Good NewsMontreal teen invents $500 dialysis machine
Anya Pogharian, 17, was volunteering at a hospital dialysis unit when she found the inspiration for a high school science project: A more efficient dialysis machine that would be easier on patients suffering from kidney failure.
“It takes a lot of energy out of them,” Pogharian told CBC News of the traditional four-hour, multiple-visits-a-week procedure. “They’re very tired after a dialysis treatment.”
After working on her invention for 300 hours, Pogharian created an affordable unit that could be used at home.
"You wouldn’t have to make your way to the hospital, which is a problem for a lot of patients. It’s not necessarily easy to make your way to the hospital three times a week, especially it you have limited mobility," she said.
Her dialysis machine prototype would cost around $500 to buy, compared to the $30,000 it currently costs to purchase a machine.
Héma-Québec was so impressed with Pogharian’s invention and its potential to cut medical costs and hospitalization stays that they’ve offered the Marianopolis College student a summer internship to test her machine with real blood.
The project has also earned her what the CBC calls “a slew of scholarships and awards.”
Pogharian told CBC News that she hopes her machine will eventually be used overseas.
"Ten per cent of patients living in India and Pakistan who need the treatment can’t afford it or can’t have it in any way. It’s not accessible. So that motivated me,” she said.
In the meantime, Pogharian is focusing on prepping for her CEGEP midterm exams.
Learn more about her project and how it works in this video from the Google Science Fair:
