Report of the ISN President-Elect

Abstract

In the Council Meeting of the XIJIth International Congress of Nephrology (ICN) in Madrid, Spain, I was nominated as President-Elect of the International Society of Nephrology. It was one of the highest honors in my professional career and I accepted this important responsibility of the Society. I say unexpectedly because I was informed that I was to be a candidate only a few weeks prior to the Congress, and thus I was not prepared for the role. However, due to my commitments as a member of the Scientific Program Committee for the TCN in Tokyo 1990, the 1993 ICN in Jerusalem, and the 1995 ICN in Madrid, I have learned a great deal and have gained insights into the history, activities, and organizational structure of this distinguished Society. These interactions and involvement in the activities of the Society have helped me become acclimated to the job in a timely manner. Over the last two years, under the able and enthusiastic leadership of President Robert W. Schrier, together with the absolutely effective executive offices of Vice-President Thomas E. Andreoli, Secretary General Jan Weening, and Treasurer C. Craig Tisher, the Society has increased its membership, in part through the introduction of a new membership policy for nephrologists in currently economically handicapped countries. This new policy will enable many nephrologists in such to have easier access to current actions in education, training, and the state-ofthe-art technologies in nephrology. Moreover, it will enable the Society's activities to be disseminated into wider areas throughout the world. We all hope more nephrologists worldwide will join the Society to contribute to the prevention and care of patients suffering from renal diseases. One of the many important activities which has contributed greatly to the dissemination of the missions of the Society has been the Commission for Global Advancement of Nephrology, co-chaired by Drs. Barry M. Brenner and John H. Dirks. Under their superb leadership the Commission has reached various parts of currently economically handicapped countries of the world by sending site visit teams which interacted effectively with national societies and local nephrologists and assisted organizing nephrology courses by sending faculty and funds that enabled young nephrologists in some of these to come to such courses. I became a part of those missions by serving as Chair of the Asian Pacific Subcommittee of the Commission. I believe that the Society should continue this Commission on an even greater scale in the coming years. The principal philosophy behind launching such a Commission is our understanding that any international scientific society should try to meet the needs of