![](bg4.png)
Figure 1. Renal Health application’s screenplays samples.
In the first interface the user have the options for
connecting as “hemodialysis patient”, “transplanted
patient”, “conservative treatment” (people with
CKD not yet on dialysis) or “general population”
(just to get information about CKD and access
laboratory data regarding renal function). It is worth
mentioning that the interface for the general
population will inform the users if they need a
medical consultation. When laboratory tests point to
any abnormality, the application will advice for a
medical consultation. In the dialysis interface, the
user can access a tool for liquids intake, which is
illustrated by a glass of water, informing when the
limit is achieved. This is important because people
on dialysis should have a strict control on liquids
intake in order to prevent fluid overload. Regarding
medication intake, it will be available for both
dialysis and transplant users. Patients can insert the
names and the time of medication intake. The
application will remember when it is time to take teh
medications through alarms and it will also give
information about the medications (its actions, side
effects and other information for patients). Other
interfaces include laboratory tests information,
displaying graphics illustrating the evolution of each
test. It is important because both dialysis and
transplanted patients need to have laboratory tests
every month, and this tool will help to evaluate and
interpret each test.
The application is also intended to interact with
the users, by displaying alarms on medications and
medical consultations, for example. It will also be
connected with some devices to improve adherence
to medication. One of de devices that will be
developed is the “medication smart box”, which will
be connected to the application by Bluetooth. The
aim of this medication box is to detect every time
the patients take the medications, so that it will be
possible to exactly measure medication’s adherence.
The prototype of this box can be seen in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Prototype of the medication smart box to be
connected with Renal health application.
The Renal Health application will be adjusted,
based on patients and health professionals advices
and will be tested in a large number of patients in the
settings of hemodialysis and kidney transplant. The
next phases of this study consists in the
improvement of the application, with the initial
version developed in Portuguese (in Brazil) and an
administrative tool on the web using JAVA
platform. Further translation to English and Spanish
will be done, and new tests will be conducted in
other countries. The data are entered manually in the
application by the patients, automatically, through
the application synchronization to the network of
laboratories responsible for analyzing the monthly
tests, as well as being continuously recorded by
biosensors (blood pressure, heart rate, arrhythmia
detection, weight, percentage of body fat and water).
For people without CKD the application focus on
preventive measures and tools to help interpret
diagnostic tests for kidney function, basically serum
creatinine, glomerular filtration rate and urinalysis.
4 CONCLUSION
There are many gaps in the knowledge about CKD
for both the general population and patients with
CKD, which difficult disease prevention and
treatment. We believe that the use of “Renal Health”
application can be an important tool for the general
population for the acquisition of knowledge about
CKD, as well as for patients, health care workers,
family and caregivers. A prospective longitudinal
study is being proposed to investigate if the
application has a positive impact in clinical
outcomes among patients in dialysis and after kidney
transplantation. We suppose that the use of this
application can decrease CKD complications and
possibly also decrease mortality.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the International Society of
Nephrology, which is providing financial support for
the development of the next phases of this study
through its Clinical Research Program (Project
number 17-02-0155_BR_Renal Health self-
monitoring application), the Brazilian Society of
Nephrology and the Edson Queiroz
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