Program Description

The Stanford Pediatric Nephrology Fellowship is one of the oldest in the US. We currently train 2 fellows/ year for a total of 6 in the program at a time. Our goal is to train people to not just be competent clinical nephrologists and outstanding researchers but to be people who will be leaders in the field. We want to change the world.

We were just accredited for 5 years by the ACGME! We will be surveyed again by them in the fall of 2016.

Clinical

Your experience as a fellow is an intense first clinical year followed by 2 years where you can; 1) immerse yourself in some aspect of Pediatric Nephrology Research and 2) refine and mature your ability to lead a multidisciplinary team in the care of our patients.

The clinical experience includes exposure to and immersion in all aspects of inpatient and outpatient nephrology. We usually have one or two patients on CVVHD at any time. The inpatient service typically has 5-15 patients comprising our primary patients and consults. The inpatient team does on average 4 renal biopsies a week. We manage on average 20 dialysis patients-mixed equally between peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis. As of April 2007 we just opened a brand new outpatient Dialysis and Pheresis Unit, with 6 stations and state of the art equipment. The dialysis program is growing! We provide the plasmapheresis service for the hospital. We do 20 kidney transplants a year; many of whom have come from other referring programs to benefit from our expertise in managing infants with ESRD.

All of our inpatients are covered by senior and junior residents (The ‘Red Team’) so as the inpatient fellow you function in a collaborative and supervisory capacity with the ward team. On clinical months where you are not on service, you may function as the ‘Outpatient Fellow’, acting as the first line point of contact for referring physicians. You also serve as a consultant to the nurses serving our chronic patients (transplant, dialysis, and general nephrology). You will benefit and learn from their expertise in dealing with the problems of this population. Once a month all fellows participate in the dialysis clinic so you will see complications of dialysis develop over time and follow patients over the three years as they progress from CKD to dialysis and through to transplantation. You spend time in the transplant clinic during your ‘Outpatient Fellow” months. Over your 3 years you will develop a caseload of your own patients in your continuity clinic. When new referrals come in, the fellows review them to get ‘first crack’ at patients that are interesting or with problems you feel you need to expand your expertise on.

Education

• Two afternoons a week we have 2-3 hours of meetings.
• One general nephrology hour to discuss unusual cases and sort out and review the evidence and approach to the new consult requests.
• One Education hour, where we discuss a topic from the literature, have a formal presentation, do a journal club or have a core lecture.
• One post-transplant hour, where we discuss ongoing transplant patients, and complications
• One pre-transplant hour, where we discuss new transplant referrals and evaluations
• One1 Dialysis hour where we discuss the dialysis program, Quality Initiatives, patient problems etc.
• Once a week there is a combined adult and pediatric nephrology core lecture. These lectures cover the basics of nephrology and comprise a 1 year curriculum. The lectures repeat yearly so if you miss it the first time because you are on service or vacation you can get the lecture the following year.
• Every week at Fellow’s clinic we have a case presentation over lunch.
• Every Friday we have a 1 hour renal pathology review at noon and weekly signout rounds at 4 PM.
• We have other meetings which include M&M or team meetings as needed on other days. The goal is to ensure that your education is comprehensive and well rounded. You are strongly encouraged to take the yearly ‘in training’ Pediatric Nephrology Exam as a benchmark of your progress.

Research

During your first year we give you time to get to know the nephrology research community and determine your research focus for year 2 and 3. Even if you plan to be solely a clinical nephrologist, the time in the lab is invaluable to teach you to be an ‘authority’ on a nephrology topic and to learn an evidence based analytical approach that will serve you throughout your life as an academic physician. You are encouraged to pursue your interests in any basic or clinical science lab at Stanford. You are not required to limit yourself to Pediatric Nephrology or even Adult Nephrology labs for that matter. Recent fellows have worked in Bioengineering and with Cardiovascular Labs. Funding comes from multiple sources. We are participating with the Adult Nephrology Program in a T32 NIH Training Grant.

Colleagues

One of the special things about this program is that we have a large number of very strong fellows who come from all over the country. Fellows learn from each other and the enthusiasm is contagious. Fellows also develop very close relationships that will last a lifetime.

Family & Life

Stanford University and environment has tremendous opportunities for culture, sports and recreation. We are short drive or train ride from downtown San Francisco, one of the world’s great cities. To the West, there are beaches, miles of mountain trails to hike and surfing. To the East there is Yosemite… One of our current fellows has become an expert on weekend trips to the wine country… When he is not on call of course!

There are on-campus opportunities to rent while you are a fellow.

Financial

The hospital pays a competitive salary, you are entitled to 4 weeks vacation a year, health care etc. The hospital reimburses you for your California Medical License/Renewal, and DEA certificate fees while an employee. You receive a new cell phone/PDA on arrival.

• Stanford reimburses $3000.00 in moving expense/housing allowance
• You get $2000.00/year to pay for educational expenses (books, computers etc).
• You get $1000.00/year to pay for meals and mileage while on duty.
• Look at the fellowship handbook for more information.

Residency

• American Citizens or Green Card Holders. We can sponsor a J1 Visa.
• Unfortunately we are not able to sponsor fellows on an H1B visa.

Recent Outcomes

• Annabelle Chua, 2005. Assistant Professor, Baylor College of Medicine
• Marsha Lee, 2006. Asst. Professor, UCSF
• Lauren Weintraub, 2007. Asst. Professor, Fairfax Innova Hospital DC
• Sharon Su, 2008. Asst. Professor, Brown University
• Scott Sutherland, 2008. Clinical Instructor, Stanford University.
• Elizabeth Talley, 2009. Clinical Instructor, Stanford University and Oakland Children’s Hospital.
• Rouba Garro, 2010 Assistant Professor, University of Tucson
• Abanti Chaudhuri, 2010 Clinical Assistant Professor, Stanford University
• Maria Caimol, 2011 Pediatric Sub-Specialty Clinic Faculty, Providence Alaska Medical Center
• Lieuko Nguyen, 2012; One year fellowship; Pediatric Renal Transplant Clinical Fellow at Hospital of Sick Children Multi-Organ Transplant Center, Toronto, Ontario Canada
• Brad McClellan, 2012 Assistant Professor Pediatric Nephrology, University of South Alabama
• Gia Oh, 2013, Clinical Instructor, Stanford Universtiy
• Ha Tran, 2014, Clinical Instructor, Stanford University
• Orly Haskin, 2014, Attending Physician, Pediatrics, Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel

Pediatric Nephrology Fellowship at Stanford provides a unique experience to become a well rounded pediatric nephrologist and to develop your strengths and interests with ample support by the faculty and staff during the training. Our program allows one to quickly develop a rapport and relationship with all the attending staff which will allow the fellow to develop their clinical skills to their utmost potential. Research opportunities in this large institution abound.