Medical responsibility

Fresenius Medical Care is organized around the needs of people living with kidney disease, with broad expertise in comprehensive patient care. We are grounded in science. Our clinical experts, researchers, scientists, mathematicians and caregivers are focused on our vision to create a future worth living for patients, worldwide, every day. By assuming medical responsibility, we continue to lead the way in transforming the industry. At our core, we are driven to translate science into everyday clinical practice that benefits our patients and generates sustainable value for health care systems we operate within.

The well-being of our patients is our priority, and key to our success all over the world. To continuously deliver on this commitment, it is important that we also coordinate the interpretation of clinical science and medical practice patterns on a global basis. For this reason, we established the Global Medical Office to enhance our patient-focused care delivery business model. This function, led by our Global Chief Medical Officer, marks an important milestone in the company’s evolution and will ensure that we harness the full potential of our global, vertically-integrated approach to achieve the best clinical outcomes for our patients, their families and the payor community. This office is tasked with evaluating coordinated data from clinical science research and medical practice on a global basis to improve treatment outcomes. This includes facilitating cooperation and knowledge transfer across the entire Fresenius Medical Care network.

The Global Annual Medical Report is published annually by the Global Medical Office at Fresenius Medical Care. Our 2020 Global Annual Medical Report, The Power of Ideas: Ingenuity, Optimism and the Future of Global Healthcare, continues the global conversation about the future of healthcare and the role Fresenius Medical Care can play in transforming care for people with chronic illness.

“This year’s edition focuses on the power of ideas to look beyond traditional approaches to chronic kidney disease care and instead concentrate on many forms of treatment that maximize power and choice for every patient’s unique lifetime journey,” said Franklin W. Maddux, MD, FACP, Global Chief Medical Officer and Member of the Management Board. “The 2020 annual medical report celebrates that very openness to the power of ideas, and the remarkable diversity of people behind them.”

One of the key pillars of our growth is addressing our patients’ changing needs. Many patients would rather be treated at home so that they can lead a life as normal as possible instead of receiving regular treatment at a dialysis clinic for several hours, several days a week. Patients want a more informed choice and options beyond in-center hemodialysis that fit their life circumstances. By acquiring NxStage in 2019, we have expanded our product portfolio with an innovative technology for home dialysis. This enables us to offer our patients greater flexibility and more individual treatment. Home dialysis improves our patients' quality of life.

However, not every patient chooses home therapy or is in the medical condition to do so. Patients may choose or require different modalities throughout their full life journey. There are the following treatment options for the entire patient lifetime journey:

In the end, our goal is to provide every patient the right care at the right time and in the environment he or she prefers. Read more about different dialysis treatment options here.

We produce and deliver a broad range of products for treating kidney disease. With our network of 44 manufacturing sites in more than 20 countries, we take care of the procurement, production, distribution, and supply of renal and multi-organ therapy products. We manage the quality and safety of our product business over the entire product life cycle, from design and development to operation and application.

Two global functions are responsible for our product business: Global Research and Development and Global Manufacturing, Quality and Supply. Both functions report directly to the Management Board. They have jointly developed our Global Quality Policy, which describes our commitment to product and service quality. It also covers our obligation to comply with relevant regulations and maintain environmentally sound and efficient operations. The Management Board is regularly informed about our global quality performance.

Our operations are subject to extensive governmental regulation in virtually every country in which we operate. To fulfill our commitment to product quality and safety while complying with the numerous relevant regulatory requirements, our processes are embedded in comprehensive quality management systems. As a result, all our products need to comply with safety and quality standards. This covers their development to market approval, manufacturing, use in clinics, customer training, and dealing with complaints. To produce safe products with a reliable quality, our plants are subjected to regular external quality audits and reviews in accordance with local requirements. In addition to audits carried out by notified bodies and authorities, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the German Ministry of Health and other applicable national health authorities, our local sites are subject to management reviews and regular internal quality audits. Any cases of non-conformance detected as part of these quality audits are forwarded to the respective department to determine and implement appropriate corrective and preventive measures.