Dear Colleague,

This is a letter open to all those persons who work in the fields of interest of the ERA-EDTA to kindly ask for your valuable support in the life of our Association.

Why it is so important to be an active member in the ERA-EDTA if so many of the benefits given to our members can be received even without being a member?

ERA-EDTA is the most important nephrological Association in Europe and it has been serving the nephrological society for more than 40 years!

ERA-EDTA BENEFITS

1) Scientific quality of ERA-EDTA Congresses. We are continually trying to improve the quality of our Congresses, the CME Credits given at our Meetings receive the same recognition as the ones given by the AMA.

2) The NDT Journal is the official Journal of the Association and it is the most important Nephrological Journal in Europe, its impact factor is 3.658.
Now we also publish NDT-Plus, which is NDT's sister Journal.

3) ERA-EDTA Fellowships. The ERA-EDTA has started a very important financial support (EUR 700,000 in 2007, more than EUR 900,000 in 2008 and EUR 1.000.000,00 in 
2009!) towards the scientific training of young talented physicians and researchers.

4) ERA-EDTA CME Courses. The need of continuous up-dating for Doctors working in the fields of Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation is one of the missions of ERA-EDTA. The series of Courses disseminated in several Western and Eastern EU Countries, as well as Countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea is an extremely useful and successful initiative! The ERA-EDTA has recentely launched some important initiatives aimed at improving and facilitating the continual medical education of young doctors: Long Distance Learning CMEs (for ERA-EDTA members only); Videoconferencing of the official ERA-EDTA courses (connecting different renal centres throughout Europe and the Mediterranean Area).

5) NDT-Educational. Especially for the younger generation it is essential to receive good quality educational materials for free. Since the birth of our Electronic Educational Journal this has been our aim and the numbers simply indicate the overwhelming success of this initiative (December, 2008: 9,600 registered users / 48,000 visits  / 120,000 web-pages downloaded).

6) EKHA (European Kidney Health Alliance). ERA-EDTA, together with 4 other partners, has launched the European Kidney Health Alliance, aimed at having the European Community focus, and therefore invest funds on Renal Diseases, which instead have been almost neglected up to now. ERA-EDTA members will have exclusive access to a new page on our web-site in which all the European Community financial opportunities are listed.

7) ERA-EDTA Registry. Collects and analyses data on renal replacement therapy via the National and Regional Registries in Europe. The results are then presented, free of charge, through the web-site, at the ERA-EDTA Congresses and in nephrology journals.

8) QUEST. The QUEST (QUality European STudies) aims at collecting data on clinical indicators, monitor guidelines adherence and form the basis for establishing well pondered benchmarks. A second important goal of the project is that of establishing a collaborative network of European
investigators joining their forces to pursue common research projects.

These are only some of the initiatives that ERA-EDTA is currently promoting.
We therefore ask you, but also your colleagues, to join us in our efforts in working together to promote awareness in the fields of interest of the Association and continue in our mission of pursuing the aims of our Association of knowledge, education and awareness.

Best wishes.

Prof. Gérard M. London
ERA-EDTA President