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Nephrologists in Nepal take part in a training course as part of the
ISN Kidney Care Network Program in collaboration with APSN

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The ISN and the Asian Pacific Society of Nephrology (APSN) have sustained a successful collaboration over the last decade working together to advance nephrology in the Asia-Pacific region, notably through the ISN Fellowship, Sister Renal Centers (SRC), Clinical Research (CR), and Continuing Medical Education (CME), and Kidney Care Network Programs.

Since 2010, 5 Clinical Research projects; 13 CME meetings; 17 Fellows; and 9 SRC pairs have been co-sponsored by ISN and APSN. A small sample of the outstanding results are highlighted below.

Nattachai Srisawat, an investigator from Thailand, received funding in 2015 for his Clinical Research project on AKI epidemiology in Southeast Asia. The project, completed in 2019, led to the publication of two articles (available here and here)in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Srisawat won 3rd prize in the Clinical Research Awards organized at WCN 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. These awards recognize the three best posters derived from ISN Clinical Research projects.

Seow Yeing Yee, a Fellow from the Kuala Lumpur Hospital in Malaysia, trained at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Australia from 2018-2019. She trained in clinical transplantation and plans to set up a kidney-paired exchange program in Malaysia to improve transplant rates. According to host mentor, Prof. Steven James Chadban, Dr. Yee is a potential future leader in transplantation in Malaysia and Asia, experienced to manage pre-transplant workup and post-transplant patient care.

The Viet Duc Hospital in Vietnam and the Juntendo University Hospital in Japan partnered between 2014 and 2019 through to the Sister Renal Centers Program and graduated in 2020. Training was received through six Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses in Renal Pathology throughout the partnership. Further courses took place in nephrology, dialysis, and transplantation covering all aspects of kidney diseases. Staff from the Pathology and Kidney Diseases and Dialysis departments of the Viet Duc Hospital attended short-term training courses in Japan.

The number of kidney biopsies carried out per year in the Viet Duc Hospital increased from 50 cases in 2014 to 300 cases in 2019. The Viet Duc Pathology department has become a center of reference for seven other hospitals in the region. Collaborative relationships between nephrologists and other specialists in Hanoi and Northern Vietnam have been established as well as between local and international specialists creating the potential for future research projects and motivating young professionals to work in the field.

As the implementation arm of the ISN 0by25 initiative, the Kidney Care Network (KCN) project consists of a series of implementation interventions that support centers in low-resource settings to develop integrated kidney care services. One of the four sites worldwide to have successfully launched the project is the Dharan Site in Nepal. An official partner of the ISN 0by25 Initiative, APSN has supported the Nepal KCN unit to become a well-established local ‘Network’ providing training in integrated kidney care across the region. Local advocacy efforts have increased in Nepal to ensure that good practices in integrated kidney care are sustained in the region.

In 2019, under the leadership of then ISN president, David Harris, and APSN Program Chair, Masaomi Nangaku (current APSN President), the APSN and the ISN co-organized WCN in Melbourne, Australia, alongside the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology (ANZSN). The congress focused on glomerulonephritis, integrated end-stage kidney disease, and topics relevant to global and Asia-Pacific nephrology and offered hands-on courses on the clinical aspects of these topics prior to the scientific program.

ISN President, Vivek Jha, comments: “APSN and ISN have had a long-lasting and wide-ranging partnership aimed at supporting capacity building and research in all aspects of nephrology in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition to advancing kidney health through training and education, this partnership has fostered innovations, such as the Affordable Dialysis Prize.”

The ISN looks forward to a continuing fruitful partnership with the APSN.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]