BC Renal leadership and staff are delighted to learn our executive director Dr. Adeera Levin will be the recipient of the 2024 International Society of Nephrology (ISN) Jean Hamburger Award. As a global professional association, ISN is dedicated to advancing kidney health, reducing the burden of kidney disease and providing optimal care. 

The award recognizes outstanding research in nephrology with a clinical emphasis and was established in memory of Dr. Jean Hamburger, an early practitioner of clinical nephrology and founding president of ISN.

In addition to leading BC Renal, Dr. Levin is a professor of medicine and head of UBC’s Division of Nephrology, medical lead of Integration of Clinical and Academic Networks with Providence Health Care, and co-principal investigator with the national Can-SOLVE CKD Network.

Awarded the Order of Canada in 2015, Dr. Levin’s prior teaching and research awards include:

Dr. Levin’s expertise extends beyond kidney care. In recent years, she was tasked with establishing the province-wide Post COVID-19 Interdisciplinary Clinical Network (PC-ICCN), which embeds education, clinical care and research.

Jo-Ann Donner, an ISN coordinator who works closely with Dr. Levin, says, “Adeera has transformed global nephrology, leveraging her role as ISN president from 2015 to 2017 to found, coordinate and create the ISN-Global Kidney Health Atlas, the ISN Research Working Group and the first ISN Advancing Clinical Trials consortium.”

She adds that Dr. Levin conceived the first ISN research consensus conference defining kidney failure for clinical trial outcomes, held in Vancouver in 2020 at the Wosk Centre for Dialogue. She also notes Dr. Levin is in the process of planning a similar conference for November 2024, also in Vancouver, which will look at changing the paradigm of clinical trials in nephrology. 

“Adeera has fostered and enhanced research in nephrology globally, in so many different ways, but always with the goal of ultimately improving clinical care. She has over 680 research publications and has trained and mentored over 100 individuals,” says Jo-Ann.

She continues, “I have had the pleasure to work with Adeera since 2016. She is an investigator and research leader whose personal skills, intellect and drive have resulted in major and sustained care-changing impact. She goes to great lengths to ensure the patient perspective is considered and valued.”

When asked how kidney disease became the focus of her professional career, Dr. Levin says she had some great mentors in medical school and residency, who excited her about physiology and holistic approaches to clinical care.

Dr. Levin continues, “Kidney disease is about long-term relationships with patients and families, complex physiology and how kidney disease impacts so many organs, so understanding that complexity while establishing long-term relationships with people made nephrology a great choice for me career-wise.”

About clinical research, Dr. Levin says it’s intended to inform best care for patients, and that guides her approach. This means she regularly asks the question, ‘Can this work lead to improved outcomes for people living with kidney disease?’

Reflecting on the ISN Jean Hamburger award Dr. Levin says, “I am very humbled to join the list of international leaders who have received this award, and also recognize that while I’m receiving it as an individual, all of the work I have ever done, has been done by teams – patients, research assistants, colleagues, methodologists, students, residents, fellows and other researchers. I am happy to receive this on behalf of the great teams I have been a part of. This is in recognition of OUR work, and I thank the ISN.”

BC Renal congratulates Dr. Levin and the other recipients of ISN 2024 Awards for Excellence in Kidney Care and Research:

Award recipients will be recognized at the ISN World Congress of Nephrology, April 13-16, 2024 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Learn more about their accomplishments on this ISN web page.