Unmet Medical Need:  Nephrology is the only field in Medicine that uses a single analyte—serum creatinine (sCr)—to suggest organ injury. Yet the rise of sCr trails the injury by 24hrs, if not by days, and it is insensitive to <50% damage. Most vexing is the fact that common volume depletion (75%) and tubular injury (“ATN” 25%) both increase sCr, meaning that therapy is not based on a prospective physiological assay. The consequence of unguided decisions includes unacceptable morbidity, multiple testing, escalation of care and increased aggregate costs of up to $7,500 per patient. 

Envisioned Healthcare Product:  The team has created a point-of-care diagnostic capable of distinguishing volume depletion from tubular injury at the time of patient contact, thus greatly improving the cycle of care and saving U.S. hospitals $3.6 to $5.7B in unnecessary treatment. 

Stage of Development:  Hypothesis testing, proof of concept

February 2017 Article

Collaborative Research Team:  Sam Sia, PhD and Jonathan Barasch, MD, PhD

Funding Cycle: 2016-2017