A Message from the President (May 2015)

Dear Members of APSN,

Following the disastrous earthquake in Nepal on 25th April members of the Nepalese Society of Nephrology (NSN) have been grappling with the inevitable cases of rhabdomyolysis. According to ISN's Renal Disaster Relief Task Force (RDRTF) and scouts from Médecins Sans Frontières the renal aspects of the disaster have been handled extremely well, with good co-ordination by NSN and a very high standard of quality medical care. So far the cases of AKI requiring dialysis or conservative therapy and the necessary redeployment of some chronic dialysis patients has been managed very well by our Nepalese colleagues and has not required any help from the many members of APSN who volunteered their assistance. Vivek Jha and Oommen John are developing a short web version of the Crush guidelines which will be freely accessible.

Thanks are due to Masaomi Nangaku and his committee for a very active APSN CME program this year. The meeting in Brunei in April was a great success, and meetings are planned for June in Japan, August in Thailand and China in November. Each of these meetings is being supported by APSN, with substantial contributions from the host society. Young nephrologists from developing countries are being sponsored to attend each of the meetings.

The Website Committee has had its first meeting and has commenced plans to upgrade the website and add resources to it, including CME, content that should be useful to all members of APSN.

Several applications have been received from societies wishing to host the 2018 APCN. A decision will be made by Council at the end of this year.

The 2019 WCN will be held either in Asia Pacific or the Middle East. Expressions of interest have been called for, applications will be invited for submission by August and a decision will be made towards the end of the year.

Plans are well under way for the 2016 APCN which will be held in Perth in September. The Scientific Program Committee has made good progress in designing what should be a first-rate scientific program, with much to offer all Asian Pacific nephrologists. If you haven't already done so, mark the date in your calendar and start making arrangements to visit Perth!

Yours sincerely

David Harris