DigitalHealth.London Accelerator Cohort Seven Showcase – Kidney Beam

As Cohort Seven of the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme comes to a close, we celebrate the remarkable achievements of our participating companies. In the spotlight today is Kidney Beam, an innovative online platform designed to support individuals with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) through clinically proven exercise, education, and well-being solutions.

What is the challenge you are addressing?

There are 7.2 million people in the UK living with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) which is more than 10% of the entire population, costing the UK economy £7 billion a year. An estimated 28% of CKD patients are considered to be physically inactive, increasing to 44% in end-stage kidney disease patients. There is significant evidence that exercise rehabilitation for people with kidney disease can lead to a 21% delay in disease progression, a 33% reduction in mortality risk and could save healthcare £268 million per year.

What is the solution you have developed and how can it help with the problem?

Kidney Beam is a clinically-proven, online exercise, education and well-being platform developed for people living with CKD. Created in partnership with King’s College Hospital London, the platform offers live and on-demand classes and programmes led by physiotherapists and exercise professionals either trained in or living with CKD.

It provides:

• Evidence-based kidney-specific content
• Professional and peer support
• A data-driven, personalised experience
• Interoperability with platform partners
• 20 years of world-leading scientific IP
• A virtual solution that delivers comparable outcomes to in-person care

With the help of Beam I have come a long way. Not only have you helped me get fitter and stronger, you have helped me gain in confidence. My family can’t remember seeing me walk about without a stick. I now move about my home without sticks. I can see the day when I no longer need my stairlift to get up and downstairs. So I owe a lot to Beam.

John
86 year old Kidney Beam user since May 2022
232 classes completed to date

What have you achieved while on the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator?

Kidney Beam has been rolled out across England via the eight renal networks. We have completed a multi-centre randomised controlled trial of 340 participants, which was recently published in the prestigious Lancet Digital Health journal and showed that Kidney Beam participants had;

• Significantly improved Kidney Disease Quality of Life Score
• Significantly improved Patient Activation Measure
• Significantly improved physical function as measured by the 60 sec sit to stand test
• 93% and 98% probability of being cost-effective at £20K and £30K per QALY.

Overall, the study showed that the Kidney Beam physical activity platform is an efficacious digital health intervention to improve mental health-related quality of life in patients with chronic kidney disease. These findings could facilitate the incorporation of remote digital health interventions into clinical practice and offer a potential intervention worthy of investigation in other chronic conditions.

Kidney Beam is now working with some of the leading Kidney Charities, including Kidney Research UK, the National Kidney Federation, Kidney Care UK, UK Kidney Association and the Kidney Wales. We also have trial sites in Ireland, USA and Canada.

We have also successfully completed a Seed funding round, led by Kidney Research UK, utilising an innovative crowdfunding strategy via CrowdCube to secure investment for Kidney Beam.

Where have you had the best adoption/spread/impact?

This evidence base has allowed us to secure partnerships with Renal Clinical Networks across all eight regions of England and the ROI, and we are now accessible to people living with kidney disease in all 72 kidney units across the NHS.

At present, we have a preliminary policy proposal being considered by the NHS England Clinical Policy Unit to assess whether a physical activity digital health intervention such as Kidney Beam should become a standard care for people living with CKD.

How have you made the most of your time on the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator?

The programme has been transformational for our company. Having a dedicated NHS Navigator has provided us with invaluable expertise and up-to-date information, enabling us to use our time and resources efficiently to get to a commissioned service. The workshops have been both informative and thought-provoking, and we greatly enjoyed connecting with other companies during the Networking Days.

The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme is funded by the UK Government via the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). It is delivered by the Health Innovation Network (HIN) South London in partnership with the Office of Life Sciences, CW+, Medicity, NHS England, the Mayor of London and the Levelling Up Fund.

For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-
shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus.