Today, July 22nd, a virtual summit was hosted by KidneyX to announce the six winners of the Redesign Dialysis Phase 2 prize. The goal of the Redesign Dialysis prize is to provide prize money for novel ideas and innovations that will lead to better outcomes for people with kidney diseases and eventually to a truly artificial kidney. The eventual artificial kidney and innovations made along the way will lead to better outcomes for individuals with kidney diseases and improve their quality of life by bypassing in-center hemodialysis.
Today, July 22nd, a virtual summit was hosted by KidneyX to announce the six winners of the Redesign Dialysis Phase 2 prize. The goal of the Redesign Dialysis prize is to provide prize money for novel ideas and innovations that will lead to better outcomes for people with kidney diseases and eventually to a truly artificial kidney. The eventual artificial kidney and innovations made along the way will lead to better outcomes for individuals with kidney diseases and improve their quality of life by bypassing in-center hemodialysis.
John Sedor, MD, FASN, and Chair of the KidneyX Steering Committee, began the summit by addressing the mission of KidneyX and the dire situation of kidney disease – in the United States, 37 million people have kidney disease, and 500,000 people undergo dialysis treatment. Worldwide there are 850 million people with kidney disease. He addressed how the COVID-19 pandemic and current social unrest due to systematic racism, have exposed issues with the current state of kidney care. “First, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the pressing need for novel technologies that allow people to have life-sustaining kidney replacement therapies at home and to provide treatment options that we’ve known for some time improves their quality of life. Second, we recognize that kidney disease represents an unacceptable and addressable health inequality. Black and brown people are significantly more likely to have kidney diseases and kidney failure, but are less likely to receive kidney transplants. KidneyX appreciates that the innovations we helped create need to be accessible for all.”
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan, JD, expressed his gratitude to colleagues at HHS, ASN, and also to the winners being recognized. He began, “you have the chance now to not only change the face of kidney care in America, but across the whole world.” Mr. Hargan spoke about the Advancing American Kidney Health initiative created by executive order in 2019 and how new payments models, new regulations, and new support for innovative technology have been acted upon in order to fulfill the promise of the initiative, “including through the unique partnership that is KidneyX.” He continued, “KidneyX is not only a priority for this administration because it represents an important path for delivering better care for Americans with kidney disease, but it also represents a unique model for collaboration across government agencies and with private innovators to deliver innovation in a space that is lacked it for far too long.”
Redesign Dialysis Phase 2 Winners
The following six winners each took a turn and spoke about their projects in detail to demonstrate their ideas and goals to all attendees of the virtual summit. Winning submissions ranged from reimagined vascular access and methods of preventing infection during peritoneal dialysis to component parts of the artificial kidney. The links below describe each project and include a short bio of the individuals who authored the submissions.
The winners answered many questions from the moderators and attendees. They were excited about the future of their own projects and of new kidney disease treatments as a whole.
The summit concluded with Dr. Sedor addressing the winners and thanking them for their efforts. “Today’s presentations really highlight the remarkable changes that are occurring in the kidney ecosystem… We have focused on developing technologies that will revolutionize current kidney care practices and are critical to the development of the artificial kidney.” He continued, “we are early in our development at KidneyX; however, we recognize the urgency for success. It’s time to cure kidney diseases – people with kidney diseases, their families and caregivers are waiting.”