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The Divisions of Nephrology continues its efforts to produce well-rounded nephrologists able to treat a myriad of problems in patients with acute renal failure, mild renal insufficiency, end stage renal disease, and transplantation. The Medical Center's Artificial Kidney Unit continues to provide acute dialysis for 8 to 20 inpatients per day. Continuous renal replacement therapy is now performed in all ICUs, and a third PRISMA machine has been added to the AKU inventory. The dialysis unit at the Jackson Medical Mall now includes 35 dialysis chairs, which has increased the capacity to 140 hemodialysis patients, and can now better accommodate the increased demand. The size of the home training program has more than tripled during the past three years to include a total of 34 new peritoneal dialysis patients and three hemodialysis patients. Nephrology teaching programs have been developed at all levels of the Medical Center and in the community. To better prepare nephrology fellows for caring for ESRD patients, the second year of fellowship includes year-long, longitudinal experiences in the care of home training patients and in-center hemodialysis patients. Conferences are presented monthly on renal transplantation, and weekly nephrology review courses are available for fellows. A conference focused on lupus nephritis is being held six to eight times each year in conjunction with the Division of Rheumatology in order to improve the care of these patients. The division has three NIH-funded, investigator-initiated grants, one grant-in-aid from the American Heart Association, and a grant from Amgen, Inc. Junior staff members are being mentored in the development of research programs tied to the delivery of inpatient, ICU, and outpatient care. Collaborations are underway with several basic science departments to facilitate research cooperation and efforts to build the base for translational research. The Nephrology Training Program admitted four new fellows for the 2003-2004 training year from approved positions by the ACGME Residency Review Commission. Michael Flessner, MD, PhD, is the John D. Bower Chair of Nephrology and Hypertension, and serves as director of the division. Specializing in patients with chronic kidney disease and end stage renal disease, he has specific interests in promoting home hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis in Mississippi. Chair of the department’s Research Council, Flessner was awarded a second grant from NIH to study the effects of sterile, non-biocompatible peritoneal dialysis solutions on peritoneal tissue. He also continues his NIH-funded study of new treatment techniques for metastatic ovarian carcinoma, and an American Heart Association grant to study fundamental transport in the interstitium. Kent Kirchner, MD, serves as Assistant Vice-Chancellor for VA Affairs at the Medical Center and Chief of Staff at the G.V. ("Sonny") Montgomery Department of Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center. The most recent addition, Christopher LeBrun, MD, has taken over the teaching of bedside ultrasound to nephrology fellows and serves as program director for the Nephrology Training Program. He oversees the nearly 40 hemodialysis patients in the Jackson Medical Mall unit. An active researcher, Abdulla Salahudeen, MD, has two grants to study the cold storage of kidneys and use of an erythropoietin analogue to decrease ischemic damage in cadaver kidneys. Director of the Jackson Medical Mall Dialysis Unit, Mahmoud Salem, MD, received tenure this year. He carries out an initiative to examine the quality of care of the dialysis patients. Associate Vice Chancellor for Graduate Medical Education, Shirley Schlessinger, MD, serves as head of the Mississippi Organ Procurement Agency as well as head of renal transplantation. The Medical Center's Chief of Medical Staff for the past year, she has recently been elected as a councillor representing Region 3 on the UNOS Board of Directors. | ||||
