BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO)  welcomes new volunteer leaders for 2016. The New Year brings KDIGO four new Executive Committee members and a new Co-Chair.

KDIGO, a Belgian foundation in the public interest, is governed by an elected  volunteer Executive Committee and led by two Co-Chairs. It is also comprised of  1,000 volunteers from around the world who are part of its Global Network who have all played significant roles through KDIGO Work Groups, Steering Committees, Controversies Conferences and other volunteer positions. Evidence Based Clinical Practice Guidelines are KDIGO’s core business.

The new Co-Chair of the organization is Dr. Wolfgang C. Winkelmayer, Professor of Medicine, and the Gordon A. Cain Chair of the Section of Nephrology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, USA. He has served as a KDIGO Executive Committee member since 2015.

Dr. Winkelmayer Becomes Co-Chair

Dr. Winkelmayer is a native of Vienna, Austria where he earned his M.D. degree and went through internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship. He subsequently earned M.P.H. and Sc.D. degrees in health policy and management from Harvard University and served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for eight years. Starting in 2009, he spent five years on the faculty of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California where he was Director of Clinical Research in Nephrology. He joined Baylor College of Medicine in 2014, where is remains an active clinician and prolific clinical investigator. He is also an Associate Editor for Nephrology for the Journal of the American Medical Association and a Co-Editor of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases and serves on numerous editorial boards.

Dr. Winkelmayer succeeds Bert Kasiske of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who served as KDIGO Co-Chair for six years.

Dr. David Wheeler, University College, London, continuing Co-Chair said, “We are delighted to welcome Wolfgang to our leadership. He brings a broad range of expertise and a global perspective, both of which will be of great value to the organization. We are deeply indebted to Bert Kasiske, our outgoing Co-Chair. Bert has provided strong leadership and clear direction over the last 6 years. He will remain involved with KDIGO over the next few years.”

New Executive Committee Members

Four new members of the KDIGO Executive Committee have been recruited from the global nephrology community. Each brings a fresh perspective that will help the organization in the planning of future clinical practice guidelines and controversies conferences, and in using KDIGO resources to aid clinicians and patients around the world. They are:

• Ali Abu-Alfa of Lebanon
• Jürgen Floege of Germany
• Ziad Massy of France
• Zhi-Hong Liu of China

These new members add to KDIGO’s volunteer leadership expertise in treatment, research and teaching. They will join the continuing members of the Executive Committee:

• Olivier Devuyst of Switzerland
• Andrew Levey of the United States
• Roberto Pecoits-Filho of Brazil
• Angela Wang of Hong Kong
• Brian Pereira of the United States
• Yusuke Tsukamoto of Japan
• Christoph Wanner of Germany

KDIGO’s work plan for 2016 includes publishing a guideline on the Care of the Living Kidney Donor, launching a new guideline on Transplant Candidate Selection, and updating three guidelines on Mineral and Bone Disorder, Hepatitis C, and Blood Pressure Management. KDIGO will also hold Controversies Conferences on Common Elements in Uncommon Kidney Diseases, Challenges in Clinical Trials in Nephrology, and on the Transition from Stage 4 to Stage 5 CKD. Additionally, KDIGO will launch a series of Controversies Conferences on the Kidney, Heart, and Vasculature; the inaugural meeting will focus on the role of kidney function in the incidence and treatment of heart rhythm disorders. KDIGO will also continue to hold Clinical Practice Conferences focused on implementation of KDIGO Guidelines and Controversies Conference conclusions around the world.

KDIGO is a Belgian foundation committed to developing and implementing nephrology guidelines that improve patient outcomes on a global basis.

For further information please contact KDIGO at [email protected].

# # #