Thirteenth Assisi Meeting on Cardionephrology - First Meeting of European Cardionephrology Association

March 18-19-20 2010, Assisi, Itay

European Cardiovascular and Renal Medicine (EURECAM) Symposia at

XLVII ERA-EDTA Congress / II DGfN Congress

June 25-28 2010, Munich, Germany

Welcome EURECA-m members to this inaugural e-NEWSLETTER. I am delighted to be given the opportunity of editing these communications, which, with the website and many other initiatives we are planning, we hope you will find helpful and useful. In the end the success of an undertaking like EURECA-m depends most of all on a vibrant, questing and engaged membership. This is YOUR working group as much as anyone else's - we need to think of what we can do, together, not of the many obstacles and problems which act to deter initiatives and enterprise.

You will find in this first newsletter an inspiring introductory piece by Carmine Zoccali, someone who has devoted his considerable academic and intellectual life to the clinical science of making things better for those with chronic kidney disease. He is the Chair of EURECA-m. We also have a short "question and answer" interview with Carmine interviewing the current President of ERA-EDTA, Gerard London, someone who exemplifies and personifies "cardiorenal" research excellence. With these two role models to guide us, we can all aim higher.

We also provide you with information about this exciting and burgeoning area - the interface between cardiovascular and renal problems - in the form of details about upcoming research projects, and collaborative meetings, around Europe. You need to look also carefully at NDT-Educational, and the ERA-EDTA CME programme details too (on the ERA website) as there is so much happening in 2010. We also flag the upcoming satellite symposium EURECA-m is putting on in Munich at the ERA-EDTA Congress there in late June 2010.

Above all, this is YOUR EURECA-m - we want YOUR ideas, suggestions, thoughts, praise, criticism, comments. Please channel these to myself (David Goldsmith : goldsmith@london.com) or to Carmine Zoccali (carmine.zoccali@tin.it). We will be providing further updates, newsletters, and more ways to interact as a "community of practice" before long.

Kind Regards,

David Goldsmith

   David Goldsmith

Interest on the role of the kidney in cardiovascular disease is a hot theme in clinical research. The very generation of the (controversial) concept of cardio-renal syndrome is a concrete example of ongoing efforts to channel intellectual resources into a new research area of potentially major scientific and clinical importance. This is a large territory spanning from hypertension to preventive nephrology, dialysis and transplantation. The borders of this territory are in the making but clearly research on the kidney-heart interface is a tantalising effort that demands interested investigators bonding and producing shared approaches to the problem.
As a part of a larger initiative of the ERA-EDTA aimed at promoting scientific collaboration among its members and beyond, a group of us was  appointed for launching a working group focusing on Renal and Cardiovascular medicine (EURECA-m). We felt that our mission should be that of facilitating the interaction between investigators and that of creating common soil for shared scientific research. To this scope we undertook a survey to profile ERA-EDTA members interested in this research area, their demography, what they do, the means they have. The results of this survey will be presented in a separate paper but I can anticipate that the ERA-EDTA nephro-cardiologist is a middle-career doctor (prevalent age frame: 45-55 years) with a male to female ratio similar to that of ERA-EDTA membership (i.e. 2), who does mainly clinical work in public (mainly university) hospitals and who has access to the main imaging and biochemical techniques for studying cardiovas cular and renal anatomy and function.

  Carmine Zoccali

Prof. Carmine Zoccali interviews Prof. Gèrard M. London, the ERA-EDTA President.

Read the interview!

   Gerard M. London

Thirteenth Assisi Meeting on Cardionephrology - First Meeting of European Cardionephrology Association

March 18-19-20 2010, Assisi, Itay

Read the programme

European Cardiovascular and Renal Medicine (EURECAM) Symposia at

XLVII ERA-EDTA Congress / II DGfN Congress

June 25-28 2010, Munich, Germany

More information on Congress Website

Did you find the EURECA-m newsletter interesting? Would you like to receive the next issues? Join the EURECA-m ERA-EDTA Working Group and become one of its members! CLICK HERE!!!