A number of nephrologists who had once studied in Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), met at the Museum of the History of Medicine in the midst of a three-day conference to renew old friendships and pave the way for prospective cooperation in the evening of July 21, 2011.

The head of TUMS Nephrology Research Center, Dr. Mahboub Lessan-pezeshki, said the ceremony was to promote scientific exchange among TUMS alumni of nephrology and renew old friendships among them and added that the Research Center could be relied to act as a moderator for research projects of different research centers.

The deputy for education of TUMS Nephrology Research Center, who is also the secretary of TUMS Alumni Office (AO), said the Alumni Office of the University had been established in 2006 to promote and meet scientific, economical, and political objectives of the graduates and seek their support for the University. He added that different communities had been formed at the AO and the office would welcome formation of more communities and it would facilitate their activities by its staff and the website it had launched on the internet.

Dr. Azmandian, another TUMS nephrology alumnus, stressed that there were no province in the country without any graduate of the University and hoped the secretariat of the Nephrology Alumni would be formed to organize cooperations and relationships.

He also suggested economical assistance to the university and to the members of the community through establishment of a monetary fund.
 
Later on, Dr. Nikpour, the provost nephrologist who first introduced hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis in Imam Khomeini Hospital, in 1965, said the field of nephrology had been in its infancy in 1962, the time he and some other had been sent to Paris to participate in a hemodialysis course there and a small center had been established upon their return from Paris in Imam Hospital, where the first case of hemodialysis had been performed in 1965. Dr. Nikpour added that later the first artificial kidney was placed in the body of a patient in Pars Hospital upon Professor Samiei’s return from the United States and the first open and transdermal kidney biopsies had been done at Imam Hospital where the first kidney transplant had been done in 1969 too.

He then metaphorically said that the small tree which had been planted years ago, has blossomed today to an important center in the country.