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[April 13, 2007]
SEVEN GIANTS OF MEDICINE TO BE HONORED AT SUNY DOWNSTATE
“Founders of Nephrology” to be Recognized at Renal Disease Conference
An extraordinary gathering of seven of the world’s greatest physicians in the fields of kidney disease, dialysis, and transplantation surgery will take place Tuesday, April 17, 2007, at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, when these “Founders of Nephrology” will be honored at a continuing medical education conference.
The honorees are: Morell M. Avram, MD; Willem J. Kolff, MD, PhD; Jack Moncrief, MD; Joseph E. Murray, MD; Dimitrios Oreopoulos, MD, PhD; George E. Schreiner, MD; and Thomas E. Starzl, MD, PhD. Each will address a topic in the field, including the origin of hemodialysis and optimizing immunosupression for organ transplants.
The conference, “Options in Uremia Therapy,” will take place beginning at 1:30 p.m. in the SUNY Downstate Alumni Auditorium at 395 Lenox Road, near New York Avenue in East Flatbush.
Dr. Avram was one of the first physicians to perform dialysis in the United States, was the first to apply dialysis to diabetic patients, and is a pioneer in the development of artificial organs and transplants; Dr. Kolff, now 96 years old, invented hemodialysis and is also known as the “father of artificial organs;” Dr. Moncrief originated continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, saving the lives of infants born without kidney function; Dr. Murray received the 1990 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries in organ and cell transplantation; Dr. Oreopoulos is internationally renowned for simplifying and popularizing peritoneal dialysis; Dr. Schreiner developed the protocol for dialyzable drugs and the use of the artificial kidney machine for drug overdoses; and Dr. Starzl performed the first human liver transplants and has often been referred to as the “father of modern transplantation.”
The conference program directors are Dale A. Distant, MD, associate professor of surgery and chief of the Division of Transplantation and Eli A. Friedman, MD, distinguished teaching professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Renal Disease Medicine. Dr. Friedman founded the first federally funded dialysis program in the country and is the inventor of the portable dialysis machine called the “suitcase kidney.” Dr. Distant is chair of the board of directors of the New York Organ Donors Network.
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