Kidney Biopsy Course for Pathologists and Nephrologists in Dubingiai
I am happy this opportunity to report on the Kidney Biopsy Course for Pathologists and Nephrologists which took place on 21-25 of June, 2006, in Dubingiai, Lithuania. I also would like to thank the ERA-EDTA and ISN COMGAN CME and Renal Sister Program for sponsoring the event and making it happen. The course was dedicated to the 225th Anniversary of the Medical Faculty of Vilnius University.
We aimed to provide an interactive training in most clinically relevant issues of renal pathology for renal pathologists and clinical nephrologists from the EU and neighboring countries of the Baltic region. The program consisted of short lectures covering major topics in renal pathology and sessions for interactive case discussions.
We succeeded in reaching our goals and received a very positive feedback from the participants. Formal questionnaires revealed almost exclusively excellent evaluation of all aspects of the Course and the lectures. We also received many informal comments on the high quality of the Course and excellence of the speakers. Most of all, I would like to emphasize the contribution of the outstanding speakers – Professors Peter Kotanko, Norbert Lameire, Helmut Rennke, Raymond Vanholder, and Jan Weening. It was their brilliance that created the high level teaching atmosphere. In particular, I am very happy that my (as a former ISN Fellow) mentor Prof. Helmut Rennke was able to participate. Being a rare guest to Europe, he was a real discovery for our audience.
We have allocated a significant proportion of time for interactive case discussions to highlight clinico-pathologic aspects of kidney pathology. Audience reply system was used and was very helpful in maintaining interactivity during the course. Participants from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine presented their own cases. It was a good exercise in making a presentation and a good representation of the “flavor” of kidney biopsy diagnosis in each country.
Fifty participants from 8 countries (Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine) attended the meeting. The majority of the participants were nephrologists, however, most of the countries were represented by the pathologists actively involved in renal biopsy diagnosis too. As a matter of fact, many of the pathologists met for the first time at Dubingiai. We understand that we need to enhance our regional communication and go on with the idea of further networking and a similar clinico-pathologic “Dubingiai Course” in the future. We appreciate that the ISN and ERA-EDTA have the same idea of networking and are in position to promote it.
Three days of intensive training concluded with a Midsummer Night Party in a Lithuanian tradition.
Arvydas Laurinavicius, M.D.
Chair of the Local Organizing Committee
Director of the National Centre of Pathology and
Associate Professor at the Medical Faculty of Vilnius University
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