The Latin America ISN Pioneer Award was presented to Dr. Jos? Carlos Pe?a on December 4, 2015 during the Instituto Mexicano de Investigaciones Nefrol?gicas (IMIN) meeting in Leon, Mexico.
ISN Pioneer Awards honor the ‘unsung heroes’ of nephrology. They reward doctors who have carried out extraordinary efforts to advance nephrology in a specific country or region.
Dr. Pe?a trained at the University of Michigans Department of Physiology, Harvard Medical School, and The Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. In 1962, he returned to the Hospital de Enfermedades de la Nutrici?n in Mexico City were he started programs in clinical nephrology, hemodialysis peritoneal dialysis, and renal transplantation.
His training program grew consistently with more than 70 Nephrology fellows from
Mexico, and 24 countries from Central and South America for the following 23 years. Simultaneously, he started the first and only micropuncture program in Mexico, and one of the first of this type in Latin America.
Pe?a became the first professor of a masters and PhD program in Medicine supported by the School of Graduates at the University of Mexico. He wrote the first book on nephrology and disorders of water and electrolytes in his country, which became the text used in the majority of medical schools in Mexico. In 1987, he also founded IMIN and the Board to Certify Nephrologists.
Seen as a pioneer in Mexican nephrology, his department has continued to flourish in research and trained many residents and fellows from Mexico and other Latin American countries who have been instrumental in developing nephrology around Latin America.
Find out more about these awards, CLICK HERE. Read about all the ISN awards and prizes HERE.