Researchers at UCLA and Veterans Affairs in Los Angeles have designed an automated wearable artificial kidney (AWAK) that would allow kidney-failure patients to have hemodialysis (remove metabolic waste and regulate fluid levels) without being connected to a stationary machine.

The new machine would be bloodless (no blood circulating outside the body) and function continuously.

Patients undergoing conventional dialysis must be hooked up to a machine three times a week for four hours each time. Throughout the week, levels of toxins and fluids fluctuate, causing “shocks” to the patient’s system. The anticoagulants used to keep blood from clotting also can cause complications.