MEP GROUP FOR KIDNEY HEALTH DINNER SEMINAR CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE - ORGAN DONATION AND TRANSPLANTATION TUESDAY, 6TH MARCH 2012, 18H30 SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES FRIEDA BREPOELS MEP, CHAIR OF THE MEP GROUP FOR KIDNEY HEALTH Throughout her career, Frieda Brepoels has acquired political experience at various levels: from municipal over provincial to Flemish and Belgian federal level. Since 2004 Frieda Brepoels has been a Member of the European Parliament. In the previous term (2004 2009), Frieda was Member of the Committee on Public Health. She is currently Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and of the Delegation for relations with Japan as well as the Delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly. Furthermore, she is a substitute on the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries. Health issues are of great interest to Frieda: as well as being Chair of the MEP Group for Kidney Health, she is Vice-Chair of MEPs Against Cancer II and Vice-Chair of the Alzheimer Alliance in the European Parliament. She has hosted various conferences on health topics including organ donation and transplantation and cross border healthcare. PROFESSOR NORBERT LAMEIRE, CHAIRMAN OF EKHA Professor Norbert Lameire, born in 1940, graduated from the University of Ghent, Faculty of Medicine in 1965 and subsequently received his training in internal medicine and nephrology at the same faculty and the University Hospital from 1965-1970. In 1975 he finished his PhD thesis with a study on the distribution of intrarenal blood flow studied with radioactive microspheres in the Laboratory of Normal and Pathological Physiology of the Faculty of Ghent. He performed a research training in the Renal Division of the Texas Medical
School in San Antonio, USA from 1975-1976. After his appointment to full professor of Medicine 1991 at the Medical Faculty of Ghent, he became Chief of the Renal Division at the University Hospital from 1996-2005 and was Chairman of the Department of Medicine from 1999-2004. He is Emeritus Professor of Medicine since October 2005 at the Medical Faculty of the Ghent University. Because of his activities in the Renal Sister Programme of the ISN and his leadership of the Renal Disaster Relief Task Force, he became Doctor Honoris Causa at the Kaunas Medical Academy in Lithuania and was awarded a Honorary Membership of the International Society of Nephrology. He was a member of the ISN Executive from 2002-2005 and is responsible for the worldwide CME programmes of the ISN Global Outreach programmes since 2006. He was awarded with the Price of Internal Medicine of Dr Schamelhout-Koettlitz from the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine (1985) and received an Honorary Award from the American National Kidney Foundation in 2000. Professor Lameire was member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases and has been deputy editor of Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation from 1999-2005 and editor in chief of the journal from 2005-2011. He is Editor in Chief of the Acta Clinica Belgica, the journal of the Belgian Society of Internal Medicine, Clinical Biology and Clinical Chemistry since 1997. He is chairman of the European Kidney Health Alliance since January 1, 2012. RAYMOND VANHOLDER, CHAIRMAN OF ERA-EDTA Dr. Raymond Vanholder has published almost 700 papers, including reviews and book chapters, on adequacy of dialysis, uremic toxicity and various topics related to clinical nephrology. He serves as a member of the editorial review board of several journals and is subject editor of Nephrology Dialysis and Transplantation. Up till autumn 2010, he has been chairman of the European Uremic Toxin Work Group (EUTox) and member of the Executive Board and treasurer of Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO). Up till summer 2011 he was member of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the European Renal Association - European Dialysis and Transplantation Association (ERA-EDTA) and chairman of the European Renal Best Practice (ERBP), the guidance body of ERA-EDTA. Before that, he coordinated the European Best Practice Guidelines (EBPG) on hemodialysis. He chairs the Renal Disaster Relief Task Force (RDRTF) of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and in this function participated as member or coordinator in several international relief operations. Dr. Vanholder was founding president of the Belgian Society of Nephrology (BVN-SBN), is past president of the European Society of Artificial Organs (ESAO) and current president of ERA-EDTA. 2
PROFESSOR DANIEL ABRAMOWICZ, HEAD OF RENALTRANSPLANTATION PROGRAM, ULB, BRUSSELS Daniel Abramowicz, MD, PhD is professor of nephrology and head of the renal transplantation program at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium where more than 2300 renal transplantation have been performed. Dr. Abramowicz has completed a doctoral thesis in 1994, on "Induction of transplantation tolerance in mice". He is author and co-author of more than 200 articles dealing mainly with immunosuppressive regimens in renal transplantation, that have been published among others in Transplantation, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, American Journal of Transplantation, and Kidney International. Dr. Abramowicz is Subject Editor for Transplantation for Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation and is member of the editorial board of Transplantation. He was a member of the expert group that issued the European Best Practice Guidelines on renal transplantation in 2000 and 2002, and is now member of the European renal Best Practice advisory board of the ERA-EDTA. He chairs a working party commissioned by the European Renal Best Practice advisory board to update the European guidelines on renal transplantation. PROFESSOR YVES VANRENTEGHEM, CHAIRMAN DEPARTMENT OF NEPHROLOGY, KU LEUVEN Yves Vanrenterghem, MD, PhD received his MD degree in 1973 from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. At present he is Chairman of the Department of Nephrology and Professor of Medicine at the University Hospitals of the KU Leuven. Between 1993 and 2008 he was a member of the Board of Eurotransplant International of which he was the President between 1996 and 2005. In 2008 he received the title of Honorary President the Eurotransplant International Foundation. Previously he was Treasurer of the European Society for Organ Transplantation and member of the Scientific Committee of the EDTA Registry. Professor Vanrenterghem has been Subject Editor of Nephrology Dialysis and Transplantation (NDT), member of the editorial Board of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases and Associate Editor of the American Journal of Transplantation. At present he is member of the editorial Board of Transplantation and of Transplantation Proceedings. Between 2006 and 2010 he was the European representative in the Council of the Transplantation 3
Society as well as the Deputy Chairman of the Global Alliance for Transplantation. Between 2005 and 2009 he was a Member of the Board of Directors of KDIGO. In 2008 he received the International Distinguished Medal of the American National Kidney Foundation. He has been the principal investigator of several international multicenter trials on new immunosuppressive agents after kidney transplantation. His current research focuses on new immunosuppressive drugs and risk factors affecting long-term renal allograft outcome. MARIANNE VLASWINKEL Mrs. Marianne Vlaswinkel was born on 2/5/1954 and grew up in a cosy family on a farm. She thinks back with joy to her childhood. After high school she studied for nurse with a focus on nursery and children care at the Deventer Hospital and the Extramural Healthcare Community College at Hengelo, Overrijssel. Afterwards she worked for years as a local nurse. Then she further studied for VO nursing specialist in youth healthcare and took up a position as nursing specialist with the care group Oost-Gelderland youth healthcare 4-18, for the GGD region Achterhoek. Mrs. Vlaswinkel has two adult daughters and two adorable grandsons. Because of her kidney disease she had to start dialyzing in 2005. In this period her husband was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Despite their positive attitude he passed away in November 2007. On the 26th of June 2008 she received her new kidney and with it, a new life. She had new energy, so she resumed her activities as volunteer and started doing sports again. She concluded by saying that Every day I think about how lucky I was that I could receive a new kidney and cherish the fact that everything is going all right. FRITS ENGEL Mr. Frits Engel is 58 years old and he is married with Margriet since 1975. Since one year they own, together with his son Remko and his daughter Anilka, the outdoor sport shop Kompas Outdoor World in Heerhugowaard, nearby Alkmaar. Before that he was manager within the bank ABN AMRO. On the 26 th of June 2008 his life was enriched in donating a kidney to his friend Marianne. For Marianne the quality of life has improved enormously and his life stayed at an unchanged high level. He stated that In short it was a win-win situation for the both of us. 4
DOMINIK SCHNICHELS, DG SANCO HEAD OF UNIT SUBSTANCES OF HUMAN ORIGIN AND TOBACCO CONTROL Dominik Schnichels is Head of Unit in the European Commission. His unit (Sanco D/4: Substances of Human Origin and Tobacco Control) is responsible for the European legislation on human organs. Dominik joined the Commission in 1995, where he worked in the competition and trade departments before joining DG Sanco in 2011. In DG Competition he was a.o. responsible for the large scale pharmaceutical (2008-2009) and energy (2005-2007) sector inquiries. Before joining the Commission he worked in an international law firm. Dominik is a lawyer by training and has published a number of books and articles on European law. MARK MURPHY, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN KIDNEY PATIENT S FEDERATION Mark Murphy is the Chief Executive of the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) for over 12 years. He has over 25 years personal experience as a career of Patients with End Stage Renal Disease. The IKA is the kidney patient organisation in Ireland which supports the growing needs of the 3,500 people who are affected by kidney disease and are being treated by dialysis or have received a kidney transplant. The IKA promotes Organ Donor Awareness to the public at large on behalf of the Irish Donor Network. It lobbies the health service and department of health for improvements to patient options. He has been an advocate for Organ Donor Awareness Campaigns through the medium of sport. Mark is the Vice President of the European Kidney Patients Federation (CEAPIR) where he is an active participant in the European Kidney Health Alliance based in Brussels. He is Secretary of the European Transplant and Dialysis Sports Federation (ETDSF). He has served as a member of the World Kidney Day Steering Committee for the International Federation of Kidney Foundations. He has also completed his 4 year term of office as a Council Member of the World Transplant Games Federation (WTGF). 5