Post submitted by Joesph Lunyera, GIM Post-Doc Fellow.
The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) hosted the Annual Kidney Week Meeting last week, Tuesday, October 31 - Sunday, November 5, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Drawing more than 13,000 kidney professionals from across the globe, this premier meeting provides a unique opportunity for kidney disease researchers and clinicians to exchange knowledge (via oral and poster presentations), and to nurture professional relationships. This year’s Kidney Week meeting also featured some new events (see below), and several of us from Duke GIM participated in many of these events!
To highlight but a few, on Friday afternoon our division chief Dr. Boulware moderated a session on “Patient and Stakeholder Engagement in Advancing Renal Research and Improving Renal Outcomes” and Dr. Diamantidis moderated another session on “Context is King: Neighborhood and Social Networks as a Risk Factor for Chronic Disease.” The program committee selected Boulware and Diamantidis to moderate these sessions because of their reputation as thought leaders on these topics. During the Neighborhood and Chronic Disease session, Diamantidis highlighted an on-going investigation by our group on the role of psychosocial factors and chronic kidney disease outcomes within the Jackson Heart Study (JHS). She noted that the ASN community was very intrigued by the topic of social networks and chronic disease. Other presentations from Duke GIM included results from one of our on-going investigations in the JHS on vitamin D and chronic kidney disease outcomes (see picture); and preliminary data from the U Change AKI study – a patient safety educational program led by Diamantidis.
One of the exciting new events at this year’s Kidney Week was the Communities Lounge, which ASN introduced to foster engagement, collaboration and connection among ASN members and Kidney Week participants. As part of my service on ASN’s policy and advocacy committee, I co-hosted one of the communities lounge – the Advocacy Hub – on Friday afternoon. The aim of the Advocacy Hub was to inform the ASN community about the policy and advocacy committee’s efforts on Capitol Hill this year, and to highlight the potential impact of these policy issues on the care of individuals with kidney disease and funding for kidney research. I look forward to attending next year’s Kidney Week meeting, which will be held in San Diego around the same time.