l-r Profs Maarten Taal, Paul Stewart and Nick Selby

MStart Trust: iTREND Intelligent Healthcare Technologies  Mar 2017 – Feb 2023,  £1.7M

PIs Prof Paul Stewart, Prof Jill Stewart (University of Derby) and Principal Investigators Prof Maarten Taal and Dr Nick Selby (Department of Renal Medicine, Royal Derby Hospital; Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Nottingham)

The aim of the programme is to improve outcomes for renal dialysis patients by delivering personalised treatment regimes, in particularly, predicting the onset of hypotension and modulating or modifying treatment. So far the team has developed hardware and software for non-invasive continuous monitoring of blood pressure, without compromising patient experience. In parallel to the main iTrend project, the team secured a Kidney Research UK Stoneygate Award (2021-2023) – DIAMONDS Dialysis Monitoring for Decision Support, to develop real-time blood pressure prediction during dialysis treatment. The iTrend project is now extended until 2023 to investigate the effectiveness of treatment modulation techniques in controlling and mitigating the onset of hypotension during treatment. By mid 2023, the programmes will have collected continuous blood pressure and other physiological data from over 200 patients In the Derby Royal Hospital (RDH) Renal Unit, during multiple 4-hour treament sessions for each patient in order to support the development of the programme