It has been almost 2 years since my being elected as the President of the ISPD. Time flies fast. I am not sure if you have noticed what the ISPD has been doing over these 2 years. I assure you that the council members and our committee chairs (and members) have been working hard in various aspects of the Society to benefit the nephrology community in the world, whether you may have noticed it or not. I must thank our highly committed team. I really enjoy working with them very much.

The 12th Congress of the ISPD at Istanbul is coming in just a few weeks. The Congress has received 510 abstract submissions, exceeding the last 2 Congresses. This is a good sign that shows the interest in both clinical and basic research in PD is growing again.

Incorporation of the ISPD

During the Congress, we have a special task that needs your participation and support - Incorporation of the ISPD.

Since its inception in 1984, the Society has all along been registered as a tax-exemption body at Washington D.C., USA. With growing size and complexity of the ISPD, the council feels strongly that we need a proper incorporation to protect all members of the Society from legal liability. In addition, there are needs for modification of our by-laws to increase the representation of the council and to facilitate the running of the Society. Over the past one year, we spent a lot of time discussing with attorneys for the incorporation, preparation of the articles of incorporation and by-laws. We need you to show your endorsement of the incorporation and by-laws in the General Assembly of all members on 21 June 2008 at Istanbul. A notification has been sent to you earlier. You may find the information and highlights of the by-laws changes at our website www.ispd.org under ‘ISPD incorporation’ on the left hand side. This is very important to the Society. The future of the Society is in your hands.

If you have not registered for the Congress, try your best to do so and attend, and be present in the General Assembly at 11 am, 21 June 2008.

The Next Congress 2010 - Mexico City

We have received several bidding for hosting the ISPD Congress 2010. All of these bidding cities are very attractive, and their bidding documents were very well prepared. After detailed assessment of the Future Meeting Committee, chaired by Claudio Ronco, on the strength and weakness of each bidding city, the council decided to grant the hosting right to Mexico City. The Congress will be held in late July 2012. The Congress President is Prof. Ramon Paniagua. I believe that we will have a very exciting and challenging congress in 2010.

The 14th Congress in 2012 is now open for bidding. The deadline of application is 30 September 2008. Please find the bidding announcement and requirement from our website.

The Asian, Latin and North American Meetings, 2009

In 2009, we will have 3 regional Chapter Meetings:

July	Latin American Chapter - Iguazzu, Argentina
August	North American Chapter - Vancouver, Canada
October	Asian Chapter - Beijing, China

These Chapter Meetings will target at special needs and promotion of PD development of each region.

ISPD Guidelines in Spanish

The guideline committee has translated into Spanish the 3 latest ISPD guidelines – the peritoneal dialysis-related infections, solute and fluid removal, and patient training – and posted on our website. This serves to help bridging the ISPD to the non-English speaking communities. If this proves to be a successful move, we may consider translating our guidelines into more languages in the future.

A new ISPD website is developing

We are undergoing a major re-design of our website, adding in new features to help developing the Society. The new features would include a member-only area (for members to send feedback to the council and to communicate with each other), on-line membership payment, choice of website languages etc. There will be a special area ‘Ask the Experts’, where people can post a problem to consult the experts. The ISPD will invite a panel of experts to answer their questions. We hope that through this, we can help people managing their patients in different parts of the world.

We are looking forward to the new website by June. Watch out for the announcement.

Knowing our committees - the Membership Committee

This is a very important committee of the ISPD. Internally, it serves to take care of the needs of our members. Externally, it has to promote our membership. It is now chaired by Yong-Lim Kim (Korea), with deputy chair Rajnish Mehrota (USA), and members : Salah Naga (Egypt), Anabela Rodrigues (Portugal), Amit Gupta (India), David Johnson (Australia), Ramon Paniagua (Mexico).

In the last 2 years, the committee has been very active. They have done opinion survey on membership, sent out invitation e-mails to join ISPD, hosted booths in Annual Dialysis Conferences. Through these activities, we have attracted over 150 new members.

In the coming Congress in Istanbul, they will host an ISPD booth. Visit us and collect an ISPD ball pen!

If you have any suggestion for the membership, including the membership-only area of the new website, please send your suggestions to Dr. Yong-Lim Kim at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

With warm regards, and hope to see you in Istanbul

Dr. Wai-Kei Lo
President
ISPD
3 May 2008
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President's Message Archives

Biography

Dr. Wai-Kei Lo is the Consultant Physician and director of renal service of Tung Wah Hospital and Hon. Clinical Associate Professor of the University of Hong Kong. After graduation from the University of Hong Kong in 1980, his interest in peritoneal dialysis budded when he participated in the first PD program in Hong Kong as a resident in 1982. The subsequent blooming of PD in Hong Kong and his joining the University of Hong Kong in 1990 provided him more clinical and research experience in PD. He has been the principal co-coordinator of Asian Chapter since its inception in 2001 until he takes up the Presidency at the Hong Kong Congress 2006. He has many publications in the field of peritoneal dialysis and is the chief author of the newly published ISPD guideline on solute and fluid removal.

ISPD.org

Wai-Kei Lo (Hong Kong)