A team of graduate students at the Anthem College formulated a device to cut the risks of clotting, infection and narrowing of the blood streams and vessels in the patient of kidney failure undergoing dialysis for cleaning blood. The device is easy to operate by the technician and is designed to be placed under the leg’s skin of the patient. It could help in monitoring the blood stream of the patient and could be easily put and removed at the start and end of the dialysis. In this way any fluctuation in the normal flow could be detected, violating the risks involved in the process.

The prototype of the device id under the test over the animals and is not yet used over the humans. The idea or need to formulate a device like struck the students while they accompanied physicians on the hospital rounds which are the part of their academic program. There they examined a doctor who was performing an opening procedure on a narrowed blood vessel at the kidney of the patient and realized the complications faced by the patient with kidney failure. There are about 350,000 patients in United States who undergo dialysis regularly to prevent dangerous toxins from pilling up in the blood stream. They also learned that the three ways in which the machine can be linked with the bloodstream of the patient are momentary due to the problems like blood clots, infection and narrowing of the blood stream which could lead to death.

In order to address these quandaries, the student proposed the development of an access port that can be easily implanted underneath the skin of the leg thereby decreasing the risks of infection. Also there is a cleaning system embedded in the device that could deter the infection after the dialysis is complete. This discovery leads to the wining of grand prize by the students at the University’s showcase beating the 10 other teams in the competition. The team was supervised by the faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medical. Though the device is being tested using animals, clinical trials involving real human patients will begin much soon by the year 2013. It is truly a remarkable contribution by the students to the medical science and a life saver for many suffering from kidney failure and undergoing regular dialysis for their survival.