Too Hot to Handle? Not all early nephrologists ‘fitted’ in the UK scene. Es Will describes four examples – unable to find the right niche here, they each worked abroad for much of their career. Why? Individual style and personality? Or perhaps the UK renal community should have done better to welcome them? Read on. ..
Too nice to resist? the use and abuse of pleasantries. Es Will considers how characteristics including pleasantries, charm and charisma influence our professional interactions. Read on….
An inadvertent place for ritual in renal replacement technologies: an unexpected exposure by historical clinical IT? Es Will points out that clinical computing was a valuable adjunct to haemodialysis from the 1980s onwards because it allowed documentation of the necessary repetition of a complicated but standardised clinical routine. In a non-medical context, such repetitive activity may be called ‘ritualisation’ and thinking of dialysis as ‘ritual’ has interesting social and healthcare implications for patients and staff. Read on……
Nephrological profit from Time to Tinker? Es Will & Nick Marks remind us of a definition of ‘tinkering’ as an intellectual and practical behaviour which has brought notable benefit to nephrology, for example in the development and refining of haemodialysis. Read on….
The glamour of the glomerulus? Es Will suggests that there may have been undue emphasis in UK renal medicine on the structure and function of the glomerulus. Read on …..
Shaping the UK renal unit archipelago Es Will reflects on the development of UK renal units over four decades, and suggests that ethnography is a helpful metaphor to understand the changes which have been occurring. Read on…..
On Salience Es Will argues that nephrology developed with an emphasis on treatment outcomes, and insufficient focus on patient care. Read more….
Seeing like a (Medical) Specialty. Es Will draws lessons about the evolution of nephrology in the UK and of the UK Renal Registry from his reading of the American political historian, James C Scott, who considered the historical features of attempts to transform societies by intransigent central authority, for example in Russia after the Bolshevik revolution. Es develops his ideas in three related essays: Transforming States and Clinical Specialties, Rationalised Registry Underperformance and The Evolution of Networking.
Last Updated on May 16, 2026 by John Feehally