A fulfilling life for people with chronic kidney disease is at the heart of Diaverum Deutschland's activities. As part of the Diaverum Group, the world's leading independent provider of care for people with kidney disease, Diaverum in Germany, based in Munich, offers a comprehensive range of services. The spectrum ranges from preventive care to hemo and peritoneal dialysis to care before and after kidney transplants.
"We are an independent provider of dialysis services with a vision to transform the care of kidney patients, offering the highest quality of care while reducing costs," said Frank Gotsmann, Managing Director of Diaverum Germany, describing the company's position. "Dialysis treatment changes patients' lives significantly, as they have to come to our clinics three times a week, with each treatment lasting 4 hours, for a total of about 12 hours a week. That's why we want to help patients live a full life, just like anyone else. We are well positioned to achieve this vision because we have three pillars that we have developed over 30 years of experience in renal care: our world-class proprietary care model, patient-centered digital innovation and a culture of true care."
Specialized practices
As a nephrology service provider, Diaverum operates nephrology specialty practices for patients with kidney disease. In the long term, a transplant is the only cure for these people. Until this is possible, they need dialysis as a life-prolonging measure. In Germany, Diaverum offers dialysis both in its own centers and at home. Diaverum is also active in the treatment of diabetes.
The world's leading independent provider
Originally, the first clinic was founded in 1991 by Gambro Healthcare in Sweden. The acquisition by Bridgepoint in 2007 marked the birth of Diaverum. Since 2009, Diaverum has also been represented in Germany. The first seven dialysis clinics were acquired in Kleve, Erkelenz and Potsdam. In the following years, further clinics were added in Remscheid, Stralsund and Neubrandenburg.
In 2013, Diaverum acquired what was then Europe's largest dialysis clinic in Hamburg, in 2018 the dialysis unit of a hospital in Kleve was taken over and in 2019 the dialysis clinic in Prignitz-Perleberg. Today, Diaverum operates 17 medical care centers at nine locations in Germany with 560 employees.
Challenges facing the industry
"Currently, we are thinking about how to deal with current issues such as high inflation, the shortage of skilled workers and the energy crisis," explains the CEO. "We also face the issue of financing, because the reimbursement rate per dialysis has not increased in recent years, while all other costs have increased."
In addition, so-called "green dialysis" is also an important issue. Frank Gotsmann: "Classic dialysis is very resource-intensive. We are trying to make it more gentle and significantly reduce costs over its lifetime, partly through our industry-leading digital innovations and better infrastructure. We also want to use systems supported by heat pumps and photovoltaic systems to reduce our environmental footprint. In addition, it's very important for us to get on the political agenda and make the funding challenges clear."
Artificial intelligence
Digitization is also a key area of consideration. "In an international comparison, we are already much further ahead in terms of digitalization," the CEO notes. "Our digital strategy is based on the needs of our patients to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of treatment as well as medical outcomes. This includes predictive AI solutions that support our physicians in providing personalized care to our patients. We are not only thinking about administrative processes, such as paperless dialysis, but also quality management. One example is the AI thrombosis model for vascular access. Thanks to such prediction, we can take preventive measures."
Best possible care
Like many other companies, Diaverum is also affected by the shortage of skilled workers. To counteract this, Frank Gotsmann is taking two approaches: "We are trying to care for more patients at home and therefore need fewer center dialyses. The second way is to recruit qualified specialists with attractive working conditions. For example, we offer our employees a very good work-life balance, much better than in many other medical professions. In addition, we train ourselves with our own learning platform d.ACADEMY, among other things." As far as the coming years are concerned, the CEO has clear ideas: "The patient comes first, so the best possible medical performance is at the heart of everything we do. But not at any price - we want to push 'green dialysis' intensively, increase growth and our market share in Germany, and promote home dialysis. We support research initiatives in nephrology and want to increase the transplantation rate."
(published on wirtschaftsforum.de)