Dr. Willem Kolff: The Father of the Artificial Kidney.

Dr. Willem J. Kolff (February 14, 1911-February 11, 2009) is widely considered the father of dialysis. In addition, his innovations also included the artificial heart and lung, which earned him the title "the Father of Artificial Organs". In due course, his artificial kidney evolved into modern dialysis, a procedure that filters and purifies blood using an extracorporeal circuit, now a life-sustaining treatment for patients with end-stage kidney failure. Furthermore, his membrane oxygenator, which provided a method to add oxygen to blood as it passed through a machine, is still used in heart-lung machines during open-heart surgery. He is also known for his work in developing the artificial heart (although it now carries the name of his student, Dr. Robert Jarvik), which was used in subsequent designs, as a bridge to heart transplantation. Thanks to his work on the artificial kidney, millions of patients worldwide have benefited from life-sustaining hemodialysis. It can also be argued that Dr. Kolff's introduction of dialysis in 1943 marks the dawn of modern nephrology.