[HN Gopher] Show HN: An open-source safety net for home hemodial...
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Show HN: An open-source safety net for home hemodialysis
Author : qweliantanner
Score : 30 points
Date : 2026-03-17 00:48 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (safehemo.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (safehemo.com)
| qweliantanner wrote:
| Hi HN, I'm building an open-source digital safety net for home
| hemodialysis patients. This operates ostly as a portfolio piece
| but i thought it worth sharing.
|
| The Why: Home dialysis gives patients freedom, but introduces a
| terrifying risk of isolation. If a patient's blood pressure
| crashes or a line disconnects while a caregiver is asleep in the
| next room, the machine sounds an alarm, but it only beeps in the
| room. It doesn't text the spouse, it doesn't alert the clinic,
| and it doesn't notify emergency contacts. I lost my mother to a
| disconnect in home care, so I decided to build the safety net I
| wish we had that night. Of course, who knows how effective this
| may have been if it existed.
|
| The Tech: It's built on Elixir and Phoenix LiveView. Active
| dialysis sessions are backed by OTP GenServers to maintain state.
| If an anomaly is detected (like a hypotensive drop),
| Phoenix.PubSub instantly broadcasts the event over WebSockets to
| a LiveView dashboard and triggers SMS alerts to the patient's
| "Care Network." Because proprietary medical devices are locked
| down, I also built a mock IoT server in Rust that streams
| medically plausible, simulated telemetry to test the pipeline.
|
| The Reality Check: I shared the first build with a dialysis
| community on Reddit and got rightfully roasted by a caregiver. He
| pointed out that exhausted patients don't want another "app" or a
| GitHub link--they just want to tame the chaos of medical
| documents and get help when they need it. It was a humbling UX
| lesson that forced me to pivot. I immediately simplified the
| onboarding and built "Community Hubs" so users can upload their
| own knowledge bases and machine manuals.
|
| It's currently in Pre-Alpha (using the Rust simulator for data).
| I would love any feedback on the Elixir/OTP architecture, the
| LiveView real-time dashboard, or the overall UX flow.
|
| Repo: https://github.com/qweliant
|
| (Note: To test the dashboard and simulator, you do have to create
| an account so the database can build your Care Network topology.
| You can use fake info!)
| chromatin wrote:
| Incredible; I'll let my patients* on Home HD know about this.
|
| *not a nephrologist but have several pts on home hd
| mech422 wrote:
| That's actually a pretty cool - especially for a portfolio piece.
| While it's not for common use (yet?), it gives prospective
| employers an idea of how you would work with safety critical
| code, as we as the 'normal' CRUD/web stuff.
| qweliantanner wrote:
| thank you so much
| thebeardisred wrote:
| FYI, the "Explore the docs" link in README.md links back to the
| repo and not actual documentation.
| westurner wrote:
| FHIR HL7 data would probably be worth adding.
|
| I did some quick research on this:
|
| /? dialysis:
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
|
| "Ask HN: What's a good electrical UPS for a home dialysis
| machine?" (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40925980
|
| "Mother used her EV to power son's dialysis machine amid storms
| and a blackout" (2024)
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38939110
|
| "Can an Artificial Kidney Finally Free Patients from Dialysis?"
| (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37782941 :
|
| "Feasibility of an implantable bioreactor for renal cell therapy
| using silicon nanopore membranes" (2023)
| https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39888-2 ... gscholar
| citations:
| https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=5830456480534079550...
|
| "Dialysis machine inspired by juice dispenser wins UK engineering
| prize" (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32077498
|
| .
|
| dialysis * GitHub Topics * GitHub
| https://github.com/topics/dialysis
|
| orroo/DEEP-NEPHRO: _DEEP_NEPHRO is a university-led project
| focused on enhancing dialysis care through intelligent monitoring
| and optimization. By integrating machine learning and real-time
| data analysis,_ https://github.com/orroo/DEEP-NEPHRO
|
| kidney-disease * GitHub Topics * GitHub
| https://github.com/topics/kidney-disease
|
| alwinw/epocakir: _Clinical coding of patients with kidney disease
| using_ KDIGO _clinical practice guidelines_
| https://github.com/alwinw/epocakir
|
| "KDIGO guidelines" https://kdigo.org/guidelines/
|
| kdigo * GitHub Topics * GitHub https://github.com/topics/kdigo
|
| danribes/renalguard:
| https://github.com/danribes/renalguard#system-integration-ho... ;
| FHIR HL7 and HL7v2 for labs
|
| FHIR:
|
| "The case for open source solutions in HIPAA" re: FHIR
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42230270 (2024)
|
| >> _/? awesome clinical open source:
| https://www.google.com/search?q=awesome+clinical+open+source_
|
| "V2 to FHIR - HL7 Version 2 to FHIR v1.0.0"
| https://build.fhir.org/ig/HL7/v2-to-fhir/
|
| HL7/v2-to-fhir: https://github.com/HL7/v2-to-fhir/
|
| "Overview - FHIR v5.0.0" https://www.hl7.org/fhir/overview.html
|
| /? hl7 fhir dialysis
| https://www.google.com/search?q=hl7+fhir+dialysis
|
| "hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis" - Protocols for Clinical
| Registry Extraction and Data Submission (CREDS) IG v1.0.0
| https://build.fhir.org/ig/HL7/fhir-registry-protocols-ig/Val...
|
| renalguard/mcp-server at main * danribes/renalguard * GitHub
| https://github.com/danribes/renalguard/tree/main/mcp-server
|
| healthcare-ai * GitHub Topics * GitHub
| https://github.com/topics/healthcare-ai?l=typescript&o=desc&...
|
| Hisham-InfoGleam/openclaw-clinical-interop-poc: _OpenClaw-native
| clinical interoperability POC with HL7 v2 parsing, FHIR mapping,
| and secure webhook orchestration._ https://github.com/Hisham-
| InfoGleam/openclaw-clinical-intero... :
|
| > _Shows healthcare interoperability patterns using HL7 v2
| parsing and FHIR resource mapping_
|
| openclaw-clinical-interop-poc/agents/openclaw/skills:
| https://github.com/Hisham-InfoGleam/openclaw-clinical-intero...
|
| hl7v2 * GitHub Topics * GitHub https://github.com/topics/hl7v2
|
| fhir * GitHub Topics * GitHub https://github.com/topics/fhir
|
| Dialysis (disambiguation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialysis
|
| Kidney dialysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidney_dialysis
|
| Hemodialysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemodialysis
|
| "Interoperability in Dialysis Platforms: Leveraging FHIR and
| Cloud APIs for Seamless Data Exchange" (2026)
| https://gprjournals.org/journals/index.php/ajt/article/view/... :
|
| > _Conclusion: Siloed dialysis EHR systems significantly hinder
| coordinated care for patients with ESKD, increasing the risk of
| adverse clinical outcomes._
|
| "The Application of Mobile Health in Self-Management Among
| Patients Undergoing Dialysis: Scoping Review" (2026)
| https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e76880
|
| /? how to format hemodialysis messages as FHIR HL7
| https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+format+hemodialysis+m...
|
| Procedure - Dialysis - JSON Representation - AU Core
| Implementation Guide v2.0.1-ci-build
| https://build.fhir.org/ig/hl7au/au-fhir-core/Procedure-dialy...
|
| /? how to format hemodialysis procedure stats messages as FHIR
| HL7 - Google Search
| https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+format+hemodialysis+p... ;
| Observations
|
| Hemodialysis Machine Availability (physical object) Observation
| Example - JSON Representation - QI-Core Implementation Guide
| v8.0.0-ballot https://build.fhir.org/ig/HL7/fhir-qi-
| core/branches/master/e...
|
| These aren't for home care, but the same quality measures:
|
| ESRD-QIP + HL7 https://www.google.com/search?q=ESRD-QIP+HL7
|
| Dialysis facilities - ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) |
| Provider Data Catalog https://data.cms.gov/provider-
| data/topics/dialysis-facilitie... :
|
| > _The clinical measures are_ [...] _The reporting measures are:_
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(page generated 2026-03-20 23:00 UTC)