A physician who pioneered renal dialysis, and in particular home dialysis, has died recently.

Professor Stanley Shaldon (http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60174-4/fulltext) became a nephrologist almost by accident, and joined the renal unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London in the early 1960s. In 1966 he left the NHS to set up an independent National Kidney Centre, where he concentrated on providing dialysis outside a hospital setting, and training patients, and their relatives and friends, in the appropriate techniques, as well as training physicians from around the world in dialysis. He was largely responsible for the de-medicalisation of dialysis and empowering patients with a large degree of control over their treatment. Shaldon spoke about much of his career and the development of dialysis as a speciality, as did several other physicians, patients, nurses and others, in a Witness Seminar, that is freely available to read and download from History of Dialysis in the UK: c. 1950–1980.