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By Adam Bernstein / The Washington Post

George Schreiner, a Georgetown University medical school nephrologist who was a leading figure in the study of kidney disease and dialysis, died April 12 at Sunrise assisted living in Reston, Va. He was 89.

Schreiner had Alzheimer’s disease. The death was confirmed by his son, William Schreiner.

Schreiner served on the Georgetown faculty from 1951 to 1987, when he was named a distinguished professor of medicine. He was a top clinical researcher in the technique of hemodialysis, employing an artificial kidney, and showing its effectiveness in prolonging the lives of patients with end-stage renal disease.

In the 1960s, Schreiner helped start a Georgetown fellowship program for nephrologists. In the 1970s, he was a key player in successful efforts to secure federal payments for kidney dialysis and organ transplants.

Schreiner wrote for professional journals and book chapters, and he was a past president of the American Society of Nephrology, the International Society of Nephrology, the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs, and the National Kidney Foundation. He received many professional honors.

While leading the National Kidney Foundation in the early 1970s, Schreiner helped orchestrate a national campaign to encourage adults to carry a Uniform Donor Card that allowed physicians to use the holder’s organs for transplantation or other medical purposes.

The card followed passage of the Anatomical Gift Act of 1968. “Several years ago we recognized that, as transplants become more feasible, there would be a shortage of suitable donors,” Schreiner told the New York Times in 1970. The card makes it possible for a doctor to act without having to find the next of kin.

George Elmer Schreiner was a native of Buffalo, N.Y., and he was a 1943 graduate of Canisius College there. He graduated in 1946 from Georgetown University’s medical school, followed by a fellowship at New York University’s medical center under the noted renal physiologist Homer Smith. He served in the Army Medical Corps during the Korean War.

His wife of 58 years, Joanne Baker Schreiner, died in 2006. Their son Robert died in infancy in 1957.

Survivors include seven children, George Schreiner, of Los Altos Hills, Calif., Mary Schreiner, of Manhattan, N.Y., Meredith Maclay, of Great Falls, Va., William Schreiner, of Reston, Va., Sara Kendall, of University Place, Wash., Peter Schreiner, of Ojai, Calif., and Lise Salmon, of Mill Valley, Calif.; a sister; 19 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

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