Canadian teenager Anya Pogharian, 17, has invented a dialysis machine that could be used at home, sparing patients several visits to the hospital every week.
“It takes a lot of energy out of them. They’re very tired after a dialysis treatment,” Pogharian told CBC News.
"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.”
The high school student got the idea for the project while volunteering at a hospital dialysis unit. She worked on her invention for 300 hours.
Her dialysis machine costs only $500, compared to the hospital’s that is being sold for $30,000.
The young inventor was offered a summer internship by Héma-Québec to test out her machine with real blood. She also earned what CBC called a “slew of awards and scholarships.”