Probing expert opinions on the future of kidney replacement therapies

Abstract

Patients with kidney failure can only survive with some form of kidney replacement(transplant or dialysis). Unfortunately, innovations in kidney replacement therapylag behind many other medical fields. This study compiles expert opinions on candi-date technologies for future kidney replacement therapies. A worldwide web-basedsurvey was conducted with 1566 responding experts, identified from scientific pub-lications on kidney (renal) replacement therapy, indexed in the Web of Science CoreCollection (period 2014-2019). Candidate innovative approaches were categorizedin line with the Kidney Health Initiative roadmap for innovative kidney replacementtherapies. Most respondents expected a revolution in kidney replacement therapies:68.59% before 2040 and 24.85% after 2040, while 6.56% expected none. Approachesanticipated as most likely were implantable artificial kidneys (38.6%) and wearableartificial kidneys (32.4%). A majority of experts expect that kidney replacement ther-apies can be significantly improved by innovative technologies.