Fellows are encouraged to attend teaching conferences held by these affiliated disciplines. In all inpatient and outpatient rotations, trainees are closely supervised by members of the sub-board certified nephrology faculty. Clinical research efforts are currently underway to establish noninvasive techniques applied to urine sediment from kidney allograft recipients for the diagnosis of acute transplant rejection in children. Participation of the fellows in these and other projects gives them the opportunity to learn clinical study design and renal pathology. The second, third and possibly fourth year of fellowship training are directed almost exclusively to laboratory experience.
Trainees continue to provide night and weekend coverage of the service.
These decisions are made with the help of the director of the training program and with a view towards the needs and abilities of the trainee. We feel that the trainees benefit the most if they become involved with an ongoing project. The program incorporates not only the clinical research projects described above but also a number of bench research projects centered on developmental aspects and regulation of renal function and fluid and electrolyte metabolism. Methodologies available for investigating these topics are state of the art and include isolated perfused tubules, fluorescent ratio imaging, microcalorimetry, radioisotope tracer technology, DNA and RNA analysis, southern and Northern blotting,and polymerase chain reaction techniques. Generally, by the end of the second year the trainees are yielding reliable data, so that they are able to complete the study and write a manuscript during the third year.