On the Continued Reconstruction of the History of Nephrology

Accessible online at: www.karger.com/journals/ajn The Third Congress of the International Association for the History of Nephrology (IAHN) was originally scheduled to be held on October 29 to November 1, 2000, in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, the disturbing events that began to unfold in Israel in the fall of that year necessitated the cancellation of the Congress the week before the anticipated meeting. While the initial intent was to reschedule the meeting in Jerusalem in the spring of 2001, the continuous and accelerating local turmoil soon made it evident that this would be an unlikely possibility in the immediate future. It was only then that another venue was sought in the summer of 2001. Professors Guido Bellinghieri and Vincenzo Savica of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Messina were kind enough to volunteer to host the Congress in Taormina, Sicily, on November 15–18, 2001. Regrettably, the short lead time available did not permit public announcements of the Congress and the limited available resources allowed only the presenters of the original program to be notified and invited. The Congress was held under the auspices of the President of Sicily Region, the Italian Society of Nephrology, the Minister of Health of Sicily Region, the University of Messina and its Faculty of Medicine, the President of the Province of Messina, the Mayor of Messina, the Order of Medical Doctors of Messina, AAPIT of the City of Messina and the Opera of the University of Messina. All were represented at the opening ceremony of the Congress. During the opening ceremony Honorary Membership Medals were presented to Professors Ori S. Better, Charles Kleeman, Silvana Favaro and Taddeus Orlowski. The meetings were held in the bucolic Hotel San Domenico in Taormina, Sicily. Appropriately, the hotel was once a Dominican monastery and center of learning for the preservation and reproduction of manuscripts, with its scriptorium and appropriate accoutrements. The sessions were held in what used to be the church of the monastery, and what used to be the altar served as the podium of the session chairs. The program of the congress, with a few exceptions, was the one developed for presentation in Jerusalem by the Program Committee of that meeting, consisting of Shaul Shasha, Shaul G. Massry, Ori S. Better, Natale G. De Santo, Garabed Eknoyan and Shmel Kotek. The IAHN was founded in 1994, in response to interest expressed at an International Conference on the History of Nephrology organized by Natale G. De Santo and held in Naples, Italy, on October 14–16, 1993. Subsequent congresses were held under the banner of the IAHN in Kos, Greece, on October 14–16, 1996, and in Padua, Italy, on October 4–7, 1998. The proceedings of those meetings have been published as the History of Nephrology 1, 2, and 3. The proceedings of the meeting in Taormina are now presented as the History of Nephrology 4, published as a bound volume as well as a special issue of the American Journal of Nephrology.