Our curriculum provides fellows with training and experience in all aspects of clinical nephrology: Acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, hemodialysis, home hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, transplantation, sodium and water handling, potassium and electrolyte homeostasis, acid base disorders, divalent ion metabolism and metabolic bone disease, glomerular diseases, hypertension, tubulointerstitial and cystic kidney diseases, renal diseases in pregnancy, onco-nephrology, pharmacology of drugs in renal disease, ICU nephrology including continuous renal replacement therapy, interventional nephrology, geriatric nephrology, ethical issues in nephrology and renal pathology. We teach professionalism, ethical conduct and design of research and clinical projects.
Curriculum
Each year we send the senior fellows to the Columbia University Renal Biopsy Course at New York Presbyterian Hospital. This intensive four day course assembles some of the best speakers in the world focusing on glomerular, tubulointerstitial and vascular diseases of the kidney. Senior fellows attend the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) meetings with support for travel and registration fees. The first year fellow(s) go to a one day “renal boot camp” course designed to cover a variety of topics and provide essential information for a first year renal fellow. Fellows receive a core curriculum of didactic lectures (generally once weekly) designed to cover the full spectrum of clinical nephrology. Fellows attend one day courses throughout the year at various institutions in New York on a variety of subjects including CRRT, renal transplantation, peritoneal dialysis and glomerular diseases.
Fellows take part in journal club under the supervision of one of the faculty. We hold a weekly renal grand rounds with all clinical and voluntary faculty in addition to the Mount Sinai Hospital clinical nephrology conference and research conferences which are both video conferenced from Mount Sinai Hospital.
Our teaching model focuses on direct one to one supervision and mentorship by the faculty on the inpatient services. Patients are evaluated by the fellow and presented to the nephrology attending for initial evaluation and daily follow-up.
There are two primary inpatient rotations:
- Dialysis – all patients admitted to Mount Sinai Morningside with ESRD being treated by either hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or a transplant.
- Consults – non-ESRD patients for whom any primary team throughout the hospital requests consultative services in nephrology
We also care for patients admitted to Mount Sinai West. Fellows do not have a dedicated rotation at Mount Sinai West but cover nephrology patients there overnight and on weekends with attending supervision.
Fellows spend 1 month each year at Mount Sinai Hospital on the renal transplant service. We also follow a population of chronic renal transplant patients at Mount Sinai Morningside from which the renal fellows gain continuity experience. The senior fellows spend 2 weeks on the peritoneal dialysis service at Mount Sinai Hospital to supplement their exposure to PD.
Ambulatory experiences occur concurrently with inpatient rotations: half-day/week of renal continuity clinic, half-day/week of renal transplantation clinic and outpatient hemodialysis rounds at one of the chronic units.
We care for patients at several chronic dialysis units in Manhattan. Fellows are assigned to and follow a cohort of chronic hemodialysis patients on one shift at one of the units throughout the fellowship.