European Renal Association

European Renal Association (ERA)
Founded	1963
Type	Medical Charity
Focus	Nephrology, basic and clinical research clinical nephrology, dialysis, and renal transplantation, kidney care
Area served	Worldwide
Members	over 28,000
Key people	Roser Torra, President
Website	https://www.era-online.org/

The European Renal Association (ERA) is one of the biggest nephrology associations worldwide, with more than 28,000 members.^{[citation needed]}

ERA aims to reduce the burden of chronic kidney disease by supporting basic and clinical research in the fields of clinical nephrology, dialysis, and renal transplantation. The Association organises annual congresses, e-seminars and continuing medical education (CME) courses, and supports fellowships.

History

The early history of ERA began in the 1960s when nephrologists Stanley Shaldon, William Drukker and David Kerr predicted that the future of nephrology would require more activity in the technical aspects of treating humans, rather than just academic interest and animal research.

Since the founding of the West European Dialysis Association (WEDA) in 1963, the ERA has aimed to continually adapt its activities to maintain its role as a leading organisation in the European nephrology community.^[1]

In 1981, with the evolution of clinical nephrology and with the idea of including all the specialties linked to nephrology that were growing rapidly, the society changed its name from European Dialysis Transplantation Association (EDTA) to European Dialysis Transplantation Association-European Renal Association (EDTA-ERA). The 1983 congress was the first time that abstracts related to clinical nephrology exceeded those dealing with dialysis. Later that year, the EDTA officially acknowledged nephrology as one of its key missions and changed its name to reflect this. The EDTA-ERA became the European Renal Association–European Dialysis Transplantation Association (ERA-EDTA). The Association's then president, Vittorio Andreucci, played a prominent role in this change.^[2]

In 2021, with President Christoph Wanner, the Association changed its name and ERA-EDTA became ERA.^{[citation needed]}

Journals and congress

ERA publishes two journals: Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation: an international basic science and clinical renal journal (NDT)^[3] and Clinical Kidney Journal: Clinical and Translational Nephrology (CKJ, open access).^[4]

Since its founding, ERA has organised an annual Congress, with the Proceedings as its first scientific publication. For the Society’s first 22 years, the Proceedings included all lectures of the scientific programme presented during the meeting itself. Year by year the Congress became very successful, with more participants and a much richer scientific programme. The 61st ERA Congress was held in Stockholm in May 2024, achieving great success with nearly 9,000 participants from around the world. The 62nd Congress will take place in Vienna in June 2025.

ERA Registry

ERA funds the ERA Registry, a European Registry collecting data on kidney replacement therapy via the national and regional renal registries in Europe and in countries bordering Europe or the Mediterranean Sea. It analyses these data and distributes the results through registry reports presented at the yearly ERA congresses, publications in nephrology journals and through the ERA website.

The ERA Registry aims to complement and build on the analyses the national and regional kidney replacement therapy (KRT) registries carry out. The ERA Registry compares disease patterns and their treatment in member countries, studies treatment outcomes, carries out analyses where patient numbers in individual national and regional KRT registries are small, and builds up a demographic picture of KRT within the member countries. In addition, the ERA Registry performs focused studies using data from a segment of the catchment population to answer specific questions.^[5]

References

^ Wanner, Christoph; Fliser, Danilo; Rychlik, Ivan; Torra, Roser; Gansevoort, Ronald; Ortiz, Alberto; Sarafidis, Pantelis; Ong, Albert; Cozzolino, Mario; Rosenkranz, Alexander; Tuglular, Serhan Z; Gambaro, Giovanni; Fontana, Monica; Azzolini, Laura; Vinck, Caroline (2022-04-07). "From WEDA to EDTA to ERA: 60 years of supporting European nephrology and counting". Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation. 37 (7): 1201–1208. doi:10.1093/ndt/gfac145. hdl:2434/929047. ISSN 0931-0509. PMID 35389478.
^ Andreussi, Vittorio (April 2012). "The history of the ERA/EDTA. Memories of a former president". academic.oup.com. Retrieved Feb 7, 2024.
^ "Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation: About the journal". Oxford UP. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
^ "Clinical Kidney Journal: About the journal". Oxford UP. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
^ "ERA Registry". ERA. Retrieved 2024-02-07.