Professor of Medicine, Chief, Division of Nephrology and Dialysis, Department of Medicine III, University Hospital of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Professor Bruno Watschinger, the nestor of Austrian nephrology, celebrated his 80th birthday on June 14, 2000.
He was born in Linz. Bruno Watschinger studied medicine in Vienna and Prague. In 1945 he received his medical diploma, followed by training at the Department of Pharmacology and at the Department of Medicine II in Vienna. In 1955 he was research fellow of Prof. W. J. Kolff at the Cleaveland Clinic. In 1960 Prof. Watschinger was elected as head of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Elisabethinen-Hospital in Linz until his retirement.
It was in 1955, when working as a postdoc in Dr. Kolff's laboratory, that Bruno Watschinger constructed the first usable dialyser, later called the Twin Coil. This dialyser marked the breakthrough for the world-wide use of dialysis as a clinically applicable procedure.
During his time at the Department of Pharmacology Bruno Watschinger was particularly interested in studying renal clearances, and later in the Department of Medicine, he was mainly involved in human studies looking at fluid and electrolytes in various diseases and in hypertension research.
It was the intention of Bruno Watschinger in the year after his return to Austria to inform European nephrologists on the new possibility to treat patients with acute renal failure and to save their lives through dialysis. Due to the pioneer work, intermittent haemodialysis was started in Austria as early as 1968.
For his achievements Bruno Watschinger received numerous honours including the following. He is an honorary member of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association and the Societies of Nephrology of Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Switzerland, and also of the Austrian Society of Internal Medicine. He received the "Grosses Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich", "Silbernes Ehrenzeichen des Landes Oberösterreich" and "Ehrenmedaille der Stadt Linz für Verdienste um die Humanität". He was the president of the EDTA-ERA Congress, Vienna in 1990 and the founder of the Danube Symposia.
On behalf of his many friends in Austria and abroad I wish him further enjoyment of an excellent health and I extend this wish to all members of his family.