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 Dear ASN Members and Colleagues:
There are currently several important activities underway right now at the ASN, as the New Year begins, and I wanted to take a few minutes of your time to share them with you.
Membership Reminder: Renewal of membership in the ASN is currently due. Thanks to your support, the ASN continues to expand services to members. The synopsis below highlights a few from the growing list of ASN-sponsored activities. Since dues support these activities, I am confident that you will renew your membership for 2006, and that you will encourage your colleagues and partners who are not members to consider joining in 2006.
Some of the more significant developments at the ASN in 2005 included:
- Significant expansion of public policy efforts to inform members of Congress and their staffers on the need for federal funding for kidney-related research and to voice ASN views to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on outcomes-based reimbursement. The latter initiative will be a major project as the Public Policy Board, already very active, becomes fully engaged.
- Increased funding of renal research via the ASN research grants program, providing over $2.3 million in research awards, more than four times the amount granted in 2000.
- The launch of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN) on the web has transpired and the first print issue was mailed to all ASN members in late December. See “Introducing CJASN,” below, for additional information about the ASN's new journal.
For 2006, ASN will continue to improve services provided to members and the entire renal community. Here are some examples of planned new activities for 2006:
- The ASN has entered into an agreement with the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) under which completion of examinations in each issue of NephSAP can be used to satisfy some of the requirements for Maintenance of Certification (MOC). ABIM diplomates enrolled in MOC will receive up to 80 MOC points for successful completion of exams in issues of NephSAP.
- During the year, the ASN will roll out a major new web-based information service for members. This information service will provide ASN members with short, timely summaries of recent developments in nephrology and general medicine, both in science and practice, and updates on public policy issues of interest to nephrologists.
- We will improve our online transcript service, making it easier for ASN members to track CME credits obtained through Society programs.
- We are committed to expansion of our research awards portfolio, and will develop new awards for early-career and more established investigators. Bridge funding and career development awards are crucial in the face of austere budgets for the NIH in FY 2006 and 2007.
Endowment Fund: One of the distinguishing characteristics of the ASN has been the support of bench and patient centered research in the area of renal disease. As mentioned above, the ASN awarded over $2.3 million in grant support in 2005, a four-fold increase over 2000. Despite this increase, there were many more worthy applications for funding in 2005 than we could support. The ASN has provided research grants as operating funds permit, but we now propose a significant increase in the total research endowment so that we may provide a consistent annual level of grant funding, independent of fluctuations in the ASN operating budget.
Our ideal is to step up to the plate in this challenging period of reduced federal funding by providing additional support. However, we can only increase grant funding with additional assistance from our membership.
For the first time, the ASN is offering an opportunity for members to make voluntary contributions to the Society's research endowment along with payment of membership dues. The ASN Council strongly encourages you to consider a contribution to the Society's research endowment when you pay your membership dues for 2006. The membership renewal form includes an optional contribution line. If each member of the ASN donates $100, we could increase our research grant portfolio by nearly $1 million. If each member donated $200, we could add nearly $2 million to the portfolio.
Contributors will be recognized on the ASN website and in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN) . The ASN will publish and periodically update a list of contributors on the ASN website and once annually in JASN.
Introducing CJASN: CJASN debuts – The web version of the new ASN journal, Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology or CJASN, is now available at http://www.cjasn.org. The new journal, which is a benefit of ASN dues, is published bimonthly. The inaugural issue should already be in your hands, along with the January issues of JASN and NephSAP.
CJASN focuses on clinical nephrology in the broadest sense including: clinical outcomes, the natural history of kidney diseases, chronic kidney disease, dialysis, hypertension, cardiovascular disease in the context of renal dysfunction, and diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in renal disease. Papers are published to the website before they appear in print. ASN members may sign up on the CJASN website to automatically receive the table of contents of each issue by e-mail. Manuscripts may be submitted electronically on the CJASN website.
These are just some of the activities taking place at the ASN. Please read on to learn about our upcoming Renal Week Highlights Meetings and other exciting events!
Happy New Year!
Sincerely yours,
Thomas D. DuBose, Jr., MD, FASN
2. 3rd Annual Renal Week Highlights
Registration is now available online (click here) for the ASN's 3rd Annual Renal Week Highlights Meetings, taking place this winter in a city near you! We have just extended our Early Registration Deadline until February 9, 2006, so register today and receive our early registration rate!
Expert faculty will summarize, critique, and put into perspective key presentations from Renal Week 2005 in Philadelphia. These "Renal Week Highlights" programs are perfect for those who could not attend Renal Week and for those November participants who were unable to attend these key presentations.
Join us in the city nearest you…
Chicago, February 11 – 12, 2006
Washington, DC, February 18 – 19, 2006
Los Angeles, February 25 – 26, 2006
Seattle, March 4 – 5, 2006
New York, March 11 – 12, 2006
Houston, March 18 – 19, 2006
Toronto, March 25 – 26, 2006
Click here for program and housing information.
3. Membership – Time to Renew!
ASN enjoyed a record membership year in 2005! The Society's leadership and staff extend their thanks to all those who remained ASN members or joined as new members in 2005.
During 2005, the ASN launched a new clinical journal (CJASN), entered into an arrangement with the ABIM under which completion of NephSAP examinations will be accepted as partial fulfillment of certain maintenance of certification requirements, added a CME transcript feature to the Society's website, and provided over $2.3 million in grants to support basic and clinical research. The ASN also stepped up efforts to garner additional NIH funding of kidney disease research, an increasingly important Society activity in these times of significant federal budget constraints. With your support in 2006, these programs and others can be sustained and enhanced.
Recently, all ASN members were mailed a 2006 renewal invoice with a US postage-paid return envelope. Please remember to renew promptly to avoid the inconvenience of having access to ASN journals and other benefits interrupted! If you have not yet received a membership renewal for 2006 in the mail, please contact the ASN via email at email@asn-online.org or by telephone at 202-659-0599.
4. ASN Awards Nomination Deadline: January 31, 2006
The deadline for all ASN awards nominations is Tuesday, January 31, 2006. Nomination letters should be faxed to 202-659-0599 or emailed to sowens@asn-online.org. Please see descriptions included below about each award. Note: Beginning in 2006, awards nomination letters will be limited to a total of 3 letters/per candidate. Additional letters will not be considered.
The John P. Peters Award: The John P. Peters Award recognizes individuals who have made substantial research contributions to the discipline of nephrology and have sustained achievements in one or more domains of academic medicine including clinical care, education and leadership.
The Belding H. Scribner Award: The Belding H. Scriber Award is presented annually to one or more individuals who have made outstanding contributions that have a direct impact on the care of patients with renal disorders or have substantially changed the clinical practice of nephrology.
The Homer W. Smith Award: The Homer Smith Award is presented annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions which fundamentally affect the science of nephrology, broadly defined, but not limited to, the pathobiology, cellular and molecular mechanisms and genetic influences on the functions and diseases of the kidney.
The Young Investigator Award: The Young Investigator Award is presented annually to an individual with an outstanding record of achievement and creativity in basic or patient-oriented research related to the functions and diseases of the kidney. This award is co-sponsored by the Council on the Kidney of the American Heart Association and is limited to individuals who are less than 41 years of age on the first day of the ASN meeting at which the award is presented *or who have received the M.D. degree not more than 15 years before the calendar year of the ASN meeting. (*The ASN Council approved this revised language in December 2005 to widen the eligibility pool of qualified candidates.)
5. ASN Seeks Editors-in-Chief for JASN and NephSAP
The ASN is seeking applications and nominations for the position of Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, the leading subspecialty journal in the discipline of nephrology. The new Editor-in-Chief will succeed Dr. William Couser and begin a 6-year term on July 1, 2007. For additional information about this position, please click here.
Letters of interest/nomination and a C.V. should be sent by February 8 to: Karen Campbell, Ph.D. Executive Director; The American Society of Nephrology;
1725 I Street, NW, Suite 510; Washington, DC 20006 or kcampbell@asn-online.org (email).
The ASN is also seeking applications and nominations for the position of Editor-in-Chief of the Nephrology Self-Assessment Program (NephSAP). Candidates for the position must be ABIM diplomates in Internal Medicine and Nephrology who have been active in the practice of the specialty and who have distinguished records as educators. For additional information about this position, please click here.
Letters of interest/nominations and a C.V. should be sent to the NephSAP Search Committee (email: rfulcher@asn-online.org) by February 17.
6. CME Credits
The ASN now provides an online record of CME credits. The ASN online transcript service allows you to review credit information and print a summary. All participants in our continuing medical education activities, including nonmembers, have access to their awarded category 1 credits by logging into the ASN website with their user ID and last name. For ASN members, the user ID is your ASN Membership Identification Number. The user ID is available by contacting the ASN at email@asn-online.org. Please note: the online transcripts module has replaced mailed certificates and should be used as the sole means of obtaining a record of your CME credits.
Renal Week Credits: Forms are being processed in the order they were received, beginning with forms that were turned in onsite in Philadelphia, forms mailed by the December 2, 2005 deadline, and finally, forms that are mailed after December 2, 2005. PGE credits are now available for attendees whose forms were received by the December deadline and
Annual Meeting credits are now being processed. All credits will be posted no later than February 28, 2006.
7. Endothelial Biology and Renal Disease: From the Bench to Prevention
Join the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) for its upcoming
Forefronts Symposium from March 16–19, 2006 at the IBM Conference Center in Palisades, New York. This forthcoming Forefronts Symposium has been crafted to provide the necessary balanced blend of topics and specially selected speakers to promote the acquisition of technical skills, as well as an in-depth appreciation of current concepts related to various aspects of vascular biology and pathobiology to be applicable to patients with renal disease – from the bench to prevention.
Program topics and speakers include:
- Endothelial cell cycle (William Sessa, Yale University, USA)
- Signaling in endothelial cells (Elisabetta Dejana, FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology, Italy)
- General mechanisms of endothelial dysfunction in renal disease (Bredford Berk, University of Rochester, USA)
- Clinical markers of endothelial dysfunction (Michael Lisanti, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA)
- Endothelial organelles (Alberto Nasjletti, New York Medical College, USA)
- Archidonic acid metabolites and their actions on endothelium
- Endothelial cross-talk with other cells (Rudy Busse, University of Frankfurt, Germany)
- Prevention of endothelial dysfunctions in renal diseases (Eberhard Ritz, Nierenzentrum, Germany).
To conjure up the perfect retreat style ambience associated with the International Society of Nephrology's Forefronts Symposia, this three-day meeting will take place at an IBM Conference Center, “Palisades”, situated in a most picturesque and peaceful location on the banks of Henry Hudson River, away from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan Island.
For the full program and to join us in New York for three unforgettable days of exciting scientific discourse and debate please visit: www.isn-online.org/forefronts.
Deadlines: Abstract Submission: January 20, 2006, Early-Bird Registration: February 10, 2006
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