INTRODUCTION Hemodialysis is one of the treatments available for end stage renal failure. Some years ago, a high percentage of uremic patients was treated by home hemodialysis (HD). However, today the proportion of patients treated by home HD is very low, despite the reports that this treatment modality has lower mortality and offers better quality of life (1-3). Today’s technical advances encourage the expansion of home HD. Telemedicine is a new development and covers medical activities including treatment and education (4-6). However, research on the effectiveness of telemedicine is somewhat limited and the number of patients receiving services that use this technology remains relatively low (7). The goal of this research is to combine home HD with telematics monitoring services for supporting uremic patients who need home or satellite HD treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS For the clinical trials of our research project, two ERGO TN-401 Hemodialysis machines (HDM) were installed in Artificial Kidney and Dialysis The International Journal of Artificial Organs / Vol. 22 / no. 10, 1999 / pp. 679-683 Telemedicine technology and applications for home hemodialysis B. AGROYANNIS 1 , C. FOURTOUNAS 1 , G. ROMAGNOLI 2 , M. SKIADAS 3 , C. TSAVDARIS 4 , C. CHASSOMERIS 5 , H. TZANATOS 1 , I. KOPELIAS 1 , D. LYMBEROPOULOS 5 , J. PSARRAS 4 1 Department of Nephrology, Aretaieon University Hospital, Athens - Greece 2 Azienda Ospedaliera di Padova, Padova - Italy 3 ERGO S.A., Athens - Greece 4 National Technical University of Athens, Athens 5 University of Patras - Greece © by Wichtig Editore, 1999 0391-3988/679-05 $02.50/0 ABSTRACT: Home hemodialysis (HD) for the treatment of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) was first put into practice about 30 years ago. In this paper we describe the application of telematics monitoring services (TMS) for supporting patients who need home or satellite HD (SHD). For the clinical trials two modified HD machines were located in the renal unit and a central control station (UNIX workstation with multimedia PC-terminal) was located in another room of the hospital. Bi-directional communication between modified HD machines and central control station was managed via ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) links. Using these HD-machines 150 HD sessions were performed in nine patients over a period of five months. This system enabled on-line remote supervision of the HD machine-related functions (air in the blood, leak of blood, low conductivity etc.) and the clinical condition of patients through measurement of blood pressure (BP), pulse rate, PO 2 (pulse oxymetry) and electrocardiogram (ECG) from the central control station (CCS). The user checked the type of alarm/warning, its appearance on HD machines and multimedia terminal units (MTU), the action of the protective system and the appearance of consultative messages from CCS on the remote terminal unit RTU. According to the data collected, the disturbances of HD machine function were visible and audible in the CCS and the user messages were always observed on the RTU. No unusual dialysis-associated complications were observed, all data and alarms/warnings were transmitted correctly and patients had adequate HD treatment. (Int J Artif Organs 1999; 22: 679-83) KEY WORDS: Home hemodialysis, Telematics application, Telemonitoring, ISDN Agroyannis 679 12-11-1999 10:01 Pagina 679