850 million people worldwide are now estimated to have kidney disease from various causes. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) causes at least 2.4 million deaths per year and is now the 6th fastest growing cause of death. Despite the growing burden of kidney disease worldwide, kidney health disparity and inequity are still widespread. World Kidney Day sets out to raise awareness of the ever increasing burden of kidney disease worldwide and to highlight the need for strategies for prevention and management of kidney disease [1].
World Kidney Day is a joint initiative of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations (IFKF) and is supported by the “European Renal Society – European Dialysis and Transplant Association (ERA-EDTA). The ultimate goal of this year´s World Kidney Day is to promote population health by ensuring universal, sustainable and equitable access to essential healthcare of high quality. The motto is “Kidney health for everyone everywhere.” Unfortunately, as Professor Carmine Zoccali, President of the ERA-EDTA, identifies: “There are many patients who do not receive any renal replacement therapy due to financial barriers or lack of resources or even lack of knowledge. One central aim of our association is to disseminate knowledge by offering high quality education in the field of nephrology.” According to the constitution [2], the objects of the ERA-EDTA are the advancement of medical science by promoting fundamental and clinical advances in the field of nephrology, dialysis, renal transplantation, hypertension, and related subjects.
The ERA-EDTA funds many programs in order to support medical education worldwide, especially in poorer countries. “We have an initiative, named Altruistic Support by Questionnaire (ASQ), which has become part of the exclusive ERA-EDTA advantages for young nephrologists living in disadvantaged areas of the world where education and scientific updates are needed. Additionally, we offer short term clinical fellowships for young doctors. Last, but not least we run a free educational online journal (“NDT Educational”) and we are part of the Hinari program of Oxford University Press, which means that our journal “Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation” (NDT) is delivered for free to many universities/institutes in developing countries. This is what we understand by actively supporting nephrology in disadvantaged areas in the world.”
Read the interview with Professor Zoccali World Kidney Day: ‘Is this just the tip of the iceberg? http://web.era-edta.org/uploads/190305-interview-wkd.pdf
Watch a video with one of the last year´s ASQ winners on YouTube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsdeP3WWEDY&t=74s
[1] https://www.worldkidneyday.org/2019-campaign/2019-wkd-theme [2] http://web.era-edta.org/era-edta-constitution
With more than 11,000 members, the ERA-EDTA (“European Renal Association – European Dialysis and Transplant Association”) is one of the biggest nephrology associations worldwide and one of the most important and prestigious European Medical Associations. It supports basic and clinical research in the fields of clinical nephrology, dialysis, renal transplantation and related subjects. It also supports a number of studies as well as research groups and has founded a special “Fellowship Programme” for young investigators as well as grant programmes. In order to involve young nephrologists in all its activities, ERA-EDTA has created the “Young Nephrologists’ Platform” (YNP), a very active committee whose board includes members who are 40 years old or younger. In addition, it has established various working groups to promote the collaboration of nephrologists with other medical disciplines (e.g. cardiology, immunology). Furthermore, a “European Renal Best Practice” (ERBP) advisory board was established by the ERA-EDTA to draw up and publish guidelines and position statements. Another important goal of the ERA-EDTA is education: The series of CME courses combined with the annual congress offer an attractive scientific programme to cover the need for continuous medical education for doctors working in the fields of nephrology, dialysis and transplantation. The association’s journals, NDT (Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation) and CKJ (Clinical Kidney Journal), are currently the leading nephrology journals in Europe; furthermore NDT-Educational is the Society’s online educational journal , with free access for all users, as well as being a very important and useful feature of the NDT-Educational “Literature Review”. The ERA-EDTA Registry is a large epidemiologic database comparing countries by assessing nephrology practices throughout Europe. ENP, the European Nephrology Portal, is the latest new initiative of ERA-EDTA, where all those interested in the activities of the Society can find everything that is happening, all in one place. Finally, ERA-EDTA is a member of the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA), a consortium of patients, nurses and foundations relating to renal issues that actively interacts with the European Parliament.
