CME in Nigeria celebrates 25 years of Nigerian Society of Nephrology
The Nigerian Association of Nephrology joined forces with the ISN to organize a Continuing Medical Education course (CME) in Abuja, Nigeria from January 30 to February 6, 2013. The meeting coincided with the society’s 25th anniversary this year.
Celebrations began with a press conference on January 30, 2013 followed by walk for life and an awareness campaign for secondary schools including a writing competition on ‘reducing the burden of kidney diseases in Nigeria’. All this was topped off with a football match on February 3rd, 2013.
The meeting started with a pre-conference update featuring topical issues in adult and pediatric nephrology as well as parallel sessions for nephrology nurses and dialysis machine technicians.
Fatiu Arogundade, ISN Fellow and Secretary/Treasurer of the African Association of Nephrology, explains: “This conference explored ways of facilitating nephrology research to improve practice. We hope this will lead to better care and outcomes for nephrology patients in Nigeria and Africa.”
The conference itself featured two guest lectures on ‘Nephrology training, practice and research: the journey so far’ and ‘Parasites and the Kidneys’. There were four plenary sessions and each featured four to five speakers. Sub themes of the plenary sessions included Glomerulonephritis and Nephrotic Syndrome, The Kidney in Systemic Diseases, Management of CKD and ESRD and Preventive Nephrology. A total of 35 free communications were presented in six different scientific sessions throughout the conference.
Some 300 participants from all regions of Nigeria joined the meeting as well as guests from the UK, US, Ghana and Egypt. A majority of these were nephrologists, followed by residents and fellows, nurses and technicians.