An annual event focused on recent developments in kidney disease prevention and treatment
Miami, Florida Wednesday, January 15, 2020 — The National Kidney Foundation of Florida, Inc. and Alessia Fornoni, M.D. Ph.D., Professor and Chief, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine were proud to present this year’s John E. Cunio, M.D. and John R. Richardson, Jr.,M.D. Memorial Lecture, an annual event focused on new developments in the prevention and treatment of kidney disease. All members of the medical community are invited to attend. The 2020 Cunio Lecture formally took place on January 15 of this year.
About the John E. Cunio, M.D. and John R. Richardson, Jr., M.D. Memorial Lecture
Dr. Richardson was a pioneer nephrologist in Miami. Trained at Emory and the U, his first mentor was Wm. Hulet, a trainee of Homer Smith. His ascendant career was cut short by colon cancer, leaving community of patients and colleagues who chose to honor his memory with a lectureship.
Dr. John Cunio was a Miami native and member of the second class in the the new U. of Miami Medical School, was likewise a much loved member of the nephrologic and medical community when he died shortly after his retirement. A lectureship in his honor was funded spontaneously. The two lectureships, which are administered by the National Kidney Foundation of Florida, were combined and continue to remind us of two unique physicians.
The 2020 Conference was led by guest lecturer, Karl Skorecki, MD FRCP(C), FASN. Karl Skorecki was born and raised in Toronto Canada and received his MD degree from the University of Toronto in 1977 with Gold Medal for highest overall standing in all courses. Between 1977- 1984 he pursued postgraduate clinical and research training in Internal Medicine, Nephrology, and Molecular Biology at the Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard in Boston. In 1984, he returned to the University of Toronto, where he went on to serve as Director of Nephrology and Professor in Medicine, Pediatrics, and Clinical Biochemistry. In January 1991, Skorecki and his family arrived to a Sabbatical at the Weizmann Institute, on the eve of the First Gulf War, and subsequently decided to move to Israel. In 1995 Prof. Skorecki joined Rambam Medical Center and the Technion’s Faculty of Medicine, in Haifa. Between the years 1995-2005, he served as Director of the Nephrology Department at Rambam, and until recently as Director of Medical and Research Development. In this position, working with colleagues in the Rambam leadership, he was responsible for medical staff recruitment, clinical and research program development, and major program and new initiative development. He also served as Director of the Rappaport Research Institute between 2000-2015, where he launched several major novel research programs in Stem Cell and Human Genetics Research, established the Institute’s technology transfer company, and oversaw doubling of the Institute’s research space and research operating budget. Prof. Skorecki currently serves as the Dean of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of the Bar-Ilan University in Safed, where he and his wife Linda now live.
