A home dialysis machine inspired by the technology used in fruit juice dispensers has won the UK’s most prestigious engineering award.
The device, made by Quanta, is currently used by around 50 patients in the UK, but more than a dozen NHS trusts plan to offer the technology to patients this year and experts say it could transform the lives of kidney disease patients.
Speaking ahead of the announcement of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s MacRobert Prize on Tuesday night, Prof Sir Richard Friend, chairman of the judging panel, said the technology demonstrated “remarkable engineering ingenuity” and had the potential to dramatically improve patients’ quality of life and ease pressure on the hospitals.
“The team exemplifies the tenacity, innovation and out-of-the-box thinking that have long been the hallmark of the UK’s greatest engineering successes, and they are worthy recipients of the MacRobert Award,” said Friend.
Dialysis removes waste products and excess fluid from the blood when the kidneys stop working properly. This usually involves diverting blood to a machine about the size of a fridge-freezer, where it passes through a complex system of mechanical valves, pumps and mixing chambers before being returned to the body.
Patients usually undergo the procedure three times each week for four hours. Of the 30,000 dialysis patients in the UK, only around 5% use home devices, as they have so far worked less efficiently than hospital systems, meaning patients have to be connected for longer periods.
In the Quanta device, called the SC+, the pistons and valve system are replaced by a disposable cartridge enclosed inside a flexible membrane that is compressed and released by changes in pressure inside the machine to control the flow of dialysis fluid inside. The desktop machine is much smaller, requires no specialized training to use and works as efficiently as the conventional version.
The technology was originally developed to recover orange juice from concentrate, but the team behind the invention saw its potential medical applications and created the company Quanta.
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One patient, Lewis Till, 21, from Wolverhampton, had been on dialysis for two years after developing autoimmune kidney disease, but said hospital dialysis was not frequent enough to keep him “really well” and that traveling alone to the hospital was exhausting. Since switching to the Quanta machine, he has been on dialysis five times a week for three hours, which has improved his health and he can spend time with his family or play video games at home.
“I wish the general public had a better understanding of kidney disease and how serious it is because there’s a lack of recognition, so people on dialysis really don’t get support or a lot of understanding of how difficult it is,” he said. “This can make it difficult to try to explain to employers or friends and family how it affects your ability to just get on with your normal life.”
Quanta chief executive John Milad said the device had been a “life’s work to make a reality” for the team behind the innovation and that winning the award was “a huge validation of what we’ve done” to transform lives .
Previous winners of the MacRobert Award include the engineers who developed Rolls-Royce’s iconic Harrier jet engine and the team that designed the Severn Bridge.
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