Research and prevention tops ISN s objectives

Transcription

1 AN OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF NEPHROLOGY Research and prevention tops ISN s objectives ISN NEWS 39 October 2011 INSIDE THIS ISSUE 03 All you need to know ISN s Education Committee 04 R&P Program Taking center stage at the Mario Negri Institute 07 ISN Fellow from Nepal Focuses on early detection 08 Sister pairs in Bolivia and Italy Step up on prevention 09 ISN Educational Ambassador Dedicated to education in Africa 10 Membership Ten reasons to renew with ISN 11 WHO and ISN Raising global awareness together 12 CME update Nanjing Forum 2011 success 13 YNC Connecting medical students in Brazil 15 Upcoming events Meet KI editors at ASN Kidney Week 2011 Advancing Nephrology Around the World

2 ISN Leadership Executive Committee John Feehally (United Kingdom) - President Bernardo Rodríguez-Iturbe (Venezuela) - Past President Giuseppe Remuzzi (Italy) - President Elect Adeera Levin (Canada) - Secretary General Victor Schuster (USA) - Treasurer David Harris (Australia) - Education Committee Chair Gavin Becker (Australia) - Council Representative Toshio Miyata (Japan) - Council Representative William Couser (USA) - Presidential Appointee Vivekanand Jha (India) - Presidential Appointee Council Africa Boucar Diouf (Senegal) Maher Fouad Ramzy (Egypt) Asia/Pacific Sanjay Agarwal (India) Vivekanand Jha (India) Gavin Becker (Australia) Somchai Eiam-Ong (Thailand) Peter Kerr (Australia) Suhnggwon Kim (Republic of Korea) Zhi Hong Liu (China) Toshio Miyata (Japan) Rezvi Sheriff (Sri Lanka) Chih-Wei Yang (Taiwan) Europe Jorge Cannata-Andía (Spain) Dick de Zeeuw (The Netherlands) Kai-Uwe Eckardt (Germany) Meguid El Nahas (United Kingdom) Francesco Locatelli (Italy) Laszlo Rosivall (Hungary) Peter Stenvinkel (Sweden) Irma Tchokonelidze (Georgia) Latin America Ana Cusumano (Argentina) Juan Fernández-Cean (Uruguay) Marta Franco (Mexico) Sergio A. Mezzano (Chile) Middle East Mona Nasir Airukhaimi (United Arab Emirates) North America Roland Blantz (USA) Alfred Cheung (USA) Allison Eddy (USA) Agnes Fogo (USA) Bertram Kasiske (USA) Susan Quaggin (Canada) Marcello Tonelli (Canada) ISN Committee Chairs Acute Kidney Injury Committee - Ravindra Mehta (USA) Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee - Gavin Becker (Australia) Dialysis Committee - Nathan Levin, Fredric Finkelstein (USA) Forefronts Committee - Kai-Uwe Eckardt (Germany) History of Nephrology Committee - Leon Fine (USA) Interventional Nephrology Committee - Miguel Riella (Brazil) Nexus Committee - Kumar Sharma (USA) Publications Committee - David Harris (Australia) Renal Disaster Relief Task Force - Raymond Vanholder (Belgium) Renal Pathology Advisory Committee - Agnes Fogo (USA) Young Nephrologists Committee - Roberto Pecoits-Filho (Brazil) ISN GO Committee Chairs ISN GO Core Committee - William Couser (USA) CME Program - Norbert Lameire (Belgium) Education Ambassador Program - Saraladevi Naicker (South Africa) Fellowship Committee - David Harris (Australia) Kidney Health in Disadvantaged Populations Committee - Guillermo Garcia Garcia (Mexico) Research and Prevention Committee - Giuseppe Remuzzi (Italy) Sister Renal Center Program Committee - Paul Harden (UK) ISN GO Regional Committees Africa Committee - Omar Abboud (Sudan) East Asia Committee - HaiYan Wang (China) Eastern and Central Europe Committee - Laszlo Rosiwal (Hungary) Latin America Committee - Ricardo Correa Rotter (Mexico) Middle East Committee - Riyad Said (Jordan) Oceania & South-East Asia Committee - Peter Kerr (Australia) Russia and CIS Committee - Elena Zakharova (Russia) South Asia Committee - Georgi Abraham (India) EDITORIAL Prevention is the best cure Doctors and patients in developing countries are faced with a different set of challenges when it comes to kidney disease. As ISN President John Feehally rightly mentioned in the previous edition of ISN News, nephrologists in emerging countries go about their daily work without many of the advantages doctors in the developed world take for granted. New medicines, dialysis treatment and transplant facilities are often not an option due to a lack of funds or a diffi culty in accessing care. Early detection and prevention programs spark hope for these communities and have become the basis of ISN s approach to chronic kidney disease. Through the ISN Global Outreach (GO) Research and Prevention Program, local communities are being screened for kidney disease and data is being gathered for doctors to carry out more research into the disease on a national level. Moreover, with renewed efforts to raise awareness about acute kidney injury in developing countries, there are opportunities to save lives and restore health through affordable care. As the following pages reveal, setting up screening and prevention programs across low-income regions has already gone a long way towards saving lives and providing hope to many patients who simply cannot afford dialysis and are unable to access transplantation. ISN is spreading the word on the importance of early detection through its fellows and sister renal center pairs. Providing more than just the basics in renal training, the ISN GO Programs and the Research and Prevention Committee in particular, are focused on sharing knowledge bridging the gaps in renal patient care and research worldwide. Professor Carol Pollock ISN News Published by ISN Editor: Carol Pollock Staff Editor: Sally Horspool ISN Executive Director: Luca Segantini The contents of this publication are compiled in good faith. The publisher accepts no responsibility for omissions or errors. Design ISN Corporate Members Global Operations Center Rue du Luxembourg B-1000 Brussels, Belgium Tel: Fax: info@theisn.org URL: Americas Operations Center Sunset Hills Rd., Suite 130 Reston, VA 20190, USA Tel: Fax: ISN acknowledges our corporate members for their contributions.

3 Education, education and more education Nearly everything that ISN does focuses on education. An essential vehicle for ISN to advance nephrology worldwide is an education strategy that takes into account the needs of the developing and developed world. Last year, ISN set up an education task force to further develop recommendations which were put forward to the ISN Executive Committee at its Oxford retreat this July. Leading the education strategy is the ISN Education Committee. David Harris, appointed Chair of the Committee, reveals: these representatives will work together to identify valuable existing educational resources as well as new types of resources to be created. These materials will be made available to ISN members in various formats, but particularly through ISN s website. ISN has also entered into a new partnership with UKidney.com, a leading resource in nephrology education. The collaboration will increase access to educational materials and opportunities for nephrologists worldwide, with a special focus on developing countries. Harris adds: ISN, with the help of UKidney.com, will deliver the latest interactive education resources online to build a new ISN educational portal. ISN holds many meetings, not just the World Congress, Forefronts and Nexus meetings but also some 50 Continuing Medical Education courses annually worldwide. Video and audio content of those meetings will be captured for the website, in some cases in live and interactive format. Stay tuned online for more information regarding this initiative. Internet School of Nephrology We are also making many of UKidney s interactive offerings available to ISN members and will feature content created by ISN on UKidney.com itself Jordan Weinstein, Director of UKidney.com ISN News 39 October

4 Centering on research and prevention in the developing world Looking at ISN s research and prevention activities, you can t but think about the Mario Negri Institute in Bergamo, Italy. The center has supported much of the research and prevention programs set up by ISN s Global Outreach Programs Research and Prevention Committee. The EGIPT-CKD program a community based prevention program led by Zaghloul Gouda. In the developed world, there is strong data on the different stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the adult population as opposed to low and middle income countries where this information is scarce. Since 2006, The ISN Global Outreach (GO) Research and Prevention (R&P) Committee has been dedicated to promoting research and educational programs in these poorer regions. It has implemented research projects on detecting and managing CKD, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. The research and prevention program in Nepal. Learning to work independently There are many successful stories to tell about fellows who have gone on to set up early detection and prevention programs with the help of staff at the Clinical Research Center at the Mario Negri institute in Bergamo, Italy. We want to expose young nephrologists from emerging countries to clinical research methodology including knowledge on measuring and standardizing key parameters such as albuminuria, proteinuria and GFR. These fellows can also directly care for patients, monitor clinical studies, handle and analyze data, explains ISN President- Elect Giuseppe Remuzzi who chairs the ISN GO R&P Committee. The majority gain the necessary skills to conduct clinical studies of their own. In the future, we have plans to integrate this educational training with the ISN GO Fellowship Program. So far, 15 countries have received grants from the ISN GO R&P Program. Data collected from more than 50,000 patients worldwide shows that the system works. Most importantly, there is now a valuable network of countries using the same informatics language. Remuzzi believes it is important to create a system for data collection and a common informatics platform that can also collect and analyze follow up data on screened patients. This has been done with the Kidney Disease Data Center template. Specifi cally, we have generated an online and onsite data input system that we offer to these researchers so they can track and record data depending on their research activity, he adds. 4

5 Testing in local communities. Joining the Global Burden Disease Study This year, the R&P Committee put strong efforts into a survey of literature and data collection of national and regional early stage renal disease registries for the Global Burden Disease (GBD) 2005 consortium that includes among others the World Health Organization. The original GBD 1990 Study was commissioned by the World Bank in 1991 to provide a comprehensive assessment on the burden of 107 diseases and injuries, and 10 selected risk factors for the world and eight major regions. In 2008, the GBD consortium asked the ISN GO R&P Committee to lead the team of experts on genitourinary diseases and collect data on the distinct genitourinary diseases burden. This group set out to develop detailed estimates of key epidemiological parameters for the 21 regions included in GBD The ISN GO Genitourinary Expert Group has just fi nished collecting worldwide data. Now, unpublished epidemiologic data has been added focusing on the incidence and prevalence of patients with early stage renal disease and renal replacement therapy. This was carried out by teams at the Mario Negri Institute and the GBD 2005 Core Team of Leaders in Seattle. Screening program in Nepal. A call for more prevention programs Twice a year, the Committee coordinates an open call for proposals to select and support prevention projects in developing countries on a competitive basis. The program was launched as a response to the lack of existing programs that strive to detect, manage, and prevent pandemic noncommunicable chronic diseases on a global level. In the last fi ve years, we have received 92 applications, 34 have been awarded grants. Some of these applications were largely about detecting people at risk of cardiovascular and renal disease. More recently, we have seen more applications on specifi c local risk factors such as low birth weight and ground water contamination for instance, says Remuzzi. Getting local nephrologists, health workers and authorities in research and prevention programs actively involved in these projects has been one of the Committee s priorities. In 2005 the Committee developed the Detection and Management of Chronic Kidney Disease, Hypertension, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease in Developing Countries or KHDC document. ASN Kidney Week November 10-12, 2011 Find out more about the work of the ISN GO Research and Prevention Committee and the rest of the ISN GO Programs during the GO sessions starting at 10 am at the ISN stand (booth ) at ASN Kidney Week from November 10 to 12, 2011 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. The KHDC guideline document provides a template format for setting up early detection and intervention programs in emerging countries that can be implemented depending on the particular needs, organization facilities, and economic imperatives of the given country, he explains. So far, it has helped set up screening and prevention programs in Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, China, Colombia, Egypt, Georgia, India, Malawi, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Uruguay and Vietnam. Recent efforts have also focused on collecting data and setting up surveillance initiatives to help better demonstrate the prevalence of CKD and the effect of treatment. You can apply for this program every year, deadlines are April 1st and October 1st. For more information visit ISN News 39 October

6

7 Making the point about prevention and early detection ISN Fellowships offer renal training and a chance to get involved in clinical research and prevention as Bishnu Pahari found out when he spent a year at the Mario Negri Institute in Italy. The epidemiological approach to the global burden of chronic kidney disease was an important issue during my year as an ISN Fellow, explains Bishnu Pahari from the B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal. As an ISN Fellow, Pahari contributed to the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries and Risk Factor Study supported by ISN. He evaluated abstracts and full text articles to identify the global burden of nephropathy worldwide. I hope to start a CKD prevention program in other parts of Nepal with help from the ISN Global Outreach (GO) Research and Prevention Program. Also, this clinical research experience will be useful to carry out effective clinical studies and participate in multicenter clinical trials. During his fellowship year, Pahari also joined the Program for Detection and Management of Chronic Kidney Disease, Hypertension, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease in developing countries (KHDC), conducted in Nepal. Bishnu (third from left) and his colleagues at the Italian institute. I helped analyze data collected for the Kidney Disease Data Center in Bergamo which included data from Nepal, India, Mongolia, Moldova, Nigeria, Bolivia, Georgia and China. It was a chance to understand the importance of such a program for the developing world and learn how to evaluate and interpret the results available in different locations, explains Pahari. Moreover, he learned more about kidney transplantation to start up a similar program at his home institution where they are planning to establish a transplant center in the near future. By using novel induction protocols, we can reduce the maintenance of immunosuppressive therapy and lower the risk of infections, metabolic and toxicity complications, he says. With more knowledge in CKD progression, he hopes to apply what he learned at the Mario Negri remission clinic to start following patients with CKD in an out-clinic setting. The next application deadline for the ISN GO Fellowship Program is December 15, ISN News 39 October

8 Stepping up on prevention and patient care The Instituto de Nefrología La Paz, Bolivia and the Mario Negri Institute in Italy recently took their Sister Renal Center partnership to a new level. In the coming months, La Paz Institute hopes to finish setting up the infrastructure and laboratory equipment for a prevention unit in the rural district of Caranavi, in western Bolivia. This will help reach more early stage renal disease patients, giving them the treatment they need faster. The ISN Global Outreach (GO) Sister Renal Center (SRC) Program prides itself in pairing emerging renal centers with centers of excellence in the developed world so they can share expertise. Staff at the Instituto de Nefrologia in La Paz, Bolivia. On World Kidney Day, the SRC pair launched a renal prevention program in western and central Bolivia. Several training courses were conducted to introduce the prevention program to local nephrologists, nurses and clinical laboratory staff. For more information about this program including application deadlines, visit the SRC page at In March 2011, three Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) units were opened in the cities of La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. With support from ISN GO Research and Prevention Committee and the Mario Negri Institute, the Bolivian center is planning a telemedicine program to monitor these units in real time, constantly improving prevention programs and dialysis CAPD opportunities for patients in rural areas. A Continuing Medical Education course was organized through this SRC partnership in August. Another International Course of Nephrology, Dialysis and Renal Transplantation took place at UNIVALLE University School of Medicine in Cochabamba, Bolivia in October. This was coordinated by ISN, Instituto de Nefrología in La Paz, the Instituto de Nefrología in Cochabamba and the Department of Nephrology and Dialysis UNIVALLE Hospital School of Medicine. 8

9 A doctor across borders and cultures Italian nephrologist Giovanni Battista Fogazzi has a longstanding relationship with the medical community in Benin, West Africa. As an ISN Educational Ambassador, he can continue his mission teaching doctors and supporting the growing number of chronic kidney disease patients. In Benin, communicable diseases are still predominant but the incidence of noncommunicable diseases is steadily increasing. With only one nephrologist for about 15,000 inhabitants, patients with renal failure have to travel to a major town for dialysis treatment. Twelve years ago, Fogazzi set up a basic nephrology program at the Saint Jean de Dieu Hospital in the northern rural town of Tanguiéta and has dedicated his time to raising funds to support young kidney patients families. Some of these funds have gone towards helping two young boys separated from their families to undergo hemodialysis twice a week in Cotonu, some hundred kilometers away from their hometown. Over the years, he has followed patients in Benin closely, giving them stability and emotional help. He used the ISN Global Outreach Educational Ambassador Program to return to Benin and train the local doctors and advise patients. Two weeks was not very long in his eyes but to this community it was extremely beneficial. Giovanni Fogazzi with local staff at the Saint Jean de Dien Hospital, Benin. Teaching advanced urine microscopy is extremely important, especially in a country where few diagnostic tools are available. During my stay, I saw several patients who had developed acute kidney injury due to dehydration, mainly caused by prolonged vomiting, says Fogazzi who believes this condition is often mistreated by local doctors. This observation led him to prepare some valuable guidelines. Helping his colleagues in the laboratory. With a growing number of local nephrologists and a government program for hemodialysis, the situation is gradually improving in Benin. However, basic diagnostic facilities such as renal biopsies are not available yet. Peritoneal dialysis and renal transplantation are also missing, he adds. Read about other EAP visits online at Being an ISN Educational Ambassador is enormously rewarding on a professional and emotional level. You have to be very basic, concrete and learn to adapt your knowledge to what is available locally. Keeping in touch over the years for advice and updates is also important because changes require long-term efforts and support. ISN News 39 October

10 ISN Membership Find out why you should renew! Being part of ISN is not just about what you receive as a member but also what you give. Getting involved in the Society s philanthropic and humanitarian activities infl uences how kidney disease is diagnosed and treated, and contributes to reducing its impact worldwide. By renewing your membership, you can continue to share your experience and knowledge knowing that your contribution is helping kidney specialists, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals learn cutting-edge techniques and discover the latest research in prevention and diagnosis. Renal centers across the world can continue building long-lasting partnerships transforming levels of care in the developing world. We hope your ISN membership has been benefi cial to you. We know for a fact that it has had a life-changing impact on many people around the world. WORLD CONGRESS OF NEPHROLOGY HONG KONG, MAY 31 - JUNE 4, 2013 Your membership not only supports ISN s philanthropic and humanitarian activities but you also receive many valuable benefi ts including: 1 Exclusive eligibility for ISN capacity building programs (Research and Prevention, Sister Renal Center, Continuing Medical Education, Educational Ambassadors, Travel Grants) 2 Subscription to Kidney International (bi-monthly journal) including online access to articles, current issues, and archives (a value of USD 1,150 to USD 2,300 depending on where you are located) 3 Subscription to Nature Reviews Nephrology online journal including access to articles and archives 4 Reduced registration fees to ISN events (World Congress of Nephrology, Forefronts and Nexus Symposia, plus other ISN training programs) 5 Unrestricted access to the ISN Nephrology Gateway (the Society s offi cial website) 6 Exclusive access to ISN Membership Directory online 7 Receive the quarterly ISN News (the Society s offi cial newsletter) 8 notifications (e-update) on nephrology news, journal content, unique member services and upcoming ISN events 9 Voting rights and eligibility to serve on ISN committees 10 And last but not least, actively participate in ISN s Global Outreach (GO) Programs and make a signifi cant difference in parts of the world that have little or no formal renal care, education or access to knowledge 10 Renew your ISN Membership Today Login at and click Renew Your ISN Membership If you have any questions or need help with renewing your membership, please membership@theisn.org or call +1 (703)

11 Getting CKD on the world health agenda Cancer, diabetes, heart and lung disease are the main targets of a new World Health Organization (WHO) campaign to address the global epidemic of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Chronic kidney disease (CKD) does not get a passing mention even though it meets all the criteria of a major public health problem. Aside from raising awareness with World Kidney Day, ISN is currently working to better position renal disease in global health thinking by building official working relations with the WHO. ISN s application is now complete and will be reviewed in January ISN President John Feehally says: Gaining a position for kidney disease in global health strategies is a long process. However, we remain committed to this initiative ensuring that kidney disease patients share the benefits that come with increased awareness and attention to NCDs worldwide. Starting in 2008, ISN put forward its mission and proposed a joint work plan to implement CKD prevention and intervention programs into WHO s health agenda and build official relations. It has now submitted a final progress report on the ISN/WHO work plan and a new work plan for The first part of this work plan was completed this July when William Couser, Marcello Tonelli and Giuseppe Remuzzi submitted a paper to WHO entitled: The Contribution of Chronic Kidney Disease to the Global Burden of Major Non- Communicable Diseases. Remuzzi and Noberto Perico also completed the second part by applying WHO/ISH risk charts to the ISN Kidney Disease Data Center data base to study the association between kidney disease markers and the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, ISN leaders were still concerned that CKD is not on the WHO s list of NCDs even though it affects twice the estimated number of the world s population with diabetes. A senior advisor for public policy was hired to develop a plan of action to position CKD more prominently in the global health agenda. Joint efforts with the International Federation of Kidney Foundations, European Kidney Health Alliance and leaders of major US renal organizations have also been carried out to include CKD in global NCD policy planning. This got the ball rolling for ISN to recruit some 350 ISN advocacy volunteers to carry its message to the WHO and lobby for the organization to include CKD in its NCD strategy. So far, these volunteers have cultivated relationships with Health Ministers in Argentina, India, Australia, Hong Kong, Belgium, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Morocco, Chile, Senegal, China, South Africa, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Taiwan, France, the United States, Germany, Uruguay and Guatemala. To raise further attention, ISN has produced CKD supportive Op-Ed articles and an advocacy piece. On August 22, 2011, ISN was granted membership in the NCD Alliance Common Interest Group the first renal organization to be included in this group. The effort to get renal patients the attention they deserve from global health organizations like WHO is on-going and long term, but encouraging progress has been made. ISN News 39 October

12 CME update Nanjing Forum 2011 a formula that works This June saw another Nanjing Forum end on a positive note. Today, the event is widely acknowledged as a top level academic meeting for nephrologists in China. Many ISN leaders take part in every edition of this course. Providing the latest educational opportunities for Chinese nephrologists, Forefronts in Glomerular Disease - Nanjing Forum, has been part of ISN s Global Outreach (GO) Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program since Each year, local specialists are also invited to give an update on how kidney disease is treated in China, helping to deepen the international understanding of Chinese nephrology. This time around, some 600 delegates gathered to learn about transnational medicine research and look at how it is applied to diagnose, treat and prevent kidney disease. Topics under discussion included IgA and lupus nephropathy, FSGS, diabetes and biotechnology. Altogether 35 abstracts were selected for the poster presentations. ISN Councilor Zhi-Hong Liu attends one of the many forums that have been organized since The number of delegates attending Nanjing Forum amounts to about 500 participants each year. 60% have an academic background as PhD students, post-doc and renal fellows. Chinese ISN fellows have been sponsored by ISN to take part in each edition. I was an ISN fellow, and furthered my study with funding from ISN in the nineties. Now I am academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president elect of the Chinese Society of Nephrology. ISN has played a signifi cant role in promoting the development of nephrology worldwide, explains ISN Councilor Zhi-Hong Liu, from Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, who has chaired the Nanjing Forum consecutively for these last years. The Research Institute of Nephrology at Jinling Hospital in Nanjing partnered with the Renal Disease Division at Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University School of Medicine in Since then, the two centers co-host ISN GO CME courses with senior scholar visits and faculty exchanges. During this year s Forum, a new Sister Renal Center trio was formed to help develop another emerging center in China. Time for a group picture at this year s Nanjing Forum. We strive to let Chinese Nephrology be part of the international effort in fi ghting kidney diseases and provide a platform for Chinese nephrologists to network and participate in global academic activities. Apart from the Nanjing Forum, there are other ISN-sponsored CME courses in China every year, such as in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, adds Liu. 12

13 The YNC Corner YNC connects medical students in Brazil The Young Nephrologists Committee (YNC) will participate in the Conference on Kidney Disease Prevention in Disadvantaged Populations in South America and the Caribbean, to be held from November 23 to 25, 2011 in São Luis do Maranhão, one of the poorest states in Brazil. The meeting is organized at the Federal University of Maranhão by the ISN Global Outreach (GO) Committee on Kidney Health in Disadvantaged Populations, the Brazilian Society of Nephrology, the Latin American Society of Nephrology and Hypertension, and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations. We want to hear from you on Facebook Let us know how you are involved with the Mentorship Program or other YNC activities by posting regular updates on ISN s Young Nephrologist Facebook page: The YNC, represented by its chair, Roberto Pecoits-Filho will coordinate a community kidney health campaign, together with the academic leagues, made up of medical students working on kidney-related research and prevention projects. In September 2010, the YNC organized its fi rst event in conjunction with the medical students of Brazil, based on the model of an education workshop with interactive sessions and tutorials. This time, the YNC will lead the students in a community effort to raise awareness about kidney disease and screen patients at high risk in outlying areas of the city of São Luis do Maranhão, the state with the lowest social-economic indicators in Brazil. For more information about the YNC visit: ISN News 39 October

14

15 ISN upcoming events Meet KI editors at ASN Kidney Week 2011 Come by the ISN stand (booth ) at ASN Kidney Week from November 10 to 12, 2011 between 9.30 and am at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. You can talk to Kidney International (KI) Associate Editors Lynda Szczech, Jai Radhakrishnan, Detlef Schloendorff and Robert Safi rstein. They will be open to your questions and share their tips on getting your paper into KI ISN s offi cial journal published by Nature Publication Group (NPG), KI is one of the world s premier journals on the development and consequences of kidney disease. For your paper to appear in the journal, it is important to clearly state why your study is relevant to the community, why it adds to the literature and show how it translates to patient care Also, preparing a paper according to the Author Guidelines, found under the Instructions and Forms tab on KI s Manuscript Central website, can reduce the possibility of your manuscript being returned for technical revision. KI is read by academic, corporate and government institutions and consortia. New original and review articles are published ahead of the archival print issue, ensuring the research is made publicly available and can be cited as soon as possible after acceptance for publication. ISN Forefronts Symposium Systems Biology and the Kidney June 7-10, 2012, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA 2013 ISN Forefronts Symposium Tubulointerstitial Disease in Diabetic Nephropathy October 4-7, 2012, Melbourne, Australia Nexus Symposium 2012 Bone and the Kidney September 20-23, 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark CONGRESS OF NEPHROLOGY ISN World Congress of Nephrology HONG KONG, MAY 31 - JUNE 4, 2013 May 31-June 4, 2013, Hong Kong, China WORLD For the full list of ISN events visit ISN News 39 October

16 ISNWORLD CONGRESS OF NEPHROLOGY 2013 Since ISN s fi rst congress in 1960, the biennial World Congress of Nephrology (WCN) has provided vital guidance and support to advancing nephrology around the world. WCN, the International Society of Nephrology s (ISN) fl agship scientifi c and educational congress, is the leading educational event in international nephrology attracting attendance from the worldwide nephrology community, including physicians, academicians, and clinical researchers, as well as other healthcare professionals involved in multidisciplinary nephrology care. May 31-June 4, 2013 Hong Kong WORLD CONGRESS OF NEPHROLOGY HONG KONG, MAY 31 - JUNE 4, 2013 Mark your calendar! An event by Advancing Nephrology Around the World Hosted by In partnership with