German Society for Nephrology

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The German Society for Nephrology eV (DGfN) is the medical society for clinical and scientific nephrology . The president of the society is Jan C. Galle. Mark Dominik Alscher and Andreas Kribben were his predecessors. The association is itself a member of the Working Group of Scientific Medical Societies . V. (AWMF); this association is the German umbrella organization of 184 medical societies.

Honorary members include Reinhard Brunkhorst and the deceased Karl Julius Ullrich , Adalbert Bohle (1922–1998), Kurt Kramer , Klaus Thurau (1928–2018) and Hans Joachim Sarre . The extended board consists of 77 members.

Science prizes and grants are awarded .

history

The Society for Nephrology (GfN) of Germany (then Federal Republic), Switzerland and Austria was founded on April 10, 1961 in Wiesbaden . In 2008 this GfN had more than 1100 members. The practical problems of renal replacement therapy have also been discussed in the Working Group for Clinical Nephrology (AGKN) since 1971. In 1966 the Society of Nephrology of the GDR (GdN) was founded. There were no official relationships with the West German GfN. 1990/1991 it came in the course of turning on the integration of GdN East Germany with the West German AGKN to DAGKN (German AGKN).

In 2008, after the merger of GfN and DAGKN, the German Society for Nephrology (DGfN) was founded in order to strengthen the specialist field and thus also the economic interests of the members (from clinics, university research and branch offices) by bundling all nephrological activities. The DGfN is a scientific-medical society and as such a member of the AWMF ( Working Group of Scientific Medical Societies ). The DGfN is non-profit .

The purpose of the association is described in the statutes as follows: "the promotion of science and research, education, public and vocational training as well as public health and public health care in the field of nephrology, including research into kidney function, kidney diseases including their prevention and treatment and its effects, as well as in the field of hypertensive diseases. " Three specific goals were defined in a mission statement :

  • the strengthening of research, further education and training ,
  • the optimal care of patients with kidney and hypertension diseases and
  • strengthening the subject of nephrology.

tasks

Nephrology deals with the pathogenesis , diagnosis , prevention and therapy of all kidney diseases (hereditary, immunological, tubulointerstitial) and also with systemic diseases with kidney involvement (e.g. diabetes mellitus , antiphospholipid syndrome and lupus erythematosus ).

One focus of nephrology and thus also of its specialist society is renal replacement therapy for people with terminal kidney failure . Dialysis and kidney transplantation are available as kidney replacement therapies; the latter is often only available after many years of waiting due to the lack of donor organs. Most patients therefore have to undergo dialysis treatment, either as center dialysis or as home dialysis. Nephrology is the only specialty that can offer patients permanent organ replacement therapy. The dialysis treatment enables those affected to survive for years and decades with a relatively good quality of life - despite the complete failure of the vital and complex organ “kidney”.

Further core areas of nephrology are the care of kidney transplant patients, acute kidney failure , chronic kidney failure and other extracorporeal therapy methods in addition to dialysis ( e.g. lipid apheresis , plasmapheresis , immunoadsorption , liver replacement therapy ), the treatment of electrolyte disorders and disorders of the acid-base balance as well arterial hypertension . The treatment of concomitant diseases of chronic kidney failure (mineral and bone metabolism disorders, anemia , neuropathies ) as well as measures to slow down the progression of kidney diseases also fall within the remit of doctors working in nephrology.

Another major focus is the prevention of chronic kidney diseases, which in the later stages lead to the need for renal replacement therapy (dialysis / kidney transplantation). The specialist society uses the annual World Kidney Day to draw attention to the possibilities of prevention.

Since mid-2006, all dialysis centers in Germany have been providing data on the quality of their work to the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA). Since then, the DGfN has tried in vain to obtain these secondary data for scientific analyzes . The G-BA justifies its rejection with the current legal situation. This is all the more regrettable as Germany is one of the few European countries that (since 2007) no longer has a dialysis register. The data would be urgently required in order to validly record the prevalence and incidence rate and to enable country comparisons. From 1996 to 2006 there was a nationwide register for renal replacement therapy (chronic dialysis and kidney transplantation) called "Quasi-Kidney". Before that, the data had been reported by the dialysis centers (since the 1970s) to the "European Dialysis and Transplantation Society" and published by them, summarized by country.

Board of Trustees

In addition to the KfH Board of Trustees for Dialysis and Kidney Transplantation ("KfH": former name was "Kuratorium für Heimdialyse", the abbreviation was retained), numerous pharmaceutical companies are represented as sponsoring members, including Fresenius Medical Care .

Publications

The membership magazine “DGfN Mitteilungen” was launched in 2010 and has a circulation of around 3,000 copies. It is considered to be one of the most important German journals in the field of kidney and hypertension diseases .

Der Nephrologe - Zeitschrift für Nephrologie und Hypertensiologie from Springer-Verlag is an organ of the professional association of German internists and the German Society for Internal Medicine (founded in 1882). The journal Kidney and Hypertension Diseases has been published by Dustri-Verlag since 1971 . The numerous editors , advisory board members and authors of these publications include many members of the DGfN.

Science awards

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ August Heidland, Eberhard Ritz, Florian Lang, Günter Stein: The Success Story of the Society for Nephrology , in: Kidney and Hypertension Diseases, Volume 46, Number 10/2017, pp. 455–464.
  2. ↑ The statutes and mission statement are available at https://www.dgfn.eu/ueber-die-dgfn.html .
  3. ^ Hans Eduard Franz, Walter H. Hörl (Ed.): Blood purification process , 5th edition, Georg Thieme Verlag , Stuttgart, New York 1997, ISBN 3-13-497705-2 , 586 pages.
  4. ↑ See for example https://www.dgfn.eu/pressemeldung/zum-weltnierentag-start-unserer-jaehrlichen-praeventionskampagne.html .
  5. ↑ Deutsches Ärzteblatt : The daily newsletter from October 10, 2017.
  6. ↑ A complete list of members is available online at https://www.dgfn.eu/kuratorium.html .

Web links