CKDNapp

A toolbox for monitoring and tailoring treatment of chronic kidney disease patients – a personalized systems medicine approach

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) can arise from multiple causes. It is characterized by a variable course of diseases and a high burden of cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities, complicating optimal treatment. To provide optimal, personalized medical care for each patient, physicians need to obtain a detailed, comprehensive picture of that patient’s state. For this purpose, he/she integrates different levels of data, e.g., clinical/demographic parameters, biomarkers, and drug information, with medical knowledge. Because CKD is a complex disease, this data integration process is extremely challenging.
In our junior consortium CKDNapp, we will (1) computationally model this complex CKD system based on comprehensive biomedical and omics data collected within the German Chronic Kidney Disease (GCKD) study, (2) enrich these models with novel omics data, (3) discover novel biomarkers, and (4) build a clinical decision support (CDS) software based on these models assisting physicians in personalized everyday CKD patient care.
Our CDS software, called CKDNapp (CKD Nephrologists’ app), will (i) predict adverse events and disease progression, (ii) refine diagnosis of CKD staging, (iii) return transparent reasoning for all predictions and recommendations, (iv) offer in silico modification of patient parameters
by the physician, and (v) deliver comprehensive literature support. It will be available as an easy-to-use software for smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers.

This junior consortium comprises four complementary subprojects:

SP1: Dataset consolidation, generation of clinical input variables, and medical interpretation and validation, Dr. med. Ulla T. Schultheiß (University Clinic Freiburg)

SP2: Mathematical modeling for CKDNapp, Dr. rer. nat. Helena U. Zacharias (University Medicine Greifswald)

SP3: Algorithmic foundation of CKDNapp models, Dr. rer. nat. Michael Altenbuchinger (University Clinic Regensburg)

SP4: CKDNapp application and web service development, Dr. rer. nat. Johannes Raffler (Helmholtz Center Munich)