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Professional dialysis recruitment| Lei-Shi Li - a giant in international nephrology |
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... http://www.nature.com/isn/news/soc_announ/fullview.html?content_id=74930 Lei-Shi Li - a giant in international nephrology Dr. Li was born in 1926 in Changsha City, Hunan Province, China. After he graduated from the National Zhong Zheng Medical College in 1949 in Nanjing, he interned from 1948 to 1949 at the National Central Hospital in Nanjing (currently called Jinling Hospital). Before dedicating himself to tropical medicine, he stayed at the National Central Hospital to receive three more years of resident training.In 1978, he separated kidney disease from general medicine as a new clinical discipline, and founded the Research Institute of Nephrology at Jinling hospital, launching the era of modern nephrology in China. He was one of the founders of the Chinese Society of Nephrology (CSN) and Vice President of CSN (1980-1998). In 1994, he became the first academician of the Chinese Academy of Science and Engineering in the field of nephrology.As a pioneer, he started a training program of nephrology at Jinling hospital. A key mentor, he edited the Primer on Kidney Disease in China, created a practical approach of percutaneous renal biopsy, published the diagnostic atlas of renal pathology, introduced peritoneal dialysis into clinical practice, and established hemodialysis under very difficult conditions. He integrated kidney transplantation into clinical renal practice, and performed kidney transplantations from 1993. He trained the first generation of nephrologists in China. Today, numberless trainees and fellows trained and inspired by Dr. Li have devoted themselves to renal practice and research not only in China but also around the world.Lei-Shi Li was the first to use the Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii to treat patients with glomerular disease in the late 1970s. After that, many studies explored the potent immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory properties of this drug, which is now used extensively to treat glomerulonephritis, lupus nephritis and organ transplantation. He was also first in using rhubarb to treat chronic renal failure and diabetic nephropathy. Dr Li introduced Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) for the therapy of lupus nephritis, as well as the innovative multiple-target therapy (steroid in combination with MMF and tacrolimus) for patients with lupus nephritis. Moreover, he introduced and developed the technique of continuous blood purification in China. Honored six times with the China National Science and Technology Progress Award, he became one of the top 100 doctors in China, publishing over 700 papers and 13 books, including the major textbook of nephrology in Chinese. Since 1992, he was the founder and editor-in-chief of the Chinese Journal of Nephrology, Dialysis & Transplantation, which has become one of the leading nephrology journals in China. Lei-Shi Li was not only central in developing nephrology as a modern clinical discipline in China, but also in uniting the Chinese nephrology community with the international renal world. He was one of the key founders of the Asian-Pacific Society of Nephrology, and the council member of the APSN (1985-1990). He was the first Chinese Council in the International Society of Nephrology (1990-1997), and an honorary member of ISN.For more than 10 years, he fostered a very active and successful ISN Sister Renal Center program with Dr. Lance Dworkin. The Research Institute of Nephrology at Jinling Hospital and the Division of Kidney Diseases and Hypertension at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University exchanged faculty, trained a large number of clinicians and physician scientists, jointly hosted international conferences, and conducted collaborative clinical and bench research. To recognize his important contribution to developing academic medicine at Brown, Lei-Shi Li was appointed Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University. Since 2003, he organized annual CME meetings entitled “Forefronts in Glomerular Disease-Nanjing Forum”, endorsed by ISN Global Outreach (GO) activities (formerly known as COMGAN).He was the organizing committee member of the international conference on continuous renal replacement therapies, and an Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong College of Physicians. He transcended international boundaries and political disparities to bring China into the larger global community and brought many international leaders of nephrology and medicine to China. In 1990, he successfully organized and chaired the 4th Conference of the Asian-Pacific Society of Nephrology in Beijing. This meeting was recognized as a symbol of exposure for the Chinese Society of Nephrology to the international renal community. Lei-Shi Li was a man of culture, wisdom and true humanitarianism, knowing the Western philosophy and mastering traditional Chinese values. His contribution and achievements impacted the lives of millions of people in China, as well as around the world. He is respected by his colleagues and friends, admired by all who worked with him and beloved by his patients. He will be sorely missed. Read an interview with Professor Li at the following link. This interview is provided courtesy of the Hong Kong College of Physicians. |
