$2.6M Redesign Dialysis Prize Announced Today at Kidney Week

Today at the American Society of Nephrology’s Kidney Week conference, Ed Simcox, HHS Chief Technology Officer, announced that the application period has officially opened for the first $2.6 million KidneyX prize competition: Redesign Dialysis.

The Redesign Dialysis challenge will ask the public to develop better treatment options for patients with kidney failure.

This prize competition is the first in a planned series of KidneyX prize competitions designed to develop innovative solutions that can prevent, diagnose, and/or treat kidney diseases.

Ed Simcox, said, “At HHS we have a uniquely important role to play in demanding new and better products for kidney care. Through KidneyX we plan to provide a clearer and less expensive path to bring products to patients and their families.”

The Redesign Dialysis prize will run in two phases with a total prize purse of $2,625,000. The first phase, which will award up to 15 prizes of $75,000 each asks participants to design solutions or components of solutions that can replicate normal kidney functions and improve patient quality of life.

The second phase, planned to run from April 2019 to January 2020, will ask participants to develop initial prototypes; this phase will award up to 3 prizes of $500,000 each. Participants may compete in the second phase even if they do not submit a solution in the first phase.

This is only the beginning. More prizes are to come for redesigning dialysis until the goal of a patient-centered alternative to dialysis as renal replacement therapy for patients with kidney failure is achieved. This is also only the beginning of KidneyX. There are more challenges to tackle and more prizes to come that address the entire spectrum of kidney care including treatment, prevention and diagnosis of kidney diseases.

To apply for the Redesign Dialysis prize visit, Challenge.gov.