- Home
- Blog
Oxygen Alliance Blog
The $30,000 Question: Tackling the Dialysis Crisis in LMICs Through Smart Equipment Management
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent epidemic, affecting an estimated 850 million people worldwide. The vast majority, nearly 80%, live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where access to life-saving treatment like dialysis is tragically limited. Annually, over one million people die for lack of access to dialysis. The cost is a major barrier; a single year of hemodialysis can cost over $30,000 per patient, a figure that is often more than 20 times the average GDP in many sub-Saharan African nations. Beyond the staggering
The Last Mile of Lifesaving: How Innovative Maintenance is Keeping Oxygen Flowing in Malawi
In the global effort to end preventable deaths from a lack of oxygen, the oxygen concentrator has emerged as a game-changing technology, especially in low-resource settings. These devices, which produce medical-grade oxygen from the ambient air, are a lifeline for patients in hospitals and clinics across Africa and Asia.
The Hidden Epidemic: Up to 50% of Medical Equipment in Developing Countries is Broken. Here’s How We Fix It.
In the mission to advance global health, we often celebrate the arrival of new medical technologies: the MRI machine, the ventilator, the infant incubator. We must also consider what happens after the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The shocking reality is that in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), a staggering percentage of this vital equipment, in some regions as high as 50%, is out of service. This is a systemic failure, resulting in cancelled procedures, delayed diagnoses, and preventable deaths. As our foundational webinar, “Introduction to Medical Equipment