Carna Health on a mission to prevent chronic disease worldwide through data and partnerships

HLTH Europe wasn’t just a forum for European startups; some participants had travelled from across the globe to attend Europe’s largest healthcare innovation event. Salvatore Viscomi, M.D., CEO and co-founder of US-based Carna Health, spoke to HealthTechAsia about the company’s plans for Asia, beginning with the Philippines, and the central role of partnerships and data in their approach.

Carna Health was founded in 2021 in Boston, United States, as a digital health company with a mission to tackle chronic kidney disease (CKD) through a digital platform enhancing patient awareness, providing accessible testing, and guiding both patients and healthcare providers toward appropriate interventions.

A physician by training, founder Dr. Viscomi had long been interested in initiatives focused on early detection of conditions such as lung and breast cancer. “Prevention has always been at the heart of my work,” he explained.

”Around four years ago, I saw an opportunity in point-of-care testing using compact, accessible clinical-grade devices. That sparked the idea that testing alone isn’t enough. How do we build a solution for chronic diseases, which, as we know, are becoming more prevalent every year?

“We decided our first mission was chronic kidney disease—there is a huge unmet need, and the World Health Organization now recognises it as a priority,” he continued. “A billion people are affected, and over 90% are unaware they have it. The numbers are rising by double digits every year. Mortality is skyrocketing. Ranked as the 17th leading cause of death in 1990, CKD has increased in importance, ranking as the 12th leading cause of death in 2017. and projected to be 5th by 2040.”

“When most people develop the disease, they ultimately require dialysis or a transplant. But for many around the world, dialysis is unaffordable, inaccessible, or simply an unpleasant experience. The global focus on CKD is still largely centred on dialysis.”

Dialysis also contributes to climate change and healthcare sustainability. “Each patient on dialysis typically undergoes treatment three times a week, for three hours at a time. These machines run all the time, consuming significant energy and producing considerable water waste,” Dr. Viscomi revealed.

“We thought this is not where we should be going. This is a disease that is preventable,” he emphasises. “If you can identify disease early, raise awareness, and guide people down the right pathway—whether that’s through lifestyle changes or, in some cases, medication—you can eliminate the future need for dialysis.

And that’s a win for everyone: patients benefit, doctors feel they’re making a real difference, and governments or payers responsible for the cost of dialysis see long-term savings.”

Global vision, grounded in local insight

Recognising that dialysis presents major challenges around the world — from bankrupting healthcare budgets to labour shortages and quality-of-life concerns — Carna Health adopted a global-first mindset.

“We launched our platform in Bermuda,” Dr. Viscomi said. “Then we went to Africa. Next was the Philippines, where we’ve caught the attention of both national and regional leaders such as Governor Oaminal of Misamis Occidental to launch a program in a few months, and we will be working with the Secretary of Health and other key stakeholders.”

“The Philippines has a population of 130 million and a prevalence rate of 36%. It’s hard to fathom those numbers. And obviously it’s increasing, and so we can offer a solution in awareness, education, and early diagnosis in staging.

And even that’s not enough. What do you do with all those people identified? So the platform needs to make sure people go back to their primary care and nephrologist if they have a treatable disease.”

Carna Health is preparing to launch local government unit–led programmes in Misamis Occidental focusing on kidney disease, diabetes, and hypertension. In parallel, the company is working with the Ministry of Health on a national initiative to enroll up to 100,000 individuals later this year.

The platform’s launch in the Philippines is more than just a market entry—it’s a learning opportunity, said Dr. Viscomi. Understanding the local landscape and removing barriers to access are essential to making the model work.

“We hope to launch in Turkey later this year. We have started to identify like-minded partners. We work with existing healthcare infrastructure, which means educating local teams on how to use our devices and platform—and there are cultural nuances to understand in each country.”

“In the Philippines, for example, doing things in the community, as in community centres, is hugely important, as is having a local champion. We partner with individuals who are trusted and respected—people who motivate others to take part in screening. This brings people out for blood and urine testing. Without it, screening at scale could be extremely difficult.”

Language is another key factor, he added. “In the Philippines, English is widely spoken and understood, but in Turkey, that’s less the case.”

Geography and connectivity also pose challenges. “Even with a successful programme, some people won’t come to a clinic—so we’ll go to where the people are. That means setting up in pharmacies, malls, sporting events, churches and mosques, because these are the places where people go.”

Leveraging data and AI to empower physicians and patients

Carna Health’s approach goes beyond traditional partnerships by harnessing data and AI to enhance risk assessment, guide treatment decisions, and support the upskilling of frontline healthcare teams.

“Much of today’s disease monitoring and treatment still relies on generic clinical guidelines,” the founder explained. “But we will be the first to gather real-world, real-time data across the globe at this scale to build the predictive algorithms we need. This enables a much deeper, population-specific understanding of disease. We shouldn’t just be copying and pasting existing models.”

“For health ministries, our platform aims to deliver insights at the population level—disease burden, resource allocation, and regional trends. One important application is predictive analytics tailored to specific populations, which is why we incorporate geocoding,” the founder highlighted.

He pointed to an example from the Philippines, where a reporting module will be developed by Carna Health for the Minister of Health and senior health administrators. The module will feature an interactive map of the country, broken down by region, showing the burden of disease in each area. This enables decision-makers to allocate resources more strategically and target interventions where they’re needed most.

Physicians can meanwhile access clinical data that includes blood and urine results, vital signs, and risk stratification. “They can easily identify which patients require intervention in the next month, and which are stable enough to monitor over time.

Beyond diagnosis, Carna Health’s platform is designed to support primary care providers in delivering more effective care.

“In many areas, patients simply don’t have access to cardiologists, nephrologists, endocrinologists or other experts — even when the appropriate medications are available. Primary care providers often don’t have the time and resources to efficiently screen their patients.

In the Philippines, for example, we expect 15-20% of enrolled people to require a specialist. How do we use the resources available to provide the best care possible for each patient we’ve identified regardless where they live?

AI can act as a virtual specialist, helping a primary care doctor, nurse, or pharmacist treat a patient with a specific background, disease, and set of risk factors — while reserving limited human specialist resources for more complex cases.”

Impacting millions of lives

Looking further ahead over the next five years, Dr. Viscomi hopes Carna Health will have enrolled between 50 and 100 million people worldwide into its programme, bolstered by the wide availability of smartphones around the world and the strong appeal of free screening.

“We hope awareness of kidney disease will grow significantly — from just 2–10% today to somewhere around 30–40% in the next decade. Millions of people who were previously unaware will have been diagnosed, treated, and, thanks to us and our partners, will never need dialysis.

“Initially, this will be true for kidney disease, but ultimately we want to do the same for diabetes and heart disease — identifying the early disease, supporting patients, and helping overstretched doctors. The aim is to reduce the number of preventable deaths in younger people and avoid interventions like coronary bypasses altogether.”

It’s a bold vision, he admits — but one they believe they can achieve with the right partners who understand the critical need for digital health.

“In just three years, we’ve already impacted so many lives. As we scale, those numbers will only increase. We hope to reach half a million people this year alone, which is incredible. So when I say 15 million or even 100 million, I actually think that’s conservative. In the Philippines, for example, we believe we could enroll as many as 40 million people in just that one country.”

Beyond Turkey, expansion into the Middle East is on the horizon, where Carna Health plans to offer a more comprehensive platform addressing three of the region’s most pressing health challenges: kidney disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

“We’re able to deliver a broader platform, testing blood creatinine and a urine sample for the urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio – the two key tests needed for diagnosing CKD,” Dr. Viscomi said.

“We can also include HbA1c, which is a reliable marker for diabetes. It indicates whether someone is diabetic or prediabetic and provides a measurable number that can be tracked over time.

Then we can have lipid testing for cardiovascular disease – measuring levels like LDL and HDL – along with blood pressure monitoring.”

It’s clear that while there is still much to accomplish in a world where disease awareness remains low, Carna Health is built to move quickly and adapt to new environments.

“We hit the ground running the moment we enter a new market and someone says, ‘We want you here,’” the founder concluded with a smile.