Singaporean start-up’s portable ‘kidney’ could shrink dialysis machines, giving patients their freedom back
- Patients with chronic renal disease often have to spend hours each day hooked up to heavy machines, hindering their ability to move around
- AWAK Technologies is among a handful of start-ups worldwide working to solve this problem with portable dialysis devices
For the past seven years, 70-year-old Singaporean Julia Lee has rarely travelled overseas. Her most recent trip was one night away, in neighbouring Malaysia.
Since being diagnosed with kidney disease, Lee has spent 10 hours each day hooked up to a 20-kilogram machine, making it difficult to move around.
Chronic renal disease results in a loss of kidney function, meaning the patient’s body is unable to clear the blood of waste and excess fluids. Dialysis – the treatment Lee goes through which involves machines removing excess water and toxins from the patient’s blood – is the only option for those whose kidneys are no longer able to perform their function, save for a kidney transplant. Some like Lee, whose heart problems make her unsuitable for a transplant, have to rely on the treatment permanently.
“If there was a portable device that could be carried around and used at home, it would be more convenient for me,” Lee said. “Maybe I would be able to travel more.”
But a Singaporean company is offering new hope with its work on a portable artificial kidney weighing just 2 to 3 kilograms, as advances in technology begin to drive more human and machine interaction in health care.
Founded in 2007, AWAK Technologies is among a group of start-ups worldwide – including Sweden's Triomed, US firm Wearable Artificial Organs and Dutch start-up Nanodialys – that are looking into ways to make wearable dialysis machines.
