Life as a Nephrology Professional

Episode 16: Pediatric Nephrology (Life as a Nephrologist Series)

I’m delighted to share a conversation we recorded between two wonderful people, Dr Patty Seo Mayer and Dr JJ Zaritsky. Dr Seo Mayer is Medical Director of Pediatric Nephrology at Inova Children’s Hospital and Pediatric Specialists of Virginia, and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. Dr. Zaritsky is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University and Chief of Pediatric Nephrology at Nemours duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE. They have an engaging discussion about pediatric nephrology as a newer field of medicine and describe the people who are drawn to it as naturally empathetic problem solvers.

Music by Scott Holmes “Follow Your Dreams” licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Episode 15: Rural Nephrology with Dr. Lisa Weber (Life as a Nephrologist Series)

Dr. Lisa Weber is a fascinating and extremely busy person, a nephrologist and dialysis medical director in Wichita, Kansas. Dr. Weber has a multifaceted career involving caring for CKD and transplant patients in the city of Wichita, and travelling to oversee dialysis clinics in the surrounding areas. She attended medical school at the University of Kansas and completed Nephrology Fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. We talk about some of the joys and challenges of practicing as a rural nephrologist and how she “wears a lot of hats” by necessity.

Music by Scott Holmes “Follow Your Dreams” licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Episode 14: Dr. Vanessa Grubbs (Life as a Nephrologist Series)

This episode is a conversation with Dr. Vanessa Grubbs, a nephrologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF. Dr. Grubbs went to medical school at Duke University, completed internal medicine residency at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, and nephrology fellowship at UCSF. She describes her true passions as renal palliative care and narrative non-fiction. We talk about these topics as well as racial disparities in the care of kidney patients, and her path to nephrology from primary care. Her book, Hundreds of Interlaced Fingers, a Kidney Doctor's Search for the Perfect Match, was published by Harpers Collins in 2017. It’s a memoir, a love story, and a gripping description of the experience of dialysis and kidney transplant patients all in one. She also has the enviable Twitter handle: @TheNephrologist.

Music by Scott Holmes “Follow Your Dreams” licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Episode 13: AJKD Editorial Internship (Life as a Nephrologist Series)

This is a conversation with the first cohort of interns from the American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD) new Editorial Internship Program. This one-year program is an opportunity for nephrology fellows to participate in journal editorial processes. 

The first year’s interns are:

Samantha Gelfand MD, University of Pennsylvania

Pascale Khairallah MD, Columbia University,

Devika Nair MD, Vanderbilt University,

Adrian Whelan MD, University of California at San Francisco

The application for the 2019-2020 internship is now open! Applicants need to be current first year neph fellows or second year fellows staying on for a third year, with an interest in academic writing and publishing.  

Music by Scott Holmes “Follow Your Dreams” licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Episode 12: Dr. Andy Bomback on Writing, being a Doctor, and Glomerular Diseases (Life as a Nephrologist Series)

Dr. Andrew Bomback is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University and a specialist in glomerular diseases. He is also a writer, having published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Atlantic, and The Kenyon Review, among others. His recently published book is entitled Doctor. It’s part of a series called Object Lessons - short books that are part memoir, part nonfiction, each looking at the ‘hidden lives’ of an everyday object or concept. We talk about that book as well as his thoughts on working as both a physician and a writer.

Doctor (Object Lessons) by Andrew Bomback https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/doctor-9781501338175/
https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Object-Lessons-Andrew-Bomback/dp/150133817X 

Music by Scott Holmes “Follow Your Dreams” licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Episode 11: The Residents' Perspective (Life as a Nephrologist Series)

In this episode I spoke with two internal medicine residents, Dr. Lena Vaynberg (Duke) and Dr. Sam Kant (University of Maryland) about their experiences with nephrology to date. They discuss what draws them to the field, including various works of literature and gaps in medical education, and explain the related work they’ve each been involved with so far. See a write up of Lena's "Project Nephron" here, the book and article Sam references here: 
Guns, Germs and Steel (Amazon)
The Heroism of Incremental Care (The New Yorker)

Music by Scott Holmes “Follow Your Dreams” licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

 

 

Episode 10: Dr. Mukesh Sharma - Interventional Nephrology

Dr. Mukesh Sharma is an interventional nephrologist in private practice who also works as an adjunct professor at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Interventional nephrology is a sub-specialization that enables the physician to perform a number of procedures related to creating and maintaining dialysis accesses (AV fistulas and grafts, and catheters). Dr. Sharma went to medical school in India before completing residency and fellowship at Louisiana State University. He shares some great career advice for those interested in interventional nephrology (and anyone, really!).

Music by Scott Holmes “Follow Your Dreams” licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Episode 9: Ani Chilingirian - Nephrology as a Medical Student (Life as a Nephrologist Series)

UCSF medical student Ani Chiligirian talks about her experiences to date and how they have sparked her interest in nephrology. She also explains the research she's working on as a 2018 NKF award recipient.

Music by Scott Holmes “Follow Your Dreams” licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Episode 8: Transplant Nephrology (Dr. Vera Delaney and Dr. Kelly Beers) - Life as a Nephrologist Series

In this episode we listen to a conversation between Dr. Vera Delaney, a transplant nephrologist, and Dr. Kelly Beers, a second-year nephrology fellow, both at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. Dr. Delaney lived and completed medical training (and a PhD) in Ireland and London before moving to the United States in the 1970s to pursue a nephrology fellowship. She talks about transplant nephrology as a subspecialty and the changes she has seen in the field over the past few decades. 

Episode 7: Choosing and Applying to Fellowship Programs (with Dr. Anthony Provenzano and Dr. Rachel Hilburg) - Life as a Nephrologist Series

This episode is a conversation between two first-year nephrology fellows, Dr. Anthony Provenzano at Duke University, and Dr. Rachel Hilburg at the University of Pennsylvania. We recorded it the weekend before they began their programs, and it is full of good advice (and enthusiasm)!

Music by Scott Holmes “Follow Your Dreams” licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0