Dialysis treatment planning and cost optimization

A system for dialysis treatment planning and optimization, the system comprising:

• a processor coupled to a computer readable storage device, the storage device having stored thereon program instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations including:
• receiving, at the processor, a dialysis treatment parameter set corresponding to a patient and having one or more dialysis treatment parameters;
• retrieving, from the storage device, a predetermined list of dialyzers and corresponding cost and performance data for each respective dialyzer in the predetermined list of dialyzers;
• iteratively calculating a cost impact of at least one scenario in which one or more of the dialysis treatment parameters in the dialysis treatment parameter set has been changed, the cost impact being determined based both on a clinical impact of changing the one or more dialysis treatment parameters and on a cost value of changing the one or more dialysis treatment parameters including changing a dialyzer for the scenario to one of the dialyzers selected from the predetermined list of dialyzers;
• storing each scenario, including the dialysis treatment parameters and the calculated cost impact for each scenario, in the electronic data storage device so as to make each cost impact calculation available for output by the processor;
• selecting, using the processor, the scenario having the most desirable cost impact;
• and
• outputting the selected scenario including the cost impact and the dialysis treatment parameters for the selected scenario.

A nontransitory computer readable medium having stored thereon program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, at the processor, a dialysis treatment parameter corresponding to a patient;
• retrieving, from a storage device coupled to the processor, cost and performance data for a new dialyzer;
• iteratively calculating a cost impact of at least one scenario in which the dialysis treatment parameter has been changed, the cost impact being determined based on a cost value of changing the dialysis treatment parameters including changing a dialyzer for the scenario to the new dialyzer;
• selecting, using the processor, the scenario having the most desirable cost impact;
• and
• outputting the selected scenario including the cost impact and the dialysis treatment parameters for the selected scenario.