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Draft:European Society for Paediatric Nephrology

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The European Society for Paediatric Nephrology was established to promote the circulation of research and clinical knowledge through scientific meetings, teaching, and research grants in order to improve the treatment of children with kidney diseases in Europe.

The medical discipline of pediatric nephrology is a sub-discipline of pediatrics. It studies kidney development, physiology, pathology, as well as diseases of kidneys and urinary tract. Pediatric nephrologists mostly work in university hospitals or hospitals of tertiary medicine providing full scale treatment options for children with diseases of kidneys or urinary tract.

History

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Pediatrics only became a specialist medical discipline in the late 19th century.[1] However, it was not until 1910 that the International Paediatric Association (IPA) was founded, and the first International Paediatric Congress organised in 1912.

Nephrology itself was even slower to develop. It was only after World War II that a few teams of internists concerned with renal care in adults began organizing on both sides of the Atlantic. In the 1960s, the clinical management of patients with renal diseases, both adults and children, was still handled mostly by general physicians. Yet by the 1970s pediatric nephrology had started to emerge as a distinct subspeciality.[2]

Founded in 1967 with Gavin Arneil as the first Secretary General, the European Society for Paediatric Nephrology preceded its US counterpart, the American Society of Pediatric Nephrology, by two years. It proved a milestone for the discipline’s worldwide development.[3] The first ESPN meeting in Glasgow of September 1967 would be followed by annual meetings, usually hosted in summer or autumn by one of the ESPN members.

At the end of the 1971 meeting in Paris, pediatric nephrologists from every continent formed a worldwide organization representing global pediatric nephrology with Ira Greifer, MD as the first Secretary General. It led to the foundation of the International Pediatric Nephrology Association (IPNA).[4]

Organization

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Today, more than 2000 pediatricians from 46 European countries work in the field of pediatric nephrology. About 700 of them are ESPN members and about 900 attend the annual ESPN meetings during the so-called Paediatric Kidney Week.

At the time of ESPN’s foundation, the society’s main objectives were the organization of high-quality scientific events and the stimulation of collaborations between its members. These objectives have largely been maintained to this day, even if the spectrum of members did expand from specifically-trained pediatric nephrologists to include general pediatricians with a specialist interest in nephrology.[5]

Harmonization

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In 1998, a survey conducted by the ESPN revealed substantial disparities in pediatric renal care among European countries. It was therefore decided that the society would aim to harmonize renal care in all European countries over the next 20 years. In 2017, a follow-up study was conducted to evaluate the then current state of rental health policies for children in Europe. It revealed that over these two decades, pediatric nephrology had become a well-established subspecialty of pediatrics and nephrology. Accordingly, ESPN decided to continue its harmonization efforts of remaining disparities by intensifying cooperation between national pediatric nephrology societies, and so further improve pediatric renal care for European children through training/education and cross-border collaboration.[6]


References

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  1. ^ Nichols, BL; Ballabriga, A; Kretschmer, N, eds. (1991). History of Pediatrics, 1850-1950. New York: Raven Press. pp. 1–15. ISBN 978-0881676952.
  2. ^ Chesney, RW (2002). "The Development of Pediatric Nephrology". Pediatric Research. 52 (5): 770–778. doi:10.1203/00006450-200211000-00026. PMID 12409527.
  3. ^ Arneil, Gavin (2007). "The Founding and Early History of Pediatric Nephrology". Pediatric Nephrology. 22: 1–15. doi:10.1007/s00467-006-0406-x. PMID 17287971.
  4. ^ Ibid.
  5. ^ Ehrich, JHH (2005). "Pediatric Renal Care in Europe: Organisation and Delivery". Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation. 20 (2): 297–305. doi:10.1093/ndt/gfh299. PMID 15173377.
  6. ^ Prikhodina, Larisa (2020). "The European Society for Pediatric Nephrology Study of Pediatric Renal Care in Europe: Comparative Analysis 1998-2017". Pediatric Nephrology. 35 (1): 103–111. doi:10.1007/s00467-019-04378-5. PMID 31664556.