On the shoulders of giants. The story behind the ‘Pioneers of Nephrology’ project

This editorial introduces a series of interviews with the pioneers of Nephrology. It’s a story that speaks by itself, given the thousands of people that are now alive thanks to the remarkable advances in renal replacement therapies such as dialysis, and kidney transplantation but also the many scientific advances in our understanding of the pathophysiology and treatment of kidney diseases worldwide. The interviews that we have selected for this series are, however, not dealing with their achievements, and their success; they try to pass on to future generations the idea of how they were, why they were passionate, what they loved, and, not last, where they found poetry in our profession. At a time in which narrative medicine points out the importance of the different life experiences in understanding diseases, we would invite you to discover a narrative portrait of the men and women who made our discipline what it is now.