Page 4 - ME Newsletter Fall

At Lagos University Teaching Hospital Dialysis Center. L-R: Professor Natasha Wright, Dr. B.T. Bello, Carolyn Bernemann, Dr. Ibrahim Yekinni
STUDENTS
Improving Global Access to Kidney Dialysis
Carolyn Bernemann, a fourth year PhD student advised by Assistant Professor Natasha Wright, has devoted her graduate studies to increasing global access to dialysis, a life-saving treatment
for kidney disease. As part of her research, she has conducted field work in Colombia, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe!
In sub-Saharan Africa, kidney failure has an 88% mortality rate within 3 months, largely due to limited treatment accessibility and affordability. Bernemann’s research team has conducted over 150 interviews with kidney care stakeholders across the world who have emphasized that barriers to access are not just the direct costs and resource limitations (although those are significant), but that indirect costs play a major role. Patients on conventional hemodialysis must go to the hospital multiple times a week for treatment. Including transportation, the time for a single treatment session can be more
than 20 hours, leading to lost income.
One potential solution is expanding
the use of an alternative treatment
called peritoneal dialysis, which can
be performed at home by patients,
reducing the direct and especially
the indirect costs of dialysis while
improving patient independence.
However, healthcare providers
emphasized that a lack of in-country
manufacturing of peritoneal dialysis
fluid is a major factor limiting its expansion in many low- and middle- income countries.
To meet the need for local dialysis fluid access, Bernemann’s research focuses on developing technology for in-hospital production of dialysis fluid. The key technical challenge her research aims to overcome is how to ensure safe, sterile fluid can be produced in hospitals with limited resources through the exploration of novel low-cost, low- energy strategies for microbial decontamination.
Hemodialysis clinic at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital
4 ME News Fall 2024