History of dialysis in the UK: c.1950-1980 The transcript of a Witness Seminar held by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, London, on 26 February 2008

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<p><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Dialysis, the first technological substitution for organ function, is significant not only for the numbers of patients who have benefited. It contributed to the emergence of the field of medical ethics and the development of the nurse specialist, and transformed the relationship between physicians and patients by allowing patients to control their treatment.<br style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Open Sans";" />This seminar drew on participants’ recollections of dialysis from the early, practically experimental days after the Second World War, when resources for research were scant, until the 1980s when it had become an established treatment. Pioneers from the first UK dialysis units recalled the creation of the specialty of nephrology amid discouragement from renal physicians and the MRC, which felt that the artificial kidney was a gadget that would not last.<br style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Open Sans";" />International and interdisciplinary collaborations, and interactions between with industry and clinics in developing and utilising the specialist technology were emphasized. Patients, carers, nurses, technicians and doctors reminisced about their experiences of home dialysis, its complications and impact on family life, as well as the physical effects of surviving on long-term dialysis before transplantation became routine.</span></p>