Alcester, Warwickshire, UK. 15 April 2019. Seroba’s portfolio company, Quanta Dialysis Technologies Ltd (“Quanta” or the “Company”), a pioneering medical technology company developing a personal haemodialysis system (SC+) for patient use in the clinic and the home, today announced that results from its human factors testing (HFT) of SC+ have been published in Hemodialysis International, a leading peer-reviewed journal for the renal community.
SC+ was designed to empower patients to take control of their lives by making selfcare and home hemodialysis more accessible through a device that is small, simple to use, and powerful enough to deliver dialysis adequacy. This addresses the need for a dialysis system that is appealing to patients while also being suitable for use across the continuum of care, from the clinic to the home.
To evaluate whether SC+ could be used safely and effectively, and as part of the product design usability validation, HFT was performed with 17 healthcare professionals (nephrology nurses and healthcare assistants) and 15 home users (patients and caregivers). The HFT involved between 4.5 and 6 hours of training and, after a period of training decay of at least a day, a subsequent test session in which participants were assessed independently performing tasks on SC+. Between the two user groups, there were only 29 use errors observed out of 1,216 opportunities for error, despite minimal training. Errors that did occur were minor and attributed to an initial lack of familiarity with the device; none were safety-related.
These results from human factors testing with patients and healthcare professionals demonstrate that SC+ is easy to use—even with minimal training and a significant learning decay period—while offering a high level of use safety.
John E. Milad, Chief Executive Officer of Quanta, said: “Despite the benefits that home haemodialysis offers, uptake rates are still low and the fear associated with self-managing treatments at home can be a significant barrier. SC+ is a user-friendly, patient-centred personal hemodialysis system, and the findings in this study support our claims that it can address systemic and patient barriers, allowing for wider self-care and home haemodialysis adoption.”
The full research paper can be viewed on the Haemodialysis International website: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/hdi.12757
-ENDS-
About Quanta
Quanta aims to improve the lives of dialysis patients by providing advanced haemodialysis solutions for use both in the clinic and the home. Quanta’s lead product SC+ is designed to empower dialysis patients by giving them greater flexibility, convenience and control over the delivery of their life-sustaining renal replacement therapy. Quanta is based in Alcester, UK, and was founded in 2008 as a spin out from IMI plc. The company has attracted funding from a group of leading investors, including: Stage Capital (formerly NBGI Ventures), Wellington Partners, Seroba Life Sciences, b-to-v Partners, ALIAD, CITA, Seventure Partners and Kuwait Life Sciences Company, as well as founding partner IMI plc.
For more information, please visit: www.quantadt.com.
About Seroba
Seroba is a European life sciences venture capital firm focused on investing in winning innovations in biotech and medtech. The team has deep investment and industry experience enabling us to take an active role in helping entrepreneurs realise their ambitions whilst creating value for investors. The firm has three funds under management and has built a portfolio of investee companies across multiple indications. Seroba partners with entrepreneurs to create and build businesses around extraordinary science.