NxStage® Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXTM), a leading manufacturer of innovative dialysis products, announced today the launch of the NxStage Freedom Tour, a two week road trip in a recreational vehicle to promote and educate dialysis patients on the benefits of home hemodialysis with the NxStage System One™. Traveling in the NxStage Freedom Coach are NxStage field marketing specialists Charissa Rice and Harvey Wells. During the nine city tour, the duo will make stops outside of dialysis centers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and North Carolina. Patients and care partners are invited inside the NxStage Freedom coach to watch Rice, who is also a NxStage user, perform her treatments with her care partner, learn about home hemodialysis and hear first-hand how the therapy has helped both Rice and Wells to reclaim their lives.
"NxStage has given me the freedom to live my life the way I want to live it," said Rice. "I want to help patients like me understand that they can have the life they want, and show them how great I feel, how happy I am, and how independently I live."
Rice performed home hemodialysis with the NxStage System One from 2009 until she received a transplant in 2011. She returned to NxStage therapy after her transplant failed in 2013, knowing home hemodialysis would help her lead the life she wanted. Wells, began in-center treatment following the failure of his first kidney transplant in 2006, then began dialyzing with the System One from the comfort of his home in 2007 until he received a second transplant in 2011. During the last three years of Wells' therapy, he teamed up with NxStage and travelled more than 60,000 miles to 150 dialysis centers helping to increase awareness among patients, care partners and dialysis professionals about the potentially life-changing benefits of home hemodialysis.
"With kidney failure, many patients feel they can no longer enjoy travel because they are tethered to the dialysis center, and arranging for treatment while away can be daunting and inconvenient," said Joe Turk, NxStage's president. "We want to show people that with NxStage, travelling away from the center is once again a possibility, along with the simpler things in life like quality time with family and an active lifestyle."
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