? A generation ago, the management of patients with symptomatic stones was forever dramatically altered with the introduction of minimally invasive treatment such as shock wave lithotripsy, ureteroscopy and precutaneous stone removal. After many years of incremental improvements, the field of urolithiasis is on the cusp of, again, revolutionary discoveries in the management and prevention of kidney stone disease. In addition, there has been very few major international meeting that have focused on the new clinical and basic science discoveries in this field. Thus, the International Kidney Stone Institute (IKSI) believes the time is right to hold a symposium to address the clinical and basic science aspects of both kidney pathogenesis and treatment. Therefore, IKSI has organized and will host a symposium entitled """"""""the Ist Annual International Urolithiasis Research symposium"""""""" that will bring together forty clinical and basic science experts from around the globe to: 1) address the latest findings in nephrolithiasis, 2) examine a select group of state-of-the-art techniques that appear to have the potential to rapidly advance our understanding of how stone form and grow and 3) provide an scientific ? atmosphere to stimulate and challenge students and junior faculty members to consider a career in ? kidney stone disease. Another feature of this symposium is that a number of international scientists that have never participated in a symposium together will discuss kidney stone disease from their area of expertise. Finally, because the clinical and basic science topics relevant to kidney stone disease ? cross a number of disciplines, no one society has covered this field completely at their annual meeting. Therefore, in our view, there appears to be a critical need in the field of nephrolithiasis for a comprehensive international meeting that is conducted on a regular basis so that new data and ideas can be easily and rapidly shared with the goal of improving care for all kidney stone patients. ? ? ?
