Nephrology Kudos 2018
B-UMC Tucson ranked #50 in the nation for nephrology: https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/az/university-of-arizona-medical-center-6860516
[NOTE: Click images to enlarge.]
Multidisciplinary Stone Clinic
The Divisions of Nephrology and Urology have just started a Multi-disciplinary Stone Clinic that involves specialists from nephrology, urology and nutrition working together to provide the best possible care for patients in Southern Arizona with kidney stones. Initial funding for the clinic comes from a Banner Best Use grant that was submitted by Drs. Sireesha Koppula and Benjamin Lee. The clinic will be led by Drs. Sangeetha Murugupandian and Bijin Thajudeen from Nephrology and Drs. Benjamin Lee and David Tzou from Urology. The goal of the clinic will be to provide a comprehensive one stop service for the prevention and treatment of kidney stones. A special emphasis will be placed on teaching, training, clinical research and the use of the latest most effective technologies
Patient Panel
Jackie May, a nurse practitioner in the Division of Nephrology hosted a chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end stage renal disease (ESRD) patient panel. The goal of the panel was a focus on patients learning from other patients. The panel comprised a variety of people living with kidney disease, or who had been touched by kidney disease, and included kidney donors, transplant recipients and dialysis patients. The panel was attended by about 40 people, including patients, care givers, nurses, dieticians and coordinators. We hope that this panel will be the first of many in Southern Arizona and we hope to extend this model to other parts of the state and region.
Plenary Session on Early Stage Renal Disease at Southwest Neprology Conference
Dr. Sangeetha Murugapandian delivered an outstanding plenary session lecture at the annual Southwest Nephrology Conference in Phoenix on October 6, 2018. Sangeetha spoke on the topic of “Modality Choice for Older Patients with ESRD”. Both Drs. Murugapandian and Thajudeen were also on the planning committee of the Southwest Nephrology Conference. Dr. Murugapandian, who is dually trained in both Nephrology and Geriatrics will also be setting up a dedicated Geriatric Nephrology clinic. She has also been appointed as the Associate Program Director for the Nephrology fellowship.
Invited Presentation by Dr. Chong at the LSU Transplant & Access Symposium in Shreveport
Dr. Chyi Chyi Chong was invited to be a faculty member and speaker at the Transplant and Access Symposium that was hosted by Louisiana State University, Shreveport.
Fellows Survival App
Dr. Hannah Tiu created a Nephrology Fellow Survival App with detailed information available at the tips of your fingers! Specific modules include administrative (hemodialysis units/community groups/hospital wards), therapeutic (CKD/Dialysis/Transplant/Glomerulonephritis/AKI) and informational (NKF Blog/Library) information.
Invited Chapters
Drs. Thajudeen and Murugapandian have been invited to write a chapter for the second edition of Chronic Kidney Disease edited by Kimmel and Rosenberg. The chapter focuses on “Novel Therapies for Chronic Kidney Disease”. Dr. Frank Brosius will be writing a chapter on “Diabetic Kidney Disease” in the same book.
American Society of Nephrology Annual Meeting, San Diego 2018
Members of the Division of Nephrology were extremely active during the recent American Society of Nephrology meeting in San Diego. This is the largest nephrology gathering in the world with almost 13,000 nephrologists registering for this meeting.
- Dr. Erica Bracamonte: 6 Pathology pre-course lectures
- Dr. Akinlolu Ojo: 4 posters
- Dr. Titi Ilori: 1 poster
- Dr. Amy Sussman: 1 poster
- Dr. Lance Bechtold: 1 poster
- Dr. Frank Brosius: Symposium Moderator and poster
- Dr. Diego Celdran-Bonafonte and team: 2 posters
- Dr. Prabir Roy-Chaudhury: 2 symposium presentations/ASN TV Interview/Moderator/5 posters/1 oral communication
Dr. Lance Bechtold was the lead presenter on a poster on IgA Nephropathy at the American Society of Nephrology, annual meeting in San Diego.
Dr. Diego Celdran-Bonafonte, Assistant Professor in the Division of Nephrology presenting a poster at Kidney Week 2018. Diego was also appointed as the Chair of the VA IACUC (institutional animal care and use committee) and is a member of the University of Arizona IACUC.
Tom Jan, Clinical Research Coordinator in the Division of Nephrology had a poster and also manned a booth at the Annual Advice Conference organized by the Arizona Department of Health.
Interim Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplant
Thanks to Dr. Lavanya Kodali for performing an outstanding job as the interim director of kidney and pancreas transplant from October 2017 to September 2018. Lavanya shouldered this additional responsibility with confidence and style and strengthened the 100+ kidney program at the University of Arizona.
Welcome to our New Transplant Nephrologists
An enthusiastic welcome to our new medical director of kidney and pancreas transplantation, Dr. Angelo DeMattos and to Dr. Pablo Loarte Campos who is joining as an Assistant Professor of Medicine/Nephrology.
Nephrology Teaching and Training
Dr. Amy Sussman continues to lead educational activities within the College of Medicine at a divisional (Fellowship Training Program Director), departmental (Vice Chair for Education) and institutional (Director of the 3rd year medical student elective) level.
ASN Councilor and KHI Recognition
Dr. Prabir Roy-Chaudhury was elected as a Councilor at Large of the American Society of Nephrology starting January 2019. The 8 member council serves as the apex leadership group of the 20,000 member strong American Society of Nephrology (ASN) which is the largest professional nephrology organization in the world. Dr. Roy-Chaudhury was also recognized at an ASN plenary session for his leadership of the Kidney Health Initiative, a public-private partnership between ASN and FDA, over the last 6 years.
Academic Productivity
Since January 2018, faculty in the Division of Nephrology have published over 20 manuscripts and have delivered over 30 invited presentations all over the world.
Download a copy:
Nephrology Kudos 2018 Newsletter
From left to right: Dr. Diego Celdran-Bonafonte, Dr. Sireesha Koppula, Dr. Amy Sussman, Dr. Bijin Thajudeen, Dr. Frank Brosius, Dr. Prabir Roy-Chaudhury
Recent achievements, lectures, and appointments by Nephrology faculty and staff:
Diego Celdran-Bonafonte, DVM, MSc, PhD:
- Promoted to Research Assistant Professor
- Appointed to IACUC committees at the UA and the VA
- Appointed as chair of the VA IACUC Committee
Sireesha Koppula, MD, MPH, MBA, CPE, CMQ:
- Selected for the Banner Advanced Leadership course
- Appointed as the Associate Chair for Outpatient Quality for the Department of Medicine
- Click here to read more about Dr. Koppula's involvement with the new Kidney Stone Clinic opening in July.
- Awarded the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award.
- Successful enrollment of a patient in a clinical trial involving innovative cell based therapy for preventing progression of CKD (NCT02836574).
- Visiting professor at the University of Utah, Salt Lak City
- Delivered the Shavelle Lecture at UCLA
Prabir Roy-Chaudhury, MD, PhD:
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Delivered the “Henry Lecture” at the Vascular Access Society of the Americas (VASA) meeting on May 12th, 2018
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Appointed to the Board of Directors of the Vascular Access Society of the Americas
- Has delivered or will be delivering the following lectures during the first half of 2018:
- Dialysis Vascular Access: from Pig to Patient to Policy, Controversies and Updates on Vascular Surgery, Paris, France, January 2018
- Tripartite Collaborations for Vascular Access Care: An alphabet Soup of LDO’s, VAC’s and HPO’s, ASDIN Annual Meeting February 2018
- Health Economics and the Use of Early Cannulation Grafts, ASDIN Annual Meeting, Industry Breakfast presentation, February 2018
- Dialysis Vascular Access: Biology, Technology and Process of Care/Policy, GangaRam Hospital, New Delhi, India, March 2018
- Sudden Cardiac Death in ESRD Patients: Lessons from the MiD Study, Max Saket Hospital, New Delhi, March 2018
- Dialysis Vascular Access, Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai, India, March 2018
- A Kidney and Vascular Pot Pourri, Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital, Nadiad, India, March 2018
- Patient Centered Innovation in Kidney Disease, 40 year Celebration Session of the Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital, Nadiad, India, March 2018
- Findings from the MiD study on Sudden Cardiac Death, Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital, Nadiad, India, March 2018
- Dialysis Vascular Access: of Biology, Technology and Process of Care 2018, Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital, Nadiad, India, March 2018
- Do Fistula’s Mature: If, When and How Often, the Henry lecture, Vascular Access Society of the Americas, New Orleans, May 12, 2018
- The Kidney Health Initiative, Vascular Access Society of the Americas, New Orleans, May 11, 2018
- From the Kidney Health Initiative to Kidney X: A Call to Action for Kidney Disease, Opening Plenary at the ASAIO meeting, Washington DC, June 2018
- Listed as an author on the following 2018 publications:
- Shenoy S, Allon M, Beathard G, Brouwer-Maier D, Dember LM, Glickman M, et al. Clinical Trial End Points for Hemodialysis Vascular Access: Background, Rationale, and Definitions. Clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN. 2018;13(3):490-4. doi: 10.2215/CJN.13321216. PubMed PMID: 29487092.
- Saum K, Campos B, Celdran-Bonafonte D, Nayak L, Sangwung P, Thakar C, Roy-Chaudhury, P et al. Uremic Advanced Glycation End Products and Protein-Bound Solutes Induce Endothelial Dysfunction through Suppression of Kruppel-Like Factor 2. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2018;7(1). doi: 10.1161/JAHA.117.007566. PubMed PMID: 29301761; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5778969
- Beathard GA, Lok CE, Glickman MH, Al-Jaishi AA, Bednarski D, Cull DL, et al. Definitions and End Points for Interventional Studies for Arteriovenous Dialysis Access. Clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN. 2018;13(3):501-12. doi: 10.2215/CJN.11531116. PubMed PMID: 28729383.
- Allon M, Imrey PB, Cheung AK, Radeva M, Alpers CE, Beck GJ, et al. Relationships Between Clinical Processes and Arteriovenous Fistula Cannulation and Maturation: A Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study. American journal of kidney diseases : the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation. 2018. doi: 10.1053/j.ajkd.2017.10.027. PubMed PMID: 29398178.
- Alpers CE, Imrey PB, Hudkins KL, Wietecha TA, Radeva M, Allon M, et al. Histopathology of Veins Obtained at Hemodialysis Arteriovenous Fistula Creation Surgery. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN. 2018; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5619951.
- Cheung AK, Imrey PB, Alpers CE, Robbin ML, Radeva M, Larive B, et al. Intimal Hyperplasia, Stenosis, and Arteriovenous Fistula Maturation Failure in the Hemodialysis Fistula Maturation Study. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN. 2018; PubMed PMID: 28710091; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5619966.
Research and grants:
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Drs. Roy-Chaudhury and Diego Celdran Bonafonte received a 1.5 million dollar Fast Track SBIR for the National Institute of Aging
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Drs. Diego Celdran-Bonafonte and Dr Roy-Chaudhury are co-investigators on a 70K BIO-5 grant awarded to PI Dr Eleonara Tubaldi from Aerospace Engineering, to develop a work flow for AF Fistula analysis in mice