimately enable remote monitoring.

This guide focuses on what remote monitoring features are most important to consider when thinking about people’s wellbeing, life satisfaction and quality of care perspectives.

The guide is in two parts:

• Experience statements that describe what good remote monitoring of kidney function looks like. There are five themes for people living with kidney disease and five for health professionals providing kidney care. Use these to understand the issues and ideal situation for patients and staff.
• Service principles that bring attention to what is important when making decisions about how to design and deploy a service for remote monitoring of kidney function. Use these to create a shared understanding of what is important, and help guide decision-making, between different groups of people using and delivering a service.

This guide has wide ranging application across multiple settings including:

• Developers to illustrate how their technology responds to patient and healthcare professional need.
• Evaluators to inform decisions relating to evaluation and authorisation of devices and technologies.
• NHS trusts where it could be used for quality assurance during commissioning and procurement, to shape development of clinical standards, and to inform audit and improvement activity.

Although developed for kidney care, this work could inform remote monitoring in other specialties, long term conditions and healthcare settings including virtual wards. We invite researchers to test, learn, pilot, and most importantly, share ​‘what works’.

From November 2021, What Works Wellbeing worked with Q Lab, supported by the Health Foundation and NHS England. Together they explored how to build staff and patient trust and confidence in technology-enabled remote monitoring. 

This guide summarises the findings and sends out very clear statements about what patients and clinical teams want from technology enabled remote monitoring in kidney disease.