The curriculum will encompass rotations that will maximize the experience with patients that have glomerulonephritis issues.

Throughout the year, you work closely with consultants in:

• Nephrology (GN Clinic)
• Rheumatology (CTD Clinic, Vasculitis Clinic, Lupus Clinic)
• Renal Pathology
• Transfusion Medicine
• Immunology Lab
• Pulmonary Vasculitis Clinic

In addition to clinical rotations, you're expected to attend conferences for didactic teaching:

• Renal Biopsy Conference
• Nephrology Hypertension Grand Rounds
• Nephrology Journal Club
• CAP-TMA Meeting
• Nephrology Genomic board
• Monthly GN Rounds

Rotation schedules

Glomerular Diseases Fellowship

Glomerular Diseases Track

Rotation descriptions

Pulmonary Vasculitis Clinic

You have one week rotating in the Pulmonary Vasculitis Clinic. During this rotation, you rotate with a pulmonologist who specializes in vasculitis to get exposure to the extra-renal manifestations (mainly pulmonary findings) of systemic vasculitides that commonly affect the kidneys such as granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPO).

Renal pathology

You will have a four-week rotation in Renal Pathology. During this rotation, you will learn about basics of renal pathology and approach to reviewing a kidney biopsy. You will learn about the essentials of glomerular disease in renal pathology and specific manifestation of each disease on kidney biopsy. The diseases will include IgA nephropathy, post-infectious GN, MPGN, lupus nephritis (and associated classes), fibrillary GN, cryoglobulinemic GN, C3 glomerulopathy, membranous nephropathy, FSGS, minimal change disease, and monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance. You will also learn about the basics of reading immunofluorescence, and utility of pronase IF, in addition to basics of reading electron microscopy and utility of performing of mass spectrometry.

Research

You have specific time set aside for research that will span the year. You will identify a mentor in the area of interest and work with the mentor throughout the project. The goal is to produce abstracts and/or manuscripts from this work. The areas would include but are not limited to understanding the underlying pathophysiology of different glomerulonephritides, identifying the best therapeutic approaches in patient treatment, or finding novel biomarkers in diagnosing patients with glomerulonephritis (GN) by using samples through the GN biobanks.

Rheumatology (CTD Clinic, Vasculitis Clinic, Lupus Clinic)

You have a four-week rotation in the Division of Rheumatology. This rotation includes one week in the CTD Clinic, one week in the Vasculitis Clinic, and two weeks in the Lupus Clinic. The main goal of this rotation is for the trainee to get a broader understanding of extra-renal manifestation (such as joint, skin, cardiac, pulmonary) of diseases that commonly affect the kidneys in the setting of connective tissue diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, mixed connective tissue disease, undifferentiated connective tissue disease in addition to vasculitic diseases such as ANCA associated vasculitis or other small vessel vasculitides, as well as systemic lupus erythematosus and approach to their work up, differential diagnosis and management.

Transfusion medicine

You have two weeks rotating in Transfusion Medicine. During this rotation, the learner will rotate through the apheresis unit to learn the basics of performing plasma exchange and understand the indication for offering plasma exchange in patients with glomerular diseases.

Moonlighting

Moonlighting is permitted for fellows at the discretion of the program director. Moonlighting activities may be scheduled only during outpatient rotations. Moonlighting should not interfere with required learning and must not violate work hour rules. Moonlighting should not compromise education, but rather enhance it.

Evaluation

Competency-based electronic evaluations are completed by supervising faculty members after each clinical rotation. In addition, fellows evaluate the faculty and rotations to ensure that educational needs are being met.

Call frequency

During Glomerular Diseases Fellowship you're not required to take call.

Teaching opportunities

You're expected to present periodically at conferences including Grand Rounds, Journal Club, and Monthly GN Rounds.