STOPping peanut allergy: the saga of food oral immunotherapy

ISN also supports about 50 continuing medical education programmes a year in LMICs, providing international experts who supplement local speakers and also meet with local health-care leaders—sometimes health ministers—to assess needs and opportunities for nephrology and work out how ISN can contribute. The global outreach programmes are continuously assessed and improved using survey data and local feedback. They are oversubscribed, and selection for funding is based on objective criteria for the relevance of the proposal to the needs of the individual, the centre, and the country. In 2012, worldwide, ISN supported 48 fellows, 37 sister centres, 48 continuing medical education programmes, 16 educational ambassadors, and six research and prevention grants at an aggregate cost of just US$1·5 million, representing, in line with its mission, every spare dollar in the ISN budget (after running costs of the society were covered). The low costs are a result of reduced costs of staff and services in LMICs: ISN members gladly volunteer their time as teachers and trainers, travel in economy class, and stay in low-cost local accommodation, and sister centres and centres hosting fellows make creative use of their own budgets to benefi t their partners. The distribution of these ISN programmes funded in 2012 in Africa is shown in the fi gure. ISN will continue to develop these programmes as its top priority and will partner with any organisation with the same respect for the achievements in nephrology care of our colleagues in developing countries, and with the same commitment to supporting sustainable, transformational capacity building as the ISN. The results that the ISN aim for happen when committed LMIC leaders work with ISN leaders and volunteers, and when everyone involved understands that, although progress might be slow, patience and perseverance are rewarded. The ISN's model and achievements provide a meaningful answer to how medical care in developing countries might be improved. We recommend our model to other professional medical societies and to individuals who want to help make a real and lasting diff erence in health care in developing regions of the world.