ArticlePLOS digital health2026
From assistant to collaborator: A systematic review of the evolution of artificial intelligence in end-stage renal disease care and management.
Article in PLOS digital health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
We aimed to systematically analyze the historical evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) management and propose a developmental framework to map its progression from assistive tools to cognitive collaborators. A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, identifying 100 eligible studies from PubMed, IEEE Xplore, and Web of Science. A three-stage analytical framework was applied to chart the technological evolution of AI in ESRD care: (1) rule-based assistive tools, (2) data-driven learning systems, and (3) emerging large language model- and agent-based cognitive systems. A total of 100 studies were included, all focusing on patients with end-stage renal disease managed through hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, or kidney transplantation. Three primary application domains were identified: risk prediction (49.0%), diagnostic support (25.0%), and monitoring and management (26.0%). The analytical framework revealed a developmental progression from interpretable rule-based systems (Stage 1) to high-performing data-driven models (Stage 2), which achieve clinically relevant metrics (e.g., area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] 0.80-0.90) but often lack external validation. Emerging large language model- and agent-based systems (Stage 3) demonstrate notable versatility but introduce new challenges related to reliability, factual accuracy, and safety alignment. The proposed three-stage framework clarifies AI's technological and functional evolution in ESRD care. This perspective highlights a critical need to bridge the gap between high-performance modeling and validated clinical utility. Future work should focus on robust external validation and the development of frameworks for the safe, reliable, and ethical deployment of next-generation cognitive AI agents.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.