Dialysis is a life-sustaining therapy, a kidney patient takes as one of the economic treatment options, about twice or thrice a week and this may go on for rest of life. Undergoing this treatment is a life changing, financially and emotionally draining experience not just for the patient, but also the family and support system. Today, due to dearth in the number of dialysis centres, the high amount of time spent on the commute and predisposal to infections due to the compromised immune system are major causes of avoidable mortalities in India.
After a Masters’ in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas, and a decade long stint in the United States of America (USA), Shashank Moddhia, has come back to India to help its people. In his last corporate role as a quality manager for the Asia-Pacific region for kidney healthcare products, Moddhia travelled extensively and came face-to-face with where India stood in comparison with other countries globally.
“India’s demand for dialysis is growing at 31 per cent as compared to 6 per cent in the US, and 8 per cent globally, and here we are with population travelling up to 100 kms to get their dialysis therapy”, said Moddhia, bringing his global perspective on access to healthcare in India. Moddhia, who has worked for 14 years in the medical devices industry further adds, “Over two lakh new patients need dialysis treatment every year in India. A deficit of a number of dialysis sessions in the country was a whopping 3.4 crore in 2016. And there are 0.4 dialysis centres per million people in India in comparison to Japan which has 20 centres per million people,”.
Moddhia enquired deeper and found that currently the dialysis facilities are largely concentrated in large cities and are anywhere upward from 6-9 beds. Moddhia asserts, “With the concept of micro-centres, we can achieve greater penetration and drastically improve the accessibility of dialysis therapy for masses, and that is an urgent and critical need”.
Next thing, Moddhia quit his cosy multinational job and The Renal Project™ was born. The vision of The Renal Project™ is to revolutionize the accessibility of life-sustaining dialysis therapy for kidney patients across India with over 1000 centres in the coming years.