News

Adeera Levin, past president of the ISN (2015-17) and member of the ISN Advocacy Working Group, attended the United Nations General Assembly meetings (UNGA78) held in New York City in September. The event included the Devex meeting, where Dr. Levin was part of a panel with Marisol Robles, patient representative and president of the Mario Robles Ossio Foundation (Ms. Robles was one of the speakers at the opening ceremony of WCN’17), and Slim Slama from the WHO.  

Watch a recording of the Devex meeting here.

The meeting offered the opportunity to sensitize a large global community to the importance of kidney health and disease and the impact of chronic kidney disease on individuals, societies, and the environment. WHO officials are working toward more formal resourced structures to focus on kidney-related issues.  

The Global Coalition for Circulatory Health (GCCH) meeting addressed the value of advocacy for circulatory health in a panel discussion comprising a patient, a cardiologist, the Health Minister from the Philippines, and Dr. Levin.  

Access a recording of the GCCH meeting here.  

Dr. Levin attended two high-level meetings (HLMs) at the UN on pandemic preparedness and universal health coverage. Global, regional and national group representatives participated in the HLMs. The ISN submitted statements at both meetings. 

A common theme at all the meetings was the need to reorganize global health to address the fragmented and parochial nature of current healthcare systems. Addressing structural issues will improve pandemic preparedness, responses, and resilience and help decrease health inequities.  

A call to recognize the inter-relatedness of noncommunicable (NCD) and infectious diseases was made, acknowledging the impact of one on the outcomes of the other.  

Dr. Levin observed: “Key messages for the future should be outward facing, supporting collaboration between and among NCD groups, and in support of integrated efforts to improve healthcare access for all.”  

As part of the ISN-WHO 2021-2023 collaboration plan, the ISN is pleased to announce the release of three new toolkits in early 2024.

The ISN thanks all experts involved for their outstanding contributions.

World Kidney Day (WKD) 2024 will take place on March 14, 2024. 

This year’s theme, “Kidney Health for All: Advancing equitable access to care and optimal medication practice,” will help raise awareness of the importance of equitable access to appropriate treatment and how to delay disease progression and improve the quality of life for people living with kidney disease.  

Visit the WKD website and explore the 2024 theme, call-to-action, logos and visuals available in different languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Swahili.  

Start your social media campaign and engage with your audience! Consult the social media toolkit for helpful information and resources about the 2024 campaign, including hashtags, visuals, tailored content for your social media posts, and additional tips on involving your audience in Instagram and Facebook stories, the #ShowYourKidneys challenge, or X-spaces.  

Let us know how you will mark the day by pinning your activity to the WKD interactive map and use our 2024 resources to raise the profile of kidney health in your community.   

The ISN was pleased to participate in the policy breakfast “Doing Better for Europe’s NCD Population: Earlier Intervention to Transform Outcomes for People and Planet” in October at the European Parliament in Brussels hosted by MEP Stelios Kympouropoulos (EPP, Greece).  

The meeting was organized in collaboration with AstraZeneca and the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU in the framework of the European Parliament Subcommittee of Public Health’s work on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). 

Key speakers included Eveline Scheres – managing director of the European Kidney Health Alliance, Juan Carlos Julián Mauro – managing director of the Spanish Kidney Patients’ Federation, Daniel Gallego – president of the European Kidney Patients’ Federation, and MEP Margarita De La Pisa Carrión (ECR, Spain). 

The event focused on the huge impact of chronic kidney disease (CKD) on patients and caregivers, the economic burden on healthcare systems (140 billion euros annually in the EU), and the high ecological cost; kidney dialysis consumes about 75,000 liters of water per year and generates significant amounts of waste and CO2 emissions.  

Speakers highlighted how improving preventative measures and early intervention and detection could transform patient outcomes, reduce the socio-economic impact of CKD and support the health of our planet.  

The ISN participated in the high-level meeting “Towards Global Convergence in Transplantation: Sufficiency, Transparency and Oversight” in November in Santander, Spain. 

The Ministry of Health – Organización Nacional de Trasplantes organized the high-level meeting under the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU.  

ISN Past President Vivekanand Jha took part in a panel discussion on the impact of transplantation on other United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Kidney transplantation was identified as the most important life-saving and cost-effective treatment option for people with kidney failure, a position already advocated by the ISN in its “Framework for Developing Dialysis Programs in Low-resource Settings.”  

Dr. Jha commented: “We reiterated that transplantation is influenced by and contributes to several UN SDGs beyond SDG 3. It contributes to the sustainability and resilience of healthcare systems through health system preparedness and strengthening of health care services.”  

Acknowledgment was made of the favorable impact of transplantation on the ongoing environmental crisis compared to dialysis. 

ISN member and leader Rümeyza Kazancıoğlu noted, “The discussions covered ongoing ethical challenges in the donation and transplantation of ‘Substances of Human Origin’ (SoHO) and advocating for financial neutrality in organ donation, preventing trafficking in organs and other SoHOs, and ensuring fairness in access to SoHO-based therapies and transplantation across borders.” 

The consensus called upon all nations to enact explicit regulations that ban the payment for organs and other human body parts while also strictly prohibiting human trafficking for their acquisition. 

The summit suggested involving health authorities from different countries to address inequalities in organ transplants. It also highlighted the importance of transparency and vigilance by creating registries monitored by national health authorities. These registries would track all donations and organ transplants within and between countries. 

ISN member Dominique Martin reported: “Among the many important recommendations and recurrent themes, what stood out for me was the need to strengthen systems for data collection, sharing and use, to improve transparency of practice and inform efforts to increase equity, address trafficking and commercialism, and improve outcomes of donation and transplantation.  

The importance of collaboration between countries and various stakeholders such as health authorities, professional societies, patient organizations and industry was evident. While solutions must be tailored to the local context, many challenges are multifactorial and not limited by jurisdictional borders or regulatory distinctions between various therapies. By working together on policy, research, and advocacy, we will be more effective in responding to crises and achieving sustained progress on our common goals.”