ISN-IPNA Webinar: Pediatric Dialysis: At What Cost?

What is the price that families pay for pediatric dialysis? Children with kidney failure have inequitable access to dialysis around the world due to limited availability and burdensome costs. In the absence of universal healthcare coverage (by the government) families of children with kidney failure face high out-of-pocket expenses. Although financial costs indicate the medical expenditure associated with the dialysis procedure, they do not offer a full picture of the burdens that children and their families encounter. We examine the true costs of pediatric dialysis from diverse perspectives and frame these as ethical challenges requiring global action.   

Learning objectives:

- To discuss how the financial burdens of pediatric dialysis vary globally, but unfairly burden low resource countries.
- To define catastrophic healthcare expenditure and additional ‘costs’ of pediatric dialysis on caregivers and family
- To frame these high costs as an ethical dilemma and discuss the need for global advocacy

Further reading:

- Providing "Free" Access to Dialysis and Transplant to the Disfranchised. A Sustainable Model for Low and Low Middle Income Countries (LMICs)