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Multidisciplinary cooperation offers new possibilities for improving healthcare for kidney patients. The prospects in this field have brought about a shift of focus, not only in the activities of the Dutch Kidney Foundation but also in those of the companies involved.

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In the Netherlands there are about 40,000 people who need treatment by a nephrology specialist. 6,000 of these are dialysis patients and 7,000 have had a kidney transplant. In particular, dialysis has a great physical, psychological and social impact on kidney patients who have because of this a poor quality of life. Moreover, dialysis does not remove all uremic toxins. 

 

The efforts in the nephrology projects are aimed at preventing kidney failure and preserving renal function in patients to prevent future dialysis treatment. In the end, when dialysis is the last resource for those patients who have only 15% of the kidney capacity left, research is focused on improving the dialysis treatment itself. Better vascular access and enhanced removal of uremic toxins, will greatly improve the patient’s quality of life.

Having an implantable artificial kidney would be a dream come true for the Dutch Kidney Foundation. The burdensome and time-consuming visits to the dialysis center would be no longer necessary. Moreover, this could mean a reduction in costs of a dialysis treatment by reducing costly traveling to and from the dialysis center. If successful, kidney patients would greatly benefit from these innovations. With these objectives in mind, the relevant scientists have been gathered around this theme. For the Dutch Kidney Foundation, the participation in BMM is a new approach to accelerate research and bring innovations to the patients. The Dutch Kidney Foundation acts as an intermediary to stimulate the effective cooperation between technical scientists, medical specialists and companies in a multi-disciplinary approach.