US medical students are rejecting kidney careers

Can America stop the kidney brain drain?

2011-05-08

(Press-News.org) Kidney disease affects 1 in 9 US adults, and by 2020 more than 750,000 Americans will be on dialysis or awaiting kidney transplant. Despite this growing health problem, every year fewer US medical students adopt nephrology as a career, according to a review appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN).

The review by ASN Workforce Committee Chair Mark G. Parker, MD (Division of Nephrology and Transplantation, Maine Medical Center) and colleagues highlights the declining interest of medical students in the US in nephrology. The authors propose ways to increase interest in nephrology so the US trains a sufficient number of kidney professionals to provide the growing demands of this public health crisis.

Dr. Parker explains that, "in medical school, students primarily work with hospitalized kidney patients, whose care is the most complex and daunting. And many students believe nephrologists to be overworked and underpaid." Nephrology is actually higher paid than a number of specialties, including rheumatology and hospital medicine.1 In a survey completed by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) in 2010, 95% of nephrology fellows indicated they are happy with their career choice.2

Although talented international medical graduates have historically contributed substantially to the US nephrology workforce, it is increasingly difficult for international medical graduates to obtain visas for the US, and this compounds the problem created by decreasing US medical students' interest in nephrology.

"We must work together to find a way to develop, improve, and market what we know to be a rewarding, stimulating, and fulfilling career," said ASN Councilor Bruce Molitoris, MD, FASN, chair of the ASN's Task Force on Increasing Interest in Nephrology Careers (Indiana University School of Medicine, Nephrology).

ASN has begun to implement strategies to inspire interest in nephrology among US medical graduates. Dr. Parker explains that "ASN will help provide stimulating experiences for trainees, nurture outstanding educators, and use social media to encourage the next generation of students to learn about the importance of kidney disease and the satisfaction many nephrologists derive from improving kidney care."

ASN will improve efforts to recruit women and minorities, currently underrepresented in the nephrology physician workforce. Gains were made by females, Hispanics, and African Americans entering nephrology fellowships from 2002 to 2009. However, the increases by Hispanic and African American nephrology fellows still trailed gains made by other medical subspecialties.

### Study co-authors include Dr. Mitchell Rosner, MD, FASN (Division of Nephrology, University of Virginia); Dr. Molitoris; Rachel Shaffer and Tod Ibrahim (American Society of Nephrology).

The authors will present their findings at the Seventh Annual Association of American Medical Colleges Physician Workforce Research Conference on May 5-6 in Maryland.

Disclosures: The authors reported no financial disclosures.

The article entitled, "The Future Nephrology Workforce: Will There Be One?" will appear online at http://cjasn.asnjournals.org/ on May 5, 2011, doi 10.2215/CJN.01290211.

ASN Kidney News, the society's newsmagazine, also covers this topic in the May issue entitled, "The Nephrology Workforce Crisis."

The content of this article does not reflect the views or opinions of The American Society of Nephrology (ASN). Responsibility for the information and views expressed therein lies entirely with the author(s). ASN does not offer medical advice. All content in ASN publications is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, drug interactions, or adverse effects. This content should not be used during a medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health care provider if you have any questions about a medical condition, or before taking any drug, changing your diet or commencing or discontinuing any course of treatment. Do not ignore or delay obtaining professional medical advice because of information accessed through ASN. Call 911 or your doctor for all medical emergencies.

Founded in 1966, and with more than 12,000 members, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) leads the fight against kidney disease by educating health professionals, sharing new knowledge, advancing research, and advocating the highest quality care for patients.

1 Leigh JP, Tancredi D, Jerant A, Kravitz R. Arch Intern Med. 2010; (19): 1728-1734.
2 American Society of Nephrology Training Program Directors Executive Committee. 2010 ASN Survey of Nephrology Fellows, June 2010.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Protein keeps sleep-deprived flies ready to learn

2011-05-08

A protein that helps the brain develop early in life can fight the mental fuzziness induced by sleep deprivation, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "It's interesting that NOTCH, a protein that plays such a prominent role in development, also has important functions in the adult brain," says senior author Paul Shaw, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology. "To our surprise, we found if NOTCH activity is boosted in the brains of sleep-deprived fruit flies, the flies can continue to stay sharp and learn after sleep deprivation. ...

Energy Digital and Energy Exposition Announce Partnership in Gillette, Wyoming

2011-05-08

Energy Digital and Energy Exposition announces their partnership for Energy Exposition 2011, which is taking place June 15th to June 16th. Energy Exposition 2011 is where 250 companies from 32 States and 2 Provinces exhibited last year, bringing with them upwards of 1,000 exhibitors and drawing a crowd of 4,500 people from the oil & gas industry and general community. The Energy Exposition is free and open to the public over the age of 18. With very reasonable booth fees and a relaxed atmosphere, the Expo is a valuable and affordable investment for everyone from small ...

Cigarette smoking and arsenic exposure: A deadly combination

2011-05-08

Arsenic exposure and smoking each elevate the risk of disease. But when combined together, the danger of dying from cardiovascular disease is magnified, a new study finds. Exposure to high or even moderate levels of the toxin arsenic through drinking water can elevate the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, according to a new study published in British Medical Journal. Exposed individuals who smoke were hit with a dangerous double whammy: a combined mortality risk that exceeded the influence of either factor alone. "Cigarette smoking is pervasive all over the ...

Research to target untested rape kits

2011-05-08

HUNTSVILLE, TX -- Researchers at Sam Houston State University and the University of Texas at Austin will team up with representatives from the criminal justice system in Houston to establish protocols to determine when sexual assault kits need to be tested by crime labs. "This is a problem-solving project that seeks to determine why so many kits are not being tested," said Dr. William Wells, who is leading the research project at Sam Houston State University. "The goal is to create appropriate solutions that can be implemented and to determine if there are ways that forensic ...

BMI differences: The immigrant equation

2011-05-08

(Edmonton) The obesity problem plaguing Canadians is a story heard frequently these days. For Katerina Maximova, making connections between the rising body mass index, or BMI, among native-born Canadian versus immigrant children has been the focus of a recent study. In a journal article recently published in the Annals of Epidemiology, Maximova, an assistant professor with the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, analyzed data from approximately 6,400 low-income children in an inner-city Montreal neighbourhood who were followed for more than five years. ...

Study gives clues to how obesity spreads socially

2011-05-08

TEMPE, Ariz. – Obesity is socially contagious, according to research published in the past few years. How it is "caught" from others remains a murky area. But findings from Arizona State University researchers published online May 5 in the American Journal of Public Health shed light on the transmission of obesity among friends and family. Shared ideas about acceptable weight or body size play only a minor role in spreading obesity among friends, according to the findings published in the article "Shared Norms and Their Explanation for the Social Clustering of Obesity." "Interventions ...

Parental exposure to BPA during pregnancy associated with decreased birth weight in offspring

2011-05-08

OAKLAND, Calif., May 5, 2011-- Parental exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) during pregnancy is associated with decreased birth weight of offspring, compared with offspring from families without parental BPA exposure in the workplace, according to Kaiser Permanente researchers. The observational study is published in the current online issue Reproductive Toxicology. Researchers explained that there was a greater magnitude of decrease in birth weight in children whose mothers were directly exposed to high BPA levels in the workplace during pregnancy, followed by those whose ...

Researchers propose 'whole-system redesign' of US agriculture

2011-05-08

Transformative changes in markets, policy and science, rather than just incremental changes in farming practices and technology, will be critical if the United States is to achieve long-term sustainability in agriculture, according to a nationwide team of agriculturists that includes a University of California, Davis, animal scientist. The team's recommendations, first published as a 2010 report by the U.S. National Research Council, appear as a Policy Forum piece in the May 6 issue of the journal Science. Lead author on the paper is John Reganold, Regents Professor of ...

Tests show new biosensor can guide environmental clean-ups

2011-05-08

Tests of a new antibody-based "biosensor" developed by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science show that it can detect marine pollutants like oil much faster and more cheaply than current technologies. The device is small and sturdy enough to be used from a boat. Testing of the biosensor in the Elizabeth River and Yorktown Creek, which both drain into lower Chesapeake Bay, shows that the instrument can process samples in less than 10 minutes, detect pollutants at levels as low as just a few parts per billion, and do so at a cost of just pennies per sample. ...

Dr. Knight Offers Interactive Where Does it Hurt Online Tool

2011-05-08

The Hand and Wrist Institute, the leading hand specialist experts in the State of California now offers a "Where Does It Hurt" tool on their website, www.handandwristinstitute.com. The Hand and Wrist Institute is a medical center that focuses primarily on the surgery of hands and wrists. This institute is backed by Dr. John T. Knight, one of the top medical experts in the field of hand and wrist surgery. Dr. John T. Knight is a board certified Orthopedic Surgeon who oversees the operations of the Hand and Wrist Institute at DISC to ensure that all of their ...

Adolescent boys who experience violence have up to 8 times the odds of perpetrating physical and sexual intimate partner violence that same day, per South African study collecting real-time data over

Critically endangered hawksbill turtles migrate up to 1,000km from nesting to foraging grounds in the Western Caribbean, riding with and against ocean currents to congregate in popular feeding hotspot

US medical students are rejecting kidney careers

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: