The history of the ERA/EDTA. Memories of a former president

Vittorio E. Andreucci trained in Parma with Luigi Migone, one of the founders of the Italian Society of Nephrology, and then in the USA with Donald W. Seldin where he mastered renal micropuncture. Upon returning from the USA, he launched micropuncture in his own laboratory in Parma and then in Naples and helped promote micropuncture in other Italian research centres. In the early 1970s, he moved from Parma to Naples University to become full Professor of Nephrology. Many outstanding Italian nephrologists come from this school. Andreucci has been an innovator and a great manager as President of the European Renal Association–European Dialysis and Transplantation Association (ERA–EDTA) and of the Italian Society of Nephrology. During his presidency, Andreucci introduced nephrology as one of the missions of the EDTA (Figure 1). Under his leadership, the EDTA became the ERA–EDTA. Initially, this change in name encountered resistance from some members who considered the emphasis on renal diseases as competing with the main goals of the association, i.e. dialysis techniques, clinical dialysis and renal transplantation. Andreucci devoted his finest diplomacy to defending the new name, and time proved that his determination to extend the scope of the ‘EDTA’ to nephrology was a worthy endeavour. These ‘Memories of a Former President’ are instructive. They show that ‘One need not hope in order to undertake nor succeed in order to persevere’.