One of the commonest themes that pops up in news reports is work on portable / wearable dialysis machines. And now the University of Washington has the go-ahead for the first human safety trial of a portable, wearable kidney dialysis machine. (Known as Wearable Artificial Kidney, WAK.)
The device, in development for more than 10 years, cannot be marketed until it is evaluated for safety and fully tested, said the UW.
The device being tested is a prototype and developers expect that updated versions will be streamlined and lighter. It can be worn like a tool-belt. It runs continuously on batteries.
Dr. Victor Gura, a physician specializing in internal medicine and kidney disease, created the initial prototypes for the WAK in his clinic in Beverly Hills, Calif. He completed the prototypes in a lab at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. His original team included the late Austrian physicist and equipment safety standards developer Hans Dietrich Polachegg, as well as bioengineer Masoud Beizai, and physician and medical device researcher Carlos Ezon, both of whom live in Los Angeles. Gura is clinical associate professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Read more at the University's own news site
