Home testing for chronic kidney disease for people with diabetes

Fully funded albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) testing for people with diabetes now available across all GP practices

A smartphone app and home test kit enabling people to complete their annual urinary ACR test from home using their mobile phone camera, is now available across all GP practices in Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership. The partnership with health technology company Healthy.io will enable practices to engage with previously hard-to-reach patients and address any backlog in chronic disease management for people living with diabetes.

Key information:

• Free for ALL  GP practices in the Health and Care Partnership - every practice encouraged to sign-up for the service now
• Improves uptake of ACR testing, quickly identifying at-risk patients
• Testing contributes towards achievement of the patients routine Diabetes health checks/care processes
• 92% of people find the test ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’ to use, 96% preferred testing at home vs. testing at the clinic
• Quick and easy to implement - time commitment per practice is 1 hour for set-up, after which the service will be fulfilled by Healthy.io
• I.G. approved across the health and care partnership
• Releases practice capacity by outsourcing workload to Healthy.io

Set-up the service in your practice now >>

It is estimated that 19,595 people living with diabetes in Mid and South Essex do not do their annual ACR test. This means many cases of chronic kidney disease are not being detected until they’re at an advanced stage, sometimes when a person is suffering from end stage renal disease and needs a transplant or dialysis. The Covid pandemic has only worsened the situation, with nationwide uptake of this critical test for people living with diabetes, decreasing from 40% pre-pandemic to 16% from January to September 2020. 

Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership joins a growing number of NHS organisations across the country who are using this digital innovation to address this problem, by enabling at-risk patients to complete urine tests safely and easily from home. In other areas, this test has improved uptake of this essential care process from 0% to 72% amongst patients with no record of an ACR test in the last 12 months, who agreed to take part.

The Minuteful kidney test technology does not require for a specific device to be registered to an individual to work, therefore a friend or family member’s device can be used to submit results securely. For those who do not have access to relevant technology, the ACR testing process will remain unchanged and people should continue to be called for routine ACR tests in clinics or practices.

This at-home urinary ACR testing service is delivered in partnership with Healthy.io, the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC), NHSx and the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). 

Every practice in the area can now begin the process of activating the service. To do this enter your details in this 1-minute form.

This 12 month project has been funded in partnership in collaboration with Healthy.io and NHSx.