Renal specialists at Salford Royal have reached the top level of a prestigious international programme to share knowledge and skills with colleagues in developing countries.
The Sister Renal Centre scheme of the International Society of Nephrology pairs existing centres of excellence like Salford Royal renal department with renal units in low and middle-income countries that need extra resources and training. Starting in 2017, doctors and other staff from Salford have been working with the team at the University Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, donating their time for free to train and educate renal colleagues there. David Lewis and Dimitris Poulikakos from the Salford renal team travelled to Port Harcourt to help set up the first peritoneal dialysis programme in Nigeria, and a programme of work has now been designed to create a kidney biopsy service which had previously been lacking. Many other Salford team members have provided online training and CME via regular webinars with the Nigerian centre.
And their work has been so successful that the partnership has been upgraded to a level A, recognising that the emerging sister centre shows the most promising development towards becoming a centre of excellence itself. This means that Salford will now become a mentor centre while the staff at Port Harcourt will start to offer training and support to other centres in their region, spreading their learning and helping to improve patient care.
Professor Ibi Erekosima from Salford Royal, who led the partnership, said: “This is a huge success for our renal department in contributing to the advancement of global renal care, training, research and education. We are delighted that our work has been recognised as one the most successful partnerships in the International Society of Nephrology Sister Renal Centre programme.”
Professor Erekosima (pictured) has recently been appointed visiting Professor of Medicine and Medical Education to the University of Port Harcourt Medical School, Port Harcourt, Nigeria in recognition of his contributions to education and research. He has helped set up the postgraduate degree programme in medical education at the university.
He is also an Honorary Lecturer/Senior Clinical Teaching Fellow at The University of Manchester and an active member of the international committee of the UK Kidney Association supporting training, education, and research in low and middle-income countries.
As a Renal Physician, he provides general nephrology, pre-dialysis, and dialysis services at Salford with medical support to the satellite haemodialysis units in Rochdale and Oldham. His research interests are in pre-dialysis care, haemodialysis, and preventive nephrology with emphasis on early detection and screening of chronic kidney disease, and the links between cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension, presenting at international conferences and publishing in leading journals.
Professor Erekosima was awarded the internationally renowned Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) UK in recognition of his strategic influence as an educational leader in medical education in the UK and internationally.