Chairman:
Paolo Schena

Participants: Lawrence Agodoa and Camille A. Jones of USRDS, Stanley Fenton of CORR (Canada), Takashi Akiba of Japan Registry, Alex S.P. Disney ANZDATA (Australia), Nelson Mazzuchi of SLANH Registry (Uruguay), Friedrich K. Port of USA, Douglas Briggs of EDTA Registry (UK), Es Will and David Ansell of UK Renal Registry.

Dr. Schena opened the meeting thanking the participants for coming. He provided the agenda and an outline of the goals of the meeting.

The Punta del Este report was presented by FK. Port and was approved without modifications.

Dr. Schena described efforts over the last 4 years to develop an "International Federation of Renal Registries" and the goals achieved in the previous meetings: Sydney, San Antonio, Philadelphia and Punta del Este. He presented the design of a web site for the IFRR. The web site will have: information about IFRR activities, methodological recommendations, links with the different international and national registries, and links with nephrological societies. The registries that have more than 80 % ascertainment of patients should be listed on the web site. He proposed to start the web site and he was willing to head this effort.

Dr. Schena presented a draft document of the constitution of the International Federation of Renal Registries (IFRR).

The name and the goals of the organization, defined in previous meetings, were confirmed.

The requirements to come a Member of the Federation were discussed and it was established that the chairmen of the national and international renal registries and investigators in renal epidemiology may be Members of the Federation. All members of renal registries and nephrology societies may apply for membership.

The composition of the Federation Board, which is the executive body of the Federation, was defined. Three ex-officio members namely: the President, the Vice-President and the Secretary. Six ordinary members complete the Board. The duration of the position was established in three years with one possible reelection for other three years. The appointment of the members of the Board was established.

The characteristics of the General Assembly and the amendments to the IFRR Constitution were defined.

The meeting concluded with the following agreements:

1. The Constitution of the International Federation of Renal Registries (IFRR) was approved.
2. The following provisional Board was elected: Lawrence Agodoa, Takashi Akiba, H. Bergrem, Douglas Briggs, Alex S.P. Disney, Stanley Fenton, Nelson Mazzuchi (Secretary), Friedrich K. Port (Vice-President), and Paolo Schena (President). The members of this provisional Board shall serve for two year - terms.
3. The web site for the IFRR will be developed (by Dr. Schena).
4. The Board may choose to form additional small working groups. These groups will be charged to define the methodology of mortality, morbidity and quality of life analysis.
5. Multi-center prospective observational international studies will be proposed to present in the next scientific meeting of the IFRR. Facilities with adequate data collection and attested accuracy should be selected at random.
6. The IFRR will approach ISN for financial support.
7. The next meeting will be arranged during the next ASN meeting in Toronto.
8. The next scientific meeting will be a Satellite Symposium of the Congress of the International Society of Nephrology, which will take place in San Francisco in the year 2001.