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With the amount of people needing dialysis set to double by 2030, the need for a cost-effective system has never been greater. Once market ready, this innovation could change access to treatment transforming dialysis practices in rural and remote settings and developing countries.

Three years ago, research was published in The Lancet showing an overwhelming need for an overhaul of dialysis. Every year whilst over 2.5 million people receive dialysis, up to seven million people die of kidney disease because they can’t get access to life saving treatment.

Vincent Garvey, a Irish manufacturing engineer, had little knowledge of dialysis or kidney disease when he entered and won the Affordable Dialysis Prize competition, but was inspired by the challenge and the chance to save lives.

The Affordable Dialysis Prize encouraged inventors around the world to develop an innovative dialysis system which works just as well as a conventional approach, but runs off solar power, can purify water from any source, has low running costs and can be sold for less than a thousand dollars.

Garvey’s award-winning design is so compact it can fit into a small suitcase, and uses a standard solar panel to power a highly efficient, miniature distiller capable of producing pure water from any source.

Discover more about this invention below.