Time on Therapy of Automated Peritoneal Dialysis with and without Remote Patient Monitoring: A Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Remote patient monitoring (RPM) of patients undergoing automated peritoneal dialysis (APD-RPM) may potentially enhance time on therapy due to possible improvements in technique and patient survival. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of APD-RPM as compared to APD without RPM on time on therapy. METHODS: Adult incident APD patients undergo APD for 90 days or more in the Baxter Renal Care Services (BRCS) Colombia network between January 1, 2017, and June 30, 2019, with the study follow-up ending June 30, 2021. The exposure variable was APD-RPM vs. APD-without RPM. The outcomes of time on therapy and mortality rate over two years of follow-up were estimated in the full sample and in a matched population according to the exposure variable. A propensity score matching (PSM) 1:1 without replacement utilizing the nearest neighbor within caliper (0.035) was used and created a pseudopopulation in which the baseline covariates were well balanced. Fine & Gray multivariate analysis was performed to assess the effect of demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables on the risk of death, adjusting for the competing risks of technique failure and kidney transplantation. RESULTS: In the matched sample, the time on APD therapy was significantly longer in the RPM group than in the non-RPM group, 18.95 vs. 15.75 months, p < 0.001. The mortality rate did not differ between the two groups: 0.10 events per patient-year in the RPM group and 0.12 in the non-RPM group, p=0.325. CONCLUSION: Over two years of follow-up, the use of RPM vs. no RPM in APD patients was associated with a significant increase in time on therapy, by 3.2 months. This result indicates that RPM-supported APD therapy may improve the clinical effectiveness and the overall quality of APD.