Saving Young Lives (SYL): A Partnership to deliver sustainable acute PD for AKI.
SYL works in low-resource areas to help establish and maintain hospital services for the care of AKI, including facilities for acute PD.
SYL focuses on providing training and educational activities in the community to improve awareness and equip local health practitioners to prevent and identify cases needing hospital care.
SYL is made up of three primary partners:
and two supporting partners:
Since 2012, SYL has helped local nephrologists in very low-resource settings to develop sustainable programs to provide acute PD for AKI patients.
In the last 5 years, SYL has trained 470 individuals in 42 different institutions from 26+ low resource countries.
SYL Courses
SYL courses locations since 2013
If you would like to know more about the SYL Initiative or would like to organize training in your region, contact us via the contact section below.
Saving Young Lives develops sustainable programs for the prevention and treatment of AKI by:
Ensuring accessibility to PD supplies
Where possible, SYL assists hospitals in accessing affordable commercial PD fluid. Where this is not an option, SYL supports the use of locally prepared PD fluids (as recommended by the ISPD guidelines: PD for AKI).
Providing tailor-made training and education
Physicians and nurses need continuous training to maintain a PD program. SYL assesses the needs of a new site and develops a training program based on sustainable outcomes. This often involves training physicians who have no practical experience in peritoneal catheter insertion or arranging for experts to visit on-site to provide hands-on training to local staff.
Raising awareness of AKI among the medical community
SYL supports local teams to increase awareness of AKI in the local medical community, emphasizing improved outcomes if AKI is detected early and managed well, and the need to identify cases requiring dialysis and to transfer them to the PD center.
Advocating for access to care of AKI
As part of the ISN 0by25 Human Rights Initiative, SYL teams work locally, regionally, and internationally to raise awareness of acute PD among policymakers and health professionals as a successful and cost-effective therapy for severe AKI in low-resource settings.
Voices from the Field
Read what SYL alumni have to say about their practical PD training experiences:
Adebowale Ademola, University College, Nigeria
“This was easily one of the most comprehensive courses I have attended in terms of relevance, content, organization, hospitality, and warmth…My center carries out peritoneal dialysis using adapted catheters. I have been inspired to continue to provide peritoneal dialysis and to work in collaboration with others to improve our peritoneal dialysis services.”
Anthony Batte, Pediatrician/Nephrologist, Uganda:
“This training was very important, it provided me with the skills and also the inspiration to find ways of setting up a functional peritoneal dialysis program in Uganda.”
Abel Tsighe, Intern, Ethiopia
“I think the course is truly remarkable in enabling doctors all over Africa to better treat our renal patients to the maximum we can. It gave us new perspectives and a whole new horizon of looking at nephrology. All I know is my practice has now changed for the better, forever. Thank you for this tremendous opportunity to attend the course, and please keep up the good work of training African doctors. With this project, I believe Saving Young Lives is truly saving young lives in Africa.”
Watch the video to see the project in action:
Saving Young Lives from ISN Education on Vimeo.
Video Tutorials: PD Catheter Insertion
Acute PD – Patient Model
Animal Model
Adult – Animal Model
Peelaway Tenckhoff
Video recordings SYL courses
Saving Young Lives Interactive AKI Online Workshop – May 2021
Saving Young Lives Interactive AKI Online Workshop – September 2021
Publications
For any inquiries on the Saving Young Lives project, please contact the SYL Coordinator at syl@theisn.org.
The SYL Steering Committee
Brett Cullis, Chair
Fredric Finkelstein
Simon Davies
Mignon McCulloch, Deputy-Chair
William Smoyer
CC Szeto
Sydney Tang
Guillermo Hidalgo
Arpana Iyengar
Annabel Boyer
Melvin Bonila-Felix
Elaine Bowes