ERA Awards

Rosanna Gusmano (Casale Monferrato, November 10, 1928 – Genova, February 12, 2011) was a Pediatrician who developed in her life the passion for the kidney and for kidney diseases. As a Nephrologist working in a pediatric hospital, she applied her knowledge to children and actually founded in Italy the discipline of Pediatric Nephrology.

She graduated at the Medical School in Genoa, Italy in 1953 receiving Paediatrics board in 1955, obtaining teaching in the same discipline in 1970 and achieving Nephrology board in 1974.

Rosanna spent her entire medical career within the Giannina Gaslini Children’s Hospital in Genoa where she initially entered as assistant (1960-68) progressing to associate (1968-77) and finally heading the newly founded Paediatric Nephrology Department (1977-1998).  Her clinical and scientific contribution to the field was enormous. She pioneered pediatric dialysis, introducing this  practice in Italy in 1969,  cultivated kidney pathology and had a particular interest for genetics of kidney diseases. At that time, most of Italian children with renal diseases were treated in Genoa, where she founded the first pediatric renal transplant unit in Italy. Rosanna had a lifetime commitment to patient care also out her department;  she founded the “Fondo Malattie Renali del Bambino” in 1976 a charity committed to help poor-income family along children hospitalisation and care.

Rosanna was a visionary, strongly believed in research, and was fully aware  of the economical need of research. For that purpose, in 2004 she established  the “Renal Child Foundation” with the specific aim of supporting scientific research in the field of Nephrology.

Both “Fondo Malattie Renali del Bambino” and “Renal Child Foundation” are still active today and fully commited to achieve their institutional aims .

The concrete result is the existence of a renal research team at Gaslini, that includes people working in a laboratory entitled to the memory of this great master, the ‘Rosanna Gusmano Laboratory’

She leaves a heritage of 450 scientific publications and several chapters on nephrology books. Most importantly, she has left many students the concept that medicine needs heart and passion and that research is key to both scopes.

Gianmarco Ghiggeri

Prof Shaldon was born in 1931 in London and studied medicine at the University of Cambridge, Queens´ College London and the Middlesex Hospital London from 1949-56. After he had spent two years in military service as a medical specialist at a hospital in Lagos, Nigeria, he got his postgraduate training at the Hammersmith Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital, London, where he became Lecturer in Medicine in 1960 and Consultant Physician to the Renal Unit in 1965. Only one year later, in 1966, he set up the National Kidney Centre in London. In the seventies he left England and worked as visiting professor in Montpellier, France, and Stockholm, Sweden. From 1977 until receiving emeritus status he was responsible for the research section of the Department of Nephrology at the University Hospital in Nimes, France.

Prof Shaldon’s scientific work was outstanding, with over 350 peer-reviewed publications as a pioneer in the fields of (home) haemodialysis, ultrafiltration and treatment of ESRD, including ground-breaking clinical inventions. He developed an arteriovenous fistula which was simple to puncture in self-care and was also the first one to apply central vein catheters as access for dialysis, now known as the “Shaldon-catheter” (Lancet 1961) all over the world. He also was one of the first to reuse dialyzers, and even more importantly, he drew attention to the significance of pure dialysis water, of chemokines in uremia and last but not least, of the toxicity of dietary salt. He was an excellent nephrologist and the patients were always at the center of all his efforts. His dream was “to make dialysis the insulin of end stage renal disease”, meaning to enable patients to perform dialysis themselves and being less dependent on medical assistance.

Furthermore, Prof Shaldon was a great teacher and mentor bringing up and influencing many of the current generation of European and world-wide nephrologists. He also was one of the “founding fathers” of the ERA-EDTA in 1963. His vision granted the development of one of the most successful European Scientific Societies today which he inspired for many years.

Raymond Vanholder

Professor Eberhard Ritz is a great and unique person worldwide, not only as a scientist, visionary in nephrology, excellent speaker and passionate in history but also as a superb mentor for many young fellows. Since the beginning of the eighties of the XXth Century until his retirement, on an annual basis Professor Ritz invited several young colleagues mostly from Central and Eastern Europe but also form Western countries, Latin America or Asia to visit him in Heidelberg. It was for them a special opportunity to learn modern nephrology in his laboratory and to publish papers in prestigious medical journals. For many of them publications with Profesor Ritz were recognized as a very important contribution to their subsequent scientific or clinical career. Professor Ritz was one of the first who started education in nephrology on a large scale, organizing since 1976 a famous Seminars in Nephrology in Heidelberg. Later on, he organized educational courses in nephrology and arterial hypertension also in other countries, frequently with the support provided by ERA-EDTA and ISN. Without such a direct support organized by Professor Ritz, participation in these educational courses for many young nephrologists would not have been possible at that time. There is no doubt that his enormous scientific activity and the many novel concepts which Professor Ritz presented in his excellent review articles or lectures, contributed significantly to the development of contemporary nephrology. Professor Eberhard Ritz is also so famous because he supported the clinical career of many young nephrologists from almost each continent. Therefore, recipients should always be very proud, receiving the Eberhard Ritz ERA Award for young investigators!

Andrzej Wiecek