Regional academy offers hope for kidney dialysis patients

Medical Tribune September 2008 P6
David Brill


A new academy has opened in China
which could improve the quality of
life for kidney dialysis patients throughout
the Asia Pacific region.
The multi-million dollar center will
train nephrologists and nurses in peritoneal
dialysis (PD) – a home-based therapy
that avoids the inconvenience associated
with conventional hemodialysis.
Applicants are invited from across the
region, with a view to educating their colleagues
and setting up new centers when
they return home.
The academy, called Baxter Scientia
Asia Pacific, is a joint project between Baxter
International Inc. and the Peking University
Third Hospital in Beijing, where it
is based. It opened in July, with the first
training course due to start on 12 October.
“Around 40 percent of all the global
PD patients are in [the] Asia Pacific so this
is a very critical treatment for the lives of
many people in the region,” said Mr. Gerald
Lema, Baxter’s corporate vice president
and president of the Asia Pacific division.
“Our hope with this Scientia academy is
that … we will be able to disseminate many
good treatments and train physicians from
around Asia Pacific so that their standards
of care improve. People on dialysis have a
long-term commitment to therapy because
it’s a lifelong disease, so making a difference
in those outcomes really improves patients’
lives,” he said.
Lema expects that the center will take
on 100 trainees in its first year and 200 in its
second. The exact costs of the center have
not been disclosed, but it will be “a multimillion
dollar commitment over the next
few years,” he said.
The academy will also provide training
in other areas such as the management of
chronic kidney disease and its complications.
Research programs are also available
from later this year, and clinical trials are
planned for the future.
PD is convenient for patients as it can
be performed at home, whereas conventional
hemodialysis typically requires three
trips a week to a specialist center with each
session lasting around 4 hours.
Patients typically take around a week
to learn the techniques for PD, Lema said,
adding that the costs of treatment vary but
are generally comparable to hemodialysis
and can sometimes be cheaper.
Four different courses are presently on
offer at the academy, taught in English and
Mandarin. The longest is a 3-month program
offering basic training and experience
in PD.
Applicants can be nominated by
their home hospital or university. Scholarship
funding is available for certain
cases.