The President of the Board of Nephrology will be the President of Speciality Section in Nephrology UEMS (Prof. Brian Keogh – Ireland) for the first two years and, for the following two years, the President of the ERA-EDTA (who currently is Prof. Jorge Cannata-Andía – Spain). This reciprocity of charges of terms of two years each, for the above mentioned Associations, will be maintained also in the future. The Presidents of National Societies and CME Representatives of each Country are part of the Board. A section on the UEMS website will explain the composition and the activity of the Board in Nephrology. There will obviously be a direct link to our web site: a further link between each National Society web-site and the ERA-EDTA would be appreciated in order to facilitate the knowledge of the activity of the Board at a capillary level.

What will the Board of Nephrology do?

Promote knowledge as well as harmonize the teaching programs in Nephrology around Europe. The post-graduated formation of Specialists in Nephrology is very different within the various Countries in Europe and, in order to have a free circulation of Specialists in Europe, a more homogeneous formation of Nephrologists is needed. A questionnaire was distributed to each National President of Nephrology and a report will be prepared by Brian Junor: it will show an interesting profile of the teaching programs in Nephrology in Europe and it will represent the start-up for the future work of the Board.

The Board of Nephrology will investigate the possibility of organizing a survey on training Centers in Europe and/or an Individual Nephrologist Board Examination in Nephrology, which would be welcomed by the UEMS. A long discussion dealt with the possible forms of CME examinations, which is already done in some EU Countries such as the UK. It could be done only on a voluntary basis, since this recognition has only an honorific meaning and cannot be considered as a real degree.
The possibilities range from a true examination (cost and human time for the examiners have to be taken into consideration) or an evaluation of an updated CV of facts by the attendants. This latter possibility seems to be a suitable way in UK where a regular survey on CME status is already done. The economical issue can be easily settled by asking the applicants to pay a fee for the Board Examination.
Several surgeons, including Urologists, cardio-surgeons and neuro-surgeons, have already taken such examination at the UEMS, on a yearly basis, in variable sittings. It was discussed if this title could be of interest for Nephrologists. It was decided to further discuss this point in the next meeting.

CME Committee.
The two existing committees (ERA-EDTA and Section of Nephrology at the UEMS) will merge into a single one. It is composed of six persons, three for each body. The ERA-EDTA President, Jorge Cannata-Andía, and the persons mostly involved in educational activities within the ERA-EDTA Council, Rosanna Coppo and Carmine Zoccali, will be the ERA-EDTA representatives in this committee. Three Persons from the UEMS will enter this committee as well. As Chairperson of the CME activities  in general for the ERA-EDTA, I will continue  activating each process.
Over the last six months ten European Events have been granted CME credits by our Commission.

Interesting news on CME

• In 2 years time the EC will accept long-distance credits
• UEMS credits are valid in each EU Country except France (they do not have a CME system), and partially Italy: only a part of the credits that are due (up to 20% ) are accepted for non-Italian events. This however does mean that our credits are valid for almost all of Europe.
• As for CME credits in reviewing articles, they must be claimed at national levels and not at EU levels