Following a three-day master class in renal transplantation, Professor Meguis El Nahas, the president of the Global Kidney Academy, Professor Mahboub Lessa-pezeshki the head of Nephrology Research Center and Professor Mitra Mahdavi-Mazdeh from the Iranian Tissue Bank and Research Center signed  a memorandum of understanding each for collaborations in research and education on October 8, 2011.

The session started at the Nephrology Research Center which is affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) and Dr. Seyed Mansour Gatmiri, welcoming Professor El Nahas, briefly introduced the Center, its dialysis wards, the faculty members and its research and teaching activities. He said the dialysis ward was able to give service to 120 patients by its 30 dialysis machines and the peritoneal dialysis ward to 30 patients.

The manager of TUMS Public Relations said the research and educational activities of the Center were well beyond the hospital or even the University and it held a noticeable number of workshops, symposia, congresses and weekly or monthly conferences for GPs, nurses and specialist.

Later on, Professor El Nahas thanked the authorities of the NRC and introduced the Global Kidney Academy and its online resources and courses which were free to those who registered on the site and its real-time capabilities for discussion and clinical or publication advice. He also talked about the programs the Academy held for the primary health care personnel in subjects such as chronic kidney diseases, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases.

He described the objectives of the International Nephrology Education Foundation (iNEF), established by himself, as improvement of healthcare in emerging economies through fostering Education and Leadership in the field of Medicine and Nephrology. He added that this charity organization tried to promotes excellence and leadership amongst young emerging physicians and nephrologists and it awarded nephrologist and pathologist under the age of 45 for substantial contribution to service provision, teaching or research in Renal histopathology in Emerging countries.

Talking about different options for effective collaboration, the three parties signed two memorandums of understanding for research and educational collaboration.

Photo galleries one and two.

Subsequently, Professor El Nahas visited the Hematology-Oncology and BMT Research Center where Professor Ardeshir Ghavamzadeh, the head of the Center, introduced the range of activities there that included more than 400 bone marrow transplants per year from a former 30 and collaboration with international organizations and . Photo gallery.

Calling it a unique research center and a place for the treatment of hematologic and oncologic diseases in the region, Professor El Nahas left the Center to visit Hashemi-nezhad Kidney Hospital and Moheb Hospitasl where Dr. Abdi, the head of the Iranian Nephrology Society, and Dr. Osareh, welcomed him and explained that Moheb Hospital was being run semi-privately but the costs there were still one-fifth of the amount charged by the private sector.


Witnessing the level of activity and the well-equipped and trained personnel there, Professor El Nahas admired the way the two hospitals were operating. Photo gallery.

 Having inked the MoUs, collaborative activites would ensue as the parties were keen enough to materialize their objectives.