The Veterans Administration is trying hard to fulfill its mission of caring for vets. Given the last 10 years of war, with its high casualty rate for both troops and reserves, this mission is going to be more difficult in the future. One of the ways the VA hopes to deal with these newer problems is to seek out new ideas. The VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2) is one such concept, where employees, private sector firms, entrepreneurs, and academicians are invited to submit innovations that will help augment access to VA services, or improve the services offered themselves.
This year, one of the awardees was AWAK Technologies Pte, Ltd. This firm employs a licensed wearable artificial kidney (peritoneal dialysis), which technology they licensed from UCLA and the VA. The VA currently treats some 10,000 dialysis patients itself (others are treated in conventional facilities); about 3200 new veteran dialysis cases arise each year.
There are almost 400,000 dialysis patients in the US alone. Given the fact that only 8% of the patients are treated at home (7/8 of those via peritoneal dialysis), there is great need for improvement. As I have written previously, thrice weekly dialysis yields a see-saw pattern of biochemistry within the patient. (There are plenty of other articles about dialysis on my blog- search using ‘dialysis’ as the keyword, and you will find these two articles that discuss home dialysis, among many others.)
The AWAK device will be tested over the next 2 years or so, validating the efficacy of the sorbent regenerated system and undergoing animal trials. Drs. David Lee (chief scientist) and Martin Roberts (principal investigator and chief scientist) will lead this effort; they are also the developers of this technology.
Marty Roberts was intimately involved with one of the original sorbent systems (the REDY, which was eventually subsumed by Organon) that afforded dialysis patients a method for home treatment that did not require major water supply issues and changes to the home. [Congrats, Marty. I look forward to hearing more great things.]
Gotta love innovation. And given stories I hear about vets, help is really needed here
Every once in a while, the VA manages to accomplish its mission.
Thanks for the comment, Roberta..
Roy
We owe so much to veterans for their service to our country. It’s nice to see government money put to good use. I’m going to find out more about VAi2. What a great idea to involve companies outside of the government. Now that’s innovation! Thanks for sharing information about this program.
Lisa Kanarek recently posted..All Dressed Up: A Working Naked Update
You are right, Lisa!
This seems like a fantastic program. They also run an entrepreneurs program to get veterans to look for different avenues for compensation.
Roy
Magnificent Piece
Anna Hamilton recently posted..Anna Hamilton
Thanks, Anna!