Conferences
About Our Conference Schedule
We provide a full round of both weekly and monthly didactic programs and renal conferences for our fellows, and they are in integral part of our curriculum.
Weekly Conferences
Monday
Journal Club – Rotating division faculty lead a discussion about the most recent literature or provide a substantive review of their area of expertise within nephrology.
M&M - Quality improvement-focused conference, where faculty reflect on near-misses and/or process improvements, often leading to fellow-led quality improvement projects.
Renal Grand Rounds – Renowned faculty are invited on a monthly basis to present their cutting-edge work to our Division. We have hosted luminaries in the field from all over the world, nationally, and locally.
Tuesday and Wednesday
Clinical Nephrology and Dialysis curriculum – This conference is led by rotating faculty members and presents core topics in clinical nephrology and dialysis to the 1st year fellows.
Transplant curriculum – This conference is led by our Transplant Nephrologists and members of the BIDMC Transplant Institute, presenting core topics in kidney transplantation.
Glomerulonephritis curriculum – This unique conference is co-led by a clinical nephrologist within our Division AND a renal pathologist, presenting the clinico-pathologic features of the most commonly seen glomerulonephritides.
Transplant Intake meeting - Weekly conference amongst within the Transplant Institute, with discussions about new transplant, waiting list activations, and consideration for candidate listing.
Summer lecture series for fellows (July and August) - Interactive sessions dedicated to presenting "the basics" for a new nephrology fellow, highlighting aspects of common consult questions, dialysis-related issues (including peritoneal dialysis and CRRT), and renal pathology.
Thursday
Electrolytes curriculum – This innovative conference, led by Dr. Stewart Lecker (Training Program Director), utilizes a “flipped classroom” approach to present classic physiology literature and a guided exploration of the pathophysiology and management of each electrolyte abnormality.
Friday
Division Case Conference – This weekly conference features the nephrology fellows, presenting the most fascinating cases from the consult, dialysis, and transplant services, to the division. Faculty role model how to think about each case and debate diagnosis and management issues. The fellow then provides a brief review of the literature pertinent to the topic. Each conference typically features two different fellows, each presenting a case.
CVBR Work in Progress conference – Taking place in our research facility near Fenway Park (“Research North”), research faculty from the Center for Vascular Biology present their findings for further discussion in a lab meeting-type format.
Other conferences
POCUS conference – This conference features topics relevant to point-of-care renal ultrasound, including vascular access, basic echo, and kidney/bladder imaging, with handheld probes for each fellow.
Professors’ Rounds – Senior faculty from the Division lead an informal discussion amongst the fellows about interesting cases, clinical topics, or career advice.
Combined Nephrology-Urology case conference – Once every 3 months, the trainees from the Nephrology and Urology Divisions team up to present a collaborative case that highlights the overlap between the two specialties. While the trainees present the cases, the faculty debate the diagnosis and management.