Partnership Aims to Bring Risk-Guided CKD Care to Health Systems

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) places a substantial clinical and financial burden on the United States. As health systems face growing pressure to detect risk earlier and manage progression proactively, they are seeking ways to avoid unplanned, high-cost dialysis starts. To address this need, a new partnership will integrate an FDA-approved risk-stratification blood test with an AI-enabled care platform, supporting earlier and more targeted interventions.

Renalytix’s kidneyintelX.dkd test is being integrated with Carna Health’s AI-driven prevention and digital care management platform to support risk-guided CKD care across health systems. The collaboration aims to move beyond traditional detection toward personalized care pathways for CKD and related cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic complications. The initiative is intended to provide clinicians and eligible patients with a preemptive, actionable roadmap.

The kidneyintelX.dkd test combines proprietary blood-based biomarkers with clinical data and a machine-learning algorithm to predict progressive decline in kidney function in adults with type 2 diabetes and early-stage CKD (stages 1–3b). Carna Health’s platform aggregates point-of-care and laboratory diagnostics and clinical data into a secure longitudinal patient view, applying machine learning to identify undiagnosed risk, predict disease progression, and deliver guidance to providers and patients. The platform integrates with health systems, laboratories, point-of-care testing devices, electronic health records, and other clinical systems for population-scale deployment.

Regulatory and coverage details cited for the initiative include U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and Medicare reimbursement for KidneyIntelX.dkd, which is commercially available across the United States. In clinical validation studies, KidneyIntelX technology delivered a 72% relative improvement in identifying patients at high risk of progressive kidney function decline compared with standard markers alone, including estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR). 

Real-world data also demonstrated greater therapeutic utility: patients classified as “high risk” were 4.5 times more likely to be prescribed sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors and had higher odds of specialist referral, with an odds ratio of 2.49. Among higher-risk patients in whom the technology was used, Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) metrics improved, with HbA1c declining from 8.3% to 7.5%, UACR decreasing by 10–20%, and the proportion of patients meeting target metrics rising from 33% to 61% at 12 months.

As it moves into the U.S. market, Carna Health's infrastructure has already demonstrated the impact of large-scale CKD screening and monitoring programs internationally. Its initiatives have identified undiagnosed CKD in nearly half of a screened community in Bermuda, enrolled 35,000 individuals in Cameroon, and launched an additional 75,000-patient CKD prevention program there. The company projects screening another 1–1.5 million people globally by year-end.

“Health systems are under enormous pressure to identify kidney disease earlier, manage risk proactively, and deliver better outcomes under value-based care models. This partnership provides a seamless, end-to-end CKD management system that addresses broader population health needs while bringing the benefits of next-generation precision medicine to the forefront. It will unearth those actionable insights needed to target the right interventions, at the right time, allocate resources precisely, improve patient outcomes, and we believe, fundamentally change the trajectory of kidney disease,” said Elise Wilfinger, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer, Renalytix.

“Combining broader population prevention programs with screening and serial monitoring, ongoing CKD education, and precision management, with insights on which patients are most likely to experience disease progression will take standard of care to the next level. By integrating our platform with Renalytix's precision diagnostics, we are creating a scalable model that aligns population health strategy with individualized patient care. We believe this will be game-changing in kidney disease management, improving outcomes and operational efficiencies. This is the missing link in value-based care. We are giving health systems the power to manage CKD populations with the same precision they apply to oncology or cardiology,” said Salvatore Viscomi, MD, Chief Executive Officer, Carna Health.

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Renalytix
Carna Health