In June, ISN attended the 11th Hydration for Health (H4H) conference in Evian, France.

Kidney International (KI) is pleased to announce the publication of a study on hypertension, led by the ISN iNET-CKD (International Network of chronic kidney disease cohort studies). This study highlights considerable international variation in hypertension control and treatment in chronic kidney disease (CKD).

The editors of Kidney International (KI) would like to share a selection of articles from the August edition of the publication.

The Russian Dialysis Society, with support from the ISN Continuous Medical Education Program (CME), organized its 13th National Conference, in conjunction with the 18th North-West Nephrology Summer School. It was a chance for doctors as well as students from medical schools across Russia to gain much-needed training across different areas of nephrology.

With support from the ISN Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program, the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital and the George Institute for Global Health in India organized a specific training course on interventional nephrology, specifically tailored to the needs of nephrologists in resource-poor settings.

With support from an ISN-ANIO Program Scholar, the Kerala Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS) of India, in collaboration with Spain's Donation and Transplantation Institute (DTI) organized a course on Transplant Procurement Management (TPM). It helped physicians gain fundamental knowledge on TPM and develop their professional competences as specialists in the field of organ donation.

The ISN Sister Renal Centers (SRC) Program nurtures partnerships between two renal centers by supplying funding, a framework, and educational benefits. Watch this free ISN webinar to see how you can partner with a renal center and work together to improve patient care.

Since 2009, the ISN Educational Ambassadors Program has helped some 125 institutions in 56 countries benefit from hands-on training courses. Watch this free ISN webinar to see how you can host an ISN Educational Ambassador and learn from an experienced professional.

Six years of partnership have now led to the Christian Medical College in Vellore (India) becoming a center of excellence in kidney care. Partnering with University of California, Los Angeles (USA), doctors at the center in India are training staff in pediatric nephrology, improving dialysis and transplant treatment for a younger group of patients.

After many years of partnership with Westmead Hospital and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (Australia), Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) has become a center of excellence, developing cross-regional training programs.

Scientific Research Institute of Cardiology and Internal Diseases in Almaty, Kazakhstan benefitted from the experience of ISN Educational Ambassador Aimun Ahmed to improve kidney transplant treatment for patients.

Acute kidney disease (AKI) and end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) led discussions at a nephrology specialty day and workshop organized by the Sri Lankan Society of Nephrology and the Ceylon College of Physicians. This meeting was endorsed by the ISN Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program.

The ISN Sister Renal Centers Program has supported a long-standing partnership between the Damanhur Medical National Institute in Egypt and the Sheffield Kidney Institute, UK. The collaboration has grown extensively raising awareness about prevention and training staff across different regions of Egypt.

ISN Fellow John Mutiso, from Makueni County Referral Hospital in Kenya spent a year under the mentorship of Graham Paget at Charlotte Maxeke, Johannesburg Academic Hospital, University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. Clinical nephrology was his chosen subject of study.

ISN Educational Ambassadors, Ahmed Akl and Osama Ibrahim El Shahat visited Belkas Central Hospital in Mansoura, Egypt. Once again, they shared knowledge and experience with teams of young nephrologists at primary care health centers and hemodialysis satellites units in the country.

Through the ISN Mentorship Program Priya Pais, at St John's National Academy of Health Sciences in Bangalore (India) connected with mentor Larry Greenbaum, from Atlanta's Emory University School of Medicine (USA). Guidance from her mentor helped her set clear foundations to write her research paper and prepare a grant proposal. 

In February, more than 50 nephrology health care professionals from across Belarus gathered to talk about the 2018 annual report of Nephrology Health Care Service. It was a unique opportunity to also connect online with doctors involved in the ISN Sister Renal Centers partnership between institutions in Belarus and Germany.

Congratulations to Malawi's Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital and the UK's Barts Health NHS Trust hospital on winning the 2019 Schrier Award!

The Yangon Children Hospital in Myanmar, Burma welcomed an ISN Educational Ambassador from the National University of Singapore to teach about dialysis and transplantation. This educational visit led to the local medical team carrying out the first pediatric renal transplantation at the hospital.

Victorine Bandolo Nzana, from Yaoundé University Teaching Hospital in Cameroon, was awarded an ISN-Salmasi Family Fellowship. Learning from staff at Chennai’s Madras Medical Mission Hospital in India, she broadened her knowledge of interventional nephrology, bridging the gaps in care for patients at the center and across the region.

Thanks to his ISN Hydration for Kidney Health (H4KH) Fellowship, Amarasiri De Silva spent several days at the Danone Nutricia Research Center in France. It was a valuable and unique opportunity to meet other researchers and share his work on chronic kidney disease of unknown origin in Sri Lanka.

We are seeking bids from interested organizations.
Apply by March 1, 2019!

The Scientific Writing Course (SWC) is a three-day course given by experts in the field of scientific writing. It can help you, physicians, and researchers in your region to improve their scientific writing skills, so they have all the tools to get published across a wide range of research areas.During this course, talented investigators who are in the process of writing a manuscript are guided step-by-step to review and complete their manuscripts based on world-class methods.

Why should you apply to host the next SWC?

• It is a unique opportunity for you to participate in the ISN's activities of promoting clinical research
• The ISN contributes to the logistics and coordination of the event by collecting and reviewing the applications from participants
• Disseminate the course across the ISN community and reach an international network of professionals in the field
• Grant your published professionals the opportunity to share their knowledge among their peers.

Learn more | Click here to apply

Check out our success stories from previous years

India's students join the Science Writing Course

In September, nurses Marie Richards and Thandiwe Ngcobo visited several hospitals in Kenya, supporting the local medical community with their kidney care challenges.

ISN Educational Ambassador Stefano Picca from the Children’s Research Hospital in Rome (Italy) recently collaborated with Laurence Adonis-Koffy at Abidjan’s Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Yopougon (Ivory Coast) to design a much-needed lecture on pediatric acute kidney injury, its causes and treatment.

Through the Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program, you work with a great number of experienced and knowledgeable teachers to improve care and discuss strategies and ideas to expand services for patients in your region.

You now have until October 31, 2018 to apply for the ISN-ANIO Clinical Nephropathology Certificate Program.

The Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital in Biratnagar (Nepal) welcomed ISN Educational Ambassador Jeyaraj Balasubramaniam. The educational visit was a valuable cross-regional, hands-on learning experience, based on similar challenges they face when caring for dialysis patients in their regions.

ISN Fellows are ready to start two months of training, together with Dan Adlington, first participant in the ISN Reverse Fellowship Program.

The Silk-Road Forum of Kidney Disease, held from August 16 to 18, 2018 in Lanzhou (China), was a valuable platform for nephrologists from North West China and Middle Asia to learn, interact and build their knowledge of nephrology.

In 2013, a sister center partnership was set up between University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Fundanier (sponsored by ISN and The Transplantation Society). The ultimate goal of this collaboration was to establish a deceased donor program in Guatemala.

Ana Elizabeth Figueiredo, Professor of Nursing at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, recently visited Sudan to share skills and knowledge, providing focused and onsite training for senior dialysis nurses.

With the support of the ISN Sister Centers program, the transplant center at El Shifa Hospital in Gaza, Palestine has partnered with the UK's Royal Liverpool University hospital to build valuable training for doctors in the region so their patients can get the best treatment on offer. Karim Hammad, medical student at University of Liverpool shares his video testimony.

Thinking of taking part in the next ISN Sister Renal Centers Programs call for applications? Watch the recording of our recent webinar on applying for the ISN Sister Centers Programs.

Many thanks to everybody who responded to the ISN-ACT toolkit questionnaire. Responses revealed a strong interest in getting more guidance to design and conduct clinical trials. This information will contribute to the ongoing development of an ISN-ACT clinical trials toolkit.

Sanjib Kumar Sharma, long-standing member of ISN, recently met Nepal’s Labor Minister to discuss acute kidney injury (AKI) prevention. He talked about the ISN 0by25 initiative and the ongoing efforts of the 0by25 pilot studies.

The ISN Fellowship program prides itself in training physicians from emerging countries, with the ultimate goal of helping them improve the standards of care on a regional level.

Every two years, the ISN presents awards that acknowledge exceptional contributions to the field of nephrology and we need your help to determine the candidates.

Children of African descent are three times more vulnerable to chronic kidney disease (CKD). There also exists limited data on the GFR-based evaluation of renal function in sub-Saharan Africa compared to hospital-based data, which may not be representative of the general population.

Leading the ISN Sister Renal Center program between Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, ISN Educational Ambassador Ibi Erekosima shares his views on the value of working together to improve nephrology care.

Our community helps us offer more training opportunities for our members.  Kidney Research UK and the Renal Association provide us with valuable support so that we can offer more educational opportunities to ISN members.

In response to the uneven state of nephrology care in China, ISN Regional Training Centers are responding to the educational needs of local medical communities. Ming-hui Zhao, ISN's regional board chair for North East Asia, explains how regional collaboration is key to improving treatment for patients.

Some 130 participants joined a panel of international and local speakers in Tirana, Albania for the first ISN Continuing Medical Education Program in the country.

The ISN Educational Ambassadors Program and Saving Young Lives recently joined forces to set up a workshop to help develop a sustainable peritoneal dialysis (PD) program at the Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie, Université d’Etat in Haïti.

An ISN Continuing Medical Education (CME) meeting was held in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan on February 9 and 10, 2018. It opened doors to share nephrology knowledge between the nephrologists of Iran, Russia and Georgia with the local doctors and medical students as well as medical professionals from neighboring countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Belarus and Lithuania.

Following the call for applications, the ISN-Hydration for Kidney Health (H4KH) Executive Committee is happy to announce the names of those who have been selected for the New Investigator and Hydration and Kidney Health grants.

Dr. Sofia Enhörning, from Skåne University Hospital in Malmö, Sweden received the 2015 Hydration and Kidney Health Grant for her project entitled "Plasma copeptin as a predictor of, and copeptin associated loci in, cardiorenal disease - population based prospective cohort studies and a mendelian randomization approach."

Teams from Mansoura International Hospital (Egypt) and the UK's Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, NHS recently played a important role in leading training activities during kidney week at Minya University in Egypt.