Niagara Health ‘Angels’ Make At-Home Dialysis a Breeze

With a wife and seven children, Luc Lessard’s life is a juggling act and he is grateful for a peritoneal dialysis system he can use independently that helps make his day-to-day more manageable. Since the team at Niagara Health taught him and his wife Anne to use the AMIA Automated Peritoneal Dialysis System – a device that guides patients through the process of doing their therapy, step-by-step using voice guidance and animations,  while keeping them remotely connected with their healthcare providers through the SHARESOURCE  remote patient management platform,–  the 52-year-old says he feels completely secure and supported.

“The team is awesome. I call them my angels,” Luc says. “They support me in all matters, not just physically, but emotionally and mentally, too.”

Luc and Anne visit the multidisciplinary team at Niagara Health for regular clinical appointments, otherwise his kidney disease is completely managed at home. Arden Gibson, PD Charge Nurse at the hospital, says giving Luc a chance to participate in his own care by showing him the SHARESOURCE information during clinic visits allows him to be better informed about how to optimize his therapy. “To keep a patient at home and do peritoneal dialysis, you need a lot of people and I feel with SHARESOURCE we have another very valuable member of our team keeping our patients well and safe at home,” she says.

SHARESOURCE allows healthcare providers to securely view their patients’ recently completed home dialysis-related treatment data that is automatically collected after each PD session. Healthcare providers can then act on this information by remotely adjusting their patients’ home therapy prescription without requiring them to travel to the clinic.

Patients using an automated PD system with SHARESOURCE have reported more confidence in performing their therapy at home. “It’s not frustrating, it’s not stressful at all,” Luc says. “It’s what I do before I go to bed, that’s all.”

Everyone on the team at Niagara Health agrees that involving patients like Luc to partner in their own care using SHARESOURCE has allowed them to work more efficiently and optimize their impact.

“For the nursing team it’s made a huge difference in the daily care of their patients,” says Cynthia Bryson, Clinical Manager of the Outpatient Kidney Care Program at Niagara Health. “They feel a greater sense of satisfaction with the work they’re doing because they’re making a better use of their time and making a bigger difference in their patients’ lives.”