A look back to the early days
At Northwest Kidney Centers, we are proud of our heritage as the first organization in the world founded with dialysis as its mission. The museum is home to more than a dozen dialysis machines and a gallery of photos of people who have influenced kidney care.
The dialysis museum shows the growth of our organization, and the strong roots of kidney therapy in Seattle. We started in 1962 with one facility with three beds. Today, about 400,000 people are on dialysis in the United States alone.
Where it all began
It was 1960 when Dr. Belding Scribner and his colleagues at University of Washington developed the Scribner shunt, a device made of Teflon that could link an artery and a vein. This relatively simple device was revolutionary— it made long-term dialysis possible for the first time. Chronic kidney failure was no longer a death sentence. Two years later, Northwest Kidney Centers was founded to bring the new treatment to patients in the community.
Read more about our storied history, or take a stroll through the dialysis museum yourself. There you’ll find many of the machines that made medical history.
Featured items
In the 1960s, dialysis meant a machine the size of a small refrigerator. In fact, Seattle’s first machines were built by a manufacturer of ice cream machines! Today, the smallest dialysis machine is about the size of a toaster oven.
More than a dozen machines are on display in the museum. The Mini Monster, for example, was created in 1964 at the University of Washington for the world’s first home dialysis patient. It became the prototype for nearly all single-patient hemodialysis machines in use today.
The Kidney Care Heroes wall highlights some of the many people who have made an impact to kidney care.
Machines, photos and patient stories help tell the history of life-sustaining treatments in dialysis centers as well as home dialysis, a therapy that often leads to better outcomes for people with kidney failure.
An oral history of Northwest Kidney Centers
Northwest Kidney Centers simply wouldn’t be where it is today without the incredible community of dedicated staff, volunteers, medical professionals and financial supporters who have worked hard to carry out its mission. For our 55th anniversary year, we began gathering oral histories from people who worked for and with Northwest Kidney Centers over the years.
