A highly diverse team imagining the undiscovered

RENAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Transforming
patient care
through data-driven
innovation

ABOUT THE RENAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The heart of RRI’s capacity for innovation is our ability to examine complex problems through multiple lenses.

The Renal Research Institute (RRI) is an internationally recognized incubator of ideas, treatment processes, and technologies to improve the lives of kidney patients. RRI’s leadership in data analytics, computational biomedicine and AI, as well as our access to a large patient population, accelerates the pace of scientific discoveries and their translation into applied medicine. Our team includes some of the brightest minds from around the world, who, along with their disciplinary expertise, bring a deep understanding of global healthcare issues and challenges.

 

Our Research

We operate at the intersection of clinical data, machine data, and real-world practice, with access to a large patient population and one of the world's largest and richest renal datasets. Our deep connection to the scientific community and to med-tech innovators gives us the rare ability to translate insight into action—quickly, precisely, and meaningfully.

 

Latest Research & News

Latest Research

  • Hanjie Zhang, Lin-Chun Wang, Sheetal Chaudhuri, Aaron Pickering, Len Usvyat, John Larkin, Pete Waguespack, Zuwen Kuang, Jeroen P Kooman, Franklin W Maddux, Peter Kotanko

    RESULTSWe utilized data from 693 patients who contributed 42 656 hemodialysis sessions and 355 693 intradialytic SBP measurements. IDH occurred in 16.2% of hemodialysis treatments. Our model predicted IDH 15-75 min in advance with an AUROC of 0.89. Top IDH predictors were the most recent intradialytic SBP and IDH rate, as well as mean nadir SBP of the previous 10 dialysis sessions.CONCLUSIONSReal-time prediction of IDH during an ongoing hemodialysis session is feasible and has a clinically actionable predictive performance. If and to what degree this predictive information facilitates the timely deployment of preventive interventions and translates into lower IDH rates and improved patient outcomes warrants prospective studies.BACKGROUNDIn maintenance hemodialysis patients, intradialytic hypotension (IDH) is a frequent complication that has been associated with poor clinical outcomes. Prediction of IDH may facilitate timely interventions and eventually reduce IDH rates.METHODSWe developed a machine learning model to predict IDH in in-center hemodialysis patients 15-75 min in advance. IDH was defined as systolic blood pressure (SBP) <90 mmHg. Demographic, clinical, treatment-related and laboratory data were retrieved from electronic health records and merged with intradialytic machine data that were sent in real-time to the cloud. For model development, dialysis sessions were randomly split into training (80%) and testing (20%) sets. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was used as a measure of the model's predictive performance.

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Latest News

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Education

LATEST EPISODE

Beyond Medicine: Coaching, Movement & Mindset in Chronic Disease

December 1, 2025

In this episode of Frontiers in Kidney Medicine and BioIntelligence, Len Usvyat, Head of Clinical Advanced Analytics at the Renal Research Institute, speaks with Ingrid Adelsberger, a National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach who has lived with multiple sclerosis for more than 15 years. 

Together, they explore the intersection of health coaching, exercise, and nutrition—and how these approaches can empower people with chronic conditions, including those with chronic kidney disease, to take active roles in their health. 

Topics discussed: 
• What health coaching really is—and how it differs from therapy or social work 
• How small lifestyle changes lead to lasting improvements 
• Nutrition and cultural context in kidney care 
• Group coaching and the role of community support 
• Technology, wearables, and AI in behavior change