ERA
2023
60th ERA Congress
June 15-18, 2023Milan & Virtual
Website: https://www.era-online.org/events/milan-2023/
2019
EDTNA/ERCA at the ERA-EDTA in Budapest, June 13-16, 2019
Latest news update – the Interviews with Edita Noruišienė, EDTNA/ERCA President & Anki Davidson, EDTNA/ERCA Marketing Director.
Second day of the Congress, what is your impression?
“It was interesting and very nice meeting all our Industry Partners yesterday when we were visiting the exhibition. Today, I have been at some of the Scientific Sessions and met with some Nephrologists whom are representing different Associations. Associations which we are starting up collaborations with and this is a perfect opportunity to meet in person".
Can you please tell us about the Collaboration between EDTNA/ERCA and ERA-EDTA?
"Yes, with pleasure. EDTNA/ERCA and ERA-EDTA have a long-term relationship and collaboration. We are meeting several times per year to work together with different projects and collaborations. One of the latest projects we are involved in is the ERA-EDTA Green Nephrology Committee. The main objective of GNC: is to create a platform within ERA-EDTA to start a dialogue and foster interaction among different stakeholders related to the subject of environment and health/disease.
Another very important collaboration we have is with EKHA – The European Kidney Health Alliance. European Nephrologists, Nurses, Patients and Foundations have joined forces for the improvement of Kidney Health in Europe. EKHA is the means to achieve this."
“It was interesting and very nice meeting all our Industry Partners yesterday when we were visiting the exhibition. Today, I have been at some of the Scientific Sessions and met with some Nephrologists whom are representing different Associations. Associations which we are starting up collaborations with and this is a perfect opportunity to meet in person".
Can you please tell us about the Collaboration between EDTNA/ERCA and ERA-EDTA?
"Yes, with pleasure. EDTNA/ERCA and ERA-EDTA have a long-term relationship and collaboration. We are meeting several times per year to work together with different projects and collaborations. One of the latest projects we are involved in is the ERA-EDTA Green Nephrology Committee. The main objective of GNC: is to create a platform within ERA-EDTA to start a dialogue and foster interaction among different stakeholders related to the subject of environment and health/disease.
Another very important collaboration we have is with EKHA – The European Kidney Health Alliance. European Nephrologists, Nurses, Patients and Foundations have joined forces for the improvement of Kidney Health in Europe. EKHA is the means to achieve this."
How was the Congress so far?
"Really excellent, the Organization of ERA-EDTA with Monica Fontana, Paolo Zavalloni and the Team are doing a great job! Yesterday, as Edita mentioned it was nice to meet with the Industry Partners whom we are collaborating with. Today, we have had excellent meetings focusing on future opportunities and possibilities with our collaborations."
What about the next EDTNA/ERCA Conference in Prague, September 14-17?
"We are in the final stage of planning and it is always good to participate at the ERA-EDTA Congress 3 months before to promote our Conference. To engage people and continue our dialogues about improving for the future. Tomorrow, we will follow-up with new meetings and I am very much looking forward to this."
"Really excellent, the Organization of ERA-EDTA with Monica Fontana, Paolo Zavalloni and the Team are doing a great job! Yesterday, as Edita mentioned it was nice to meet with the Industry Partners whom we are collaborating with. Today, we have had excellent meetings focusing on future opportunities and possibilities with our collaborations."
What about the next EDTNA/ERCA Conference in Prague, September 14-17?
"We are in the final stage of planning and it is always good to participate at the ERA-EDTA Congress 3 months before to promote our Conference. To engage people and continue our dialogues about improving for the future. Tomorrow, we will follow-up with new meetings and I am very much looking forward to this."
Agreement between EDTNA/ERCA and ERA-EDTA
In the 1960s Drs. Stanley Shaldon, William Drukker and David Kerr saw that the future of the specialty of Nephrology would need to show more interest in the technical aspects of treating humans rather than just academic interest and animal research. There was no forum in the treatment of kidney failure other than transplantation – that was surgical and not very advanced as yet.
At the time there was no universal concept for future treatment, only to keep patients alive and selected patients were on treatment for selected transplants. New treatment techniques needed to be developed for the treatment for chronic dialysis patients, thus to keep people alive for a period of time and not just to prepare them for transplantation.
The idea to form a European Association for Dialysis was conceived during an International Symposium on Acute Renal Failure organized by Shaldon at the Royal Free Hospital on September 2, 1963 where Kerr suggested to Shaldon that there should be an annual Symposium on Dialysis drawing together nephrologists all over Europe (see figure 1).
Shaldon confirmed that also Drukker, whom he had met the previous year at a meeting of the West European Clinical Chemistry Society, had made a similar suggestion.
The three therefore decided to create a society the name of which was, originally, the “West European Dialysis Association” (WEDA) that included Holland, West Germany, the UK, Belgium and Scandinavia. France was also asked to join, indeed it had been Jean Hamburger who invented the word Nephrology, but it refused since, at the time, the French government was against NATO and they thought that WEDA was a NATO conspiracy, as well as thinking that transplantation was the concept for the cure of kidney disease, thus not dialysis.
The three EDTA founding members were not interested in transplantation as such but there was still an interest in some countries for this specialty, so they thought that the future was actually a mixture and interest of both dialysis and transplantation which was indeed essential for the long term survival of patients.
Hamburger entertained the three founding members to a fantastic dinner in Paris and we agreed, after a lot of discussion, to change the name to EDTA which was the acronym for a compound used in the treatment of lead poisoning (Ethylene Diamine Tetra-Acetic Acid). Hamburger was not happy as he objected to the “T” (Transplantation). However we decided to go ahead and in a compromise with Hamburger we agree to make the society bilingual (English and French). It remained so for a few years: during the first 9 years of EDTA papers were published and presented both in French as well as English. The English were not happy with this French dominance as they already had a Society called the Renal Association and objected strongly to the name. Consequently to pacify them, but also following the need to include all of nephrology, the name was then modified from EDTA to EDTA-ERA (this happened on the 20th anniversary of the society) and finally later to ERA-EDTA (on the 30th anniversary). But curiously enough in common parlance it remains EDTA as the acronym is usable in all European languages without difficulty and I believe was my suggestion.
An EDTA council was elected for the first time after its foundation and Drukker was appointed as the first Secretary-Treasurer and Kerr as the first Editor of the Proceedings (see figure 2). Since for the first 9 years of EDTA papers were presented and published in French as well as English, Daniel Fries and Jules Traeger became the French co-editors.
The first congress was a great success with guest lectures from Willem Kolff, returning for the first time to his homeland where he pioneered haemodialysis, and from Sergio Giovannetti on dietary control of uraemia and 52 presentations from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, USA and UK.
Stanley Shaldon
One of the Founding Members of ERA-EDTA
At the time there was no universal concept for future treatment, only to keep patients alive and selected patients were on treatment for selected transplants. New treatment techniques needed to be developed for the treatment for chronic dialysis patients, thus to keep people alive for a period of time and not just to prepare them for transplantation.
The idea to form a European Association for Dialysis was conceived during an International Symposium on Acute Renal Failure organized by Shaldon at the Royal Free Hospital on September 2, 1963 where Kerr suggested to Shaldon that there should be an annual Symposium on Dialysis drawing together nephrologists all over Europe (see figure 1).
Shaldon confirmed that also Drukker, whom he had met the previous year at a meeting of the West European Clinical Chemistry Society, had made a similar suggestion.
The three therefore decided to create a society the name of which was, originally, the “West European Dialysis Association” (WEDA) that included Holland, West Germany, the UK, Belgium and Scandinavia. France was also asked to join, indeed it had been Jean Hamburger who invented the word Nephrology, but it refused since, at the time, the French government was against NATO and they thought that WEDA was a NATO conspiracy, as well as thinking that transplantation was the concept for the cure of kidney disease, thus not dialysis.
The three EDTA founding members were not interested in transplantation as such but there was still an interest in some countries for this specialty, so they thought that the future was actually a mixture and interest of both dialysis and transplantation which was indeed essential for the long term survival of patients.
Hamburger entertained the three founding members to a fantastic dinner in Paris and we agreed, after a lot of discussion, to change the name to EDTA which was the acronym for a compound used in the treatment of lead poisoning (Ethylene Diamine Tetra-Acetic Acid). Hamburger was not happy as he objected to the “T” (Transplantation). However we decided to go ahead and in a compromise with Hamburger we agree to make the society bilingual (English and French). It remained so for a few years: during the first 9 years of EDTA papers were published and presented both in French as well as English. The English were not happy with this French dominance as they already had a Society called the Renal Association and objected strongly to the name. Consequently to pacify them, but also following the need to include all of nephrology, the name was then modified from EDTA to EDTA-ERA (this happened on the 20th anniversary of the society) and finally later to ERA-EDTA (on the 30th anniversary). But curiously enough in common parlance it remains EDTA as the acronym is usable in all European languages without difficulty and I believe was my suggestion.
An EDTA council was elected for the first time after its foundation and Drukker was appointed as the first Secretary-Treasurer and Kerr as the first Editor of the Proceedings (see figure 2). Since for the first 9 years of EDTA papers were presented and published in French as well as English, Daniel Fries and Jules Traeger became the French co-editors.
The first congress was a great success with guest lectures from Willem Kolff, returning for the first time to his homeland where he pioneered haemodialysis, and from Sergio Giovannetti on dietary control of uraemia and 52 presentations from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, USA and UK.
Stanley Shaldon
One of the Founding Members of ERA-EDTA
Learn more about ERA-EDTA history:
- Kerr DNS. – 25 years on. EDTA to ERA. Nephrol Dialysis Transpl 1989; 4: 411-5
- Drukker W.- The Founding of the EDTA: Facts and Lessons. Nephrol Dialysis Tanspl 1989; 4: 401-7.
- Andreucci V – History of the ERA-EDTA. Memoirs of a former President. Clin K J 2012; 5: 180-6.