The EU project „NEPHRON+“ aims at developing a novel system for renal replacement therapy. The eponym of this project is the nephron, the smallest functional subunit of the kidney.
The artificial kidney shall be compact to the point that it is wearable by the patient in his daily life. With integrated sensors the system automatically monitors the most important parameters of the patient and adjusts the treatment due to the measured values. The data is saved and serves the treating physician as a follow-up.

Technical and medical specialists from various countries are involved in the EU-wide project. OFFIS part in this project is to develop an embedded software that varies from efficient algorithms to save and evaluate blood values and sensor data up to the control of the hardware with a suited operating system. With this, a secure and efficient function of the whole system is enabled and the core requirements for medical devices are met.

In 2007, the number of end stage renal disease patients was about 1.5 million. In Europe this is added by 4 % every year. 90 % of these patients are dependent on dialysis. But the dialysis treatment demands periodic hospitalizations. Furthermore, there are long gaps between treatments which burden the patient. With innovative technologies, a new system shall be developed that abolishes the deficits of conventional dialysis therapy.