HISTORY OF THE FOUNDING OF EDTA

The idea to form a European Association for dialysis was conceived during an international symposium on acute renal failure organised by Stanley
Shaldon at the Royal Free Hospital on 2nd September 1963 (Figure 1).

Figure 1

After the symposium David Kerr suggested to Stanley that there should be an annual symposium on dialysis, drawing together nephrologists in Europe. Stanley said that William Drukker, whom he had met the previous year at a meeting of the West European Clinical Chemistry Society, had made a similar suggestion. Stanley arranged for the three to meet after the closing dinner in the Apothecaries’ Hall. They agreed to test the enthusiasm for the idea among nephrologists in Western Europe by inviting them to join in creating a society to run these annual events. They suggested the title “West European Dialysis Association” (WEDA).

The response was encouraging so William Drukker volunteered to host the first symposium in Amsterdam in 1964.This was preceded by a day’s meeting to found the society legally and agree its rules. In this lively debate there was strong support for the society embracing the whole of Europe despite the problems of travel across the Iron Curtain so the W was deleted from WEDA. At the bidding of a distinguished French contingent the bounds of Europe were extended to include all countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. It was decided that the society should embrace renal transplantation as well as dialysis so it was renamed the European Dialysis and Transplant Association (EDTA), despite some concern, particularly from Professor Hamburger, the leading light of European renal transplantation, that it was treading on the toes of a recently formed transplant society.

A council was elected (Figure 2) and William Drukker appointed the first Secretary-Treasurer and David Kerr the first Editor of the Proceedings. For the first 9 years of EDTA, papers were presented and published in French as well as English so Daniel Fries and Jules Traeger became French co-editors.

Figure 2

The first congress (Proceedings) was a great success with guest lectures from Willem Kolff, returning for the first time to his homeland where he pioneered haemodialysis, and from Sergio Giovannetti on dietary control of uraemia and 52 presentations from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, USA and UK. On its twentieth anniversary, EDTA recognised the need to widen its remit to include all of nephrology and changed its name to EDTA-ERA.

Special thanks goes to David Kerr and Stanley Shaldon for this article.