Boucar Diouf
Senegal
Pioneer Award: Africa
The ISN Pioneer Awards, restricted to individuals from non-high-income countries, honor the ‘unsung heroes’ of nephrology: doctors who have made extraordinary efforts to advance nephrology in a specific country or region.
Professor Emeritus Boucar Diouf was the head of the Nephrology Department at Aristide le Dantec Hospital and chair of nephrology, Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Odontology, at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar Senegal, from their creation until his retirement in 2019.
Professor Diouf founded the Fellowship Nephrology Diploma in 2004 and the Nephrology Nurse Diploma in 2006. He has helped to train 130 nephrologists, a renal anatopathologist, 2 pediatric nephrologists, and 113 senior nephrology health technicians of Senegalese and other nationalities.
Professor Diouf coordinated the development program for nephrology and kidney failure care at the Senegalese Ministry of Health from 1992-2019. In this position, he created the Association Sénégalaise pour le Traitement par le Rein Artificiel (ASTRA), now the Association Sénégalaise des Hémodialysés et Insuffisants Rénaux du Sénégal (ASHIR) – a patient organization. He also initiated 19 dialysis centers in several Senegalese towns, established a nephrology reference center and peritoneal dialysis unit at Aristide Le Dantec Hospital, and expanded the hemodialysis unit there.
Professor Diouf was a founding member and the first president of the Senegalese Society of Nephrology, Dialysis, and Transplantation, launched in 2006. He organized many national and international meetings and CME courses in Dakar. He was president of the African Association of Nephrology (AFRAN) from 2011-13 and led and promoted kidney care in West Africa through various other roles, including serving as a committee and board member of AFRAN, the European Renal Association − European Dialysis and Transplant Association, and the ISN.
Professor Diouf will receive the 2025 Pioneer Award for Africa at a regional meeting in 2025.