Call us: 1.405.235.2305
info@i2E.org
  • Events
  • News
  • Resources
  • Media
  • Love’s Cup
i2Ei2Ei2Ei2E
  • About
  • Entrepreneurship
    • Venture Advisory Services
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
  • e3
  • Concept Fund
  • iMCI
  • Portfolio
  • ACT Tulsa
  • Contact

OKC-based Simergent provides alternative dialysis treatment for kidney patients

    Home News OKC-based Simergent provides alternative dialysis treatment for kidney patients
    NextPrevious

    OKC-based Simergent provides alternative dialysis treatment for kidney patients

    By sarah | News | 0 comment | 26 September, 2019 | 0

    By Scott Meacham

    Kidney dialysis is a life-saver for patients with end-stage renal disease.

    When the kidneys can no longer clean waste products out of the body, dialysis can add years to a person’s life expectancy and for kidney transplant candidates, can help buy time until a kidney transplant becomes available.

    However, most dialysis in the U.S. is hemodialysis, which involves removing and cleansing the blood outside the body and usually must be performed in dialysis centers. Hemodialysis typically requires three visits a week that last about four hours each. With the time and logistics demands, as well as the medical requirements, patients in hemodialysis find it costly and very difficult, if not impossible to live normal lives.

    Peritoneal dialysis is another option for patients. This therapy cleans the blood inside the body without using any needles or extracting any blood, so the treatment can be conducted in-home. However, current peritoneal dialysis devices are complicated for the patient to use, require considerable patient training and support from medical personnel, and require patients to be stationary during long hours of dialysis.

    Simergent (https://www.simergent.com), an Oklahoma startup based in Oklahoma City, is developing an affordable, in-home peritoneal dialysis device that fills the gap in currently available dialysis systems.

    “Simergent is committed to putting patients’ needs first,” said Steve Lindo, Simergent co-founder and CEO.

    “Patients who have to go to dialysis clinics often can’t live the lives they want,” Lindo said. “When they are connected to a machine for four hours in the middle of every other day, they can’t go to work to provide for their families. They can’t take care of their kids or play with their grandkids or go to a football game when they’re sitting in a dialysis clinic. We want to give them back their hours, days, and weeks — as well as their lives.”

    Recent and anticipated changes in Medicare reimbursement are encouraging home dialysis, and many patients say they would prefer home dialysis if they were given a choice. That’s good, because 1 percent of the Medicare population use dialysis, but 7 percent of the Medicare budget goes toward these costs.

    “Home dialysis can save Medicare about $20,000 per patient per year,” Lindo said, “although it’s the human element that matters.”

    Simergent’s Archimedes home peritoneal dialysis system delivers a sugar and electrolyte solution into a patient’s abdomen through a port in the belly. After about an hour and a half, the solution, carrying toxins and waste is drawn back out, then repeated again several times until the blood is fully cleansed. The cycle can be completed at night, while the patient is sleeping. When they wake up in the morning, the therapy is finished.

    “Or,” Lindo said, “they can start their dialysis in their living room while they watch TV and finish up in their bedroom while they sleep, for those who are prescribed longer treatments. The machine is on wheels and portable, so patients conducting dialysis can move around and do whatever they normally do at home. Our machine is designed to be safe and friendly to patients with easy-to-follow pictorial touch screen instructions.” Simergent expects FDA approval within less than two years.

    Lindo and Simergent co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Rick Pendergraft, Ph.D. are passionate about removing many of the limitations kidney dialysis forces on patients. They are developing a less costly more user-friendly option that addresses what dialysis patients want — to receive life-saving treatment at home — and live a normal life.

    Simergent is another example of a biotech startup with a great technology and a big heart.

    Scott Meacham is president and CEO of i2E Inc., a nonprofit corporation that mentors many of the state’s technology-based startup companies. i2E receives state appropriations from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. Contact Meacham at i2E_Comments@i2E.org

    kidney dialysis, Rick Pendergraft, Scott Meacham, Simergent, Steve Lindo

    Related Post

    • Linear Health Sciences Announces U.S. FDA Clearance and Health Canada Approval of its Orchid Safety Release Valve (SRV)

      By sarah | Comments are Closed

      Device Intended to Reduce Risk of IV Catheter Failure and Replacement in Hospitals; Sister Product Orchid SRV-Type D for Drainage to Launch Simultaneously OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – May 17, 2022 – Medical device company LinearRead more

    • Student teams from OSU, TU and East Central claim Love’s Cup top awards

      By sarah | Comments are Closed

      May 3, 2022 Contact: Sarah Seagraves, Senior VP for Marketing (405) 813-2403 or email sseagraves@i2E.org Teams led by student innovators from Oklahoma State University, the University of Tulsa and East Central University claimed first placeRead more

    • A final column and a thank you for reading

      By sarah | Comments are Closed

      Thank you for reading this column for nearly a decade By Scott Meacham This is my final column for The Oklahoman. As CEO of i2E, I have had the wonderful opportunity since January 2013 to write thisRead more

    • A significant impact on new ventures? That’s i2E’s e3 program

      By sarah | Comments are Closed

      Accelerators like i2E’s e3 can have a significant impact on new ventures By Scott Meacham When the team from Zen Health Technologies formally introduces their company, they describe a business that uses immersive technologies for personalRead more

    • Autigen Announces Collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim

      By sarah | 0 comment

      Novel Treatments for Hearing Loss Collaboration and licensing agreement to advance novel therapies for sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), where there are currently no approved pharmacological therapies. OKLAHOMA CITY–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Autigen, a biotechnology portfolio company of theRead more

    Leave a Comment

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

    NextPrevious
    i2E-300dpi-Trans-Light
    • Events
    • News
    • Resources
    • Media
    • Love’s Cup

    Oklahoma City Office

    840 Research Parkway, Suite 250
    OKC, OK 73104
    PHONE 405/235-2305
    Click HERE for printable map with directions.

    Tulsa Office

    100 S. Cincinnati Ave – 5th Floor, Suite 514
    Tulsa, OK 74103
    PHONE 918/582-5592
    Copyright 2022 i2E, Inc. | All Rights Reserved
    • About
    • Entrepreneurship
      • Venture Advisory Services
      • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
      • ACT Tulsa
    • e3
    • Concept Fund
    • Portfolio
    • iMCI
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Contact
    i2E