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Indiana University School of Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
Department of Medicine
The curriculum in the nephrology fellowship program provides a challenging, interdisciplinary environment for fellows to excel in the field.

Curriculum

As one of the leading nephrology training programs in the country, the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at Indiana University School of Medicine provides a challenging, interdisciplinary environment for fellows to excel in the field. The program’s strength lies in its balance; fellows manage a mixture of common and rare kidney diseases due to the diverse population treated across the IU School of Medicine—Indianapolis campus.

Our two-year fellowship program allows our fellows to tailor their second year depending on the individual fellow’s career goals. In addition, an optional third year for select research-oriented trainees is available.

A combined medicine-pediatric fellowship is available for graduates of Med-Peds residency programs in conjunction with the Department of Pediatrics Division of Nephrology.

First Year

Clinical rotations and responsibilities for first-year fellows include:
  • Inpatient consult services at the various campus hospitals: IU Health University Hospital (UH), IU Health Methodist Hospital (MH), Eskenazi Health (EH), the transplant service at IU Health University Hospital and night float.

  • Night float rotations are two-weeks long and involve overnight (5:00pm -7:00am) at-home call Sunday night through Thursday night. Outpatient clinics are cancelled for the fellow during night float rotations.

  • Outpatient experiences during the first year include a one-month ambulatory block rotation, a weekly one-half day per week chronic kidney disease clinic with continuity of care throughout the two years of training, and a one half-day per month transplant clinic at IU Health University Hospital Transplant providing post-transplant care.

  • A unique educational intersession program occurs during a two-week block in the early winter and another two-week block in the spring of the first year.

Fellows are on call every third to fourth weekend (maximum 15 weekends in a year) where they are responsible for covering one of the hospitals. Outside of the night float rotation, there are no overnight call responsibilities except during weekend call when the fellow may be on call either Friday or Saturday night.

All first-year fellows attend the National Kidney Foundation Annual Meeting and are reimbursed expenses by the program. Fellows interested in transplantation have an opportunity to attend the American Society of Transplantation Fellows Symposium. Fellows get four weeks of vacation each year in addition to the time for attending a national conference.

Sample First Year Schedule
Block 1 Orientation, 2 weeks  
Consults Methodist Hospital 
Block 2 Night float, 2 weeks  
Consults, 2 weeks Eskenazi Hospital
Block 3 Transplant  
Block 4 Consults, 2 weeks Eskenazi Hospital
Night float, 2 weeks  
Block 5 Consults
Block 6 Intersession, 2 weeks  
Consults, 2 weeks University Hospital
Block 7

Ambulatory Block
- Stone clinic
- PKD clinic
- Hypertension clinic
- Transplant clinic

  
Block 8

Transplant

  
Block 9 Consults, 2 weeks Eskenazi Hospital
Night float, 2 weeks  
Block 10 Consults Methodist Hospital
Attend NKF Meeting  
Block 11 Intersession, 2 weeks  
Consults, 2 weeks Eskenazi Hospital
Block 12 Night float, 2 weeks  
Consults, 2 weeks Eskenazi Hospital
Block 13 Consults University Hospital

 

Second Year

In the second year, fellows spend a total of three months on the inpatient consult services. They maintain continuity at the chronic kidney disease clinic and transplant clinic. Fellows gain more expertise in outpatient dialysis through a year-long home dialysis clinic (including peritoneal and home hemodialysis), and incenter hemodialysis rounding. Additional elective outpatient opportunities are available throughout the second year, including rotations in the stone clinic, hypertension clinic, interventional nephrology, polycystic kidney disease clinic, and specialized training opportunities in bioethics, biomedical informatics, medical education and clinical pharmacology. Elective inpatient rotations on the hepatorenal consult service and a focused ICU nephrology rotation are also available.

Second year fellows are required to complete an individualized scholarly project (clinical or basic science research) and a continuous quality improvement (CQI) project.

Fellows are on call every third to fourth weekend (maximum 15 weekends in a year) where they are responsible for covering one of the hospitals. Outside of the night float rotation, there are no overnight call responsibilities except during weekend call when the fellow may be on call either Friday or Saturday night.

All second-year fellows attend the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Annual Meeting and are reimbursed expenses by the program. Fellows interested in transplantation have an opportunity to attend the American Society of Transplantation Fellows Symposium. Second and third-year fellows have an opportunity to attend additional conferences, as desired, with approval of the program director. Fellows get four weeks of vacation each year in addition to time for attending a national conference.

Sample Second Year Schedule
Block 1 Consults Methodist Hospital
Research CQI  
Block 2 Research CQI  
Block 3 Research CQI  
Block 4 Night float, 2 weeks  
Attend ASN  
Block 5 Research CQI  
Block 6 Consults
Research CQI  
Block 7

Research CQI

  
Block 8

Research CQI

  
Block 9 Night float, 2 weeks  
Research CQI  
Block 10 Research CQI  
Block 11 Night float, 2 weeks  
Research CQI  
Block 12 Research CQI  
Block 13 Consults University Hospital
 Research CQI  

 

Third Year

Fellows interested in a research career can choose to extend their fellowship training for a third year to continue their focus on individualized research projects. Third-year fellows take call every fifth-to-sixth weekend. The Division has an NIH T32 grant to support selected individuals for this year.

Teaching Conferences

Didactic teaching is an integral component of the Nephrology Fellowship program. Fellows are expected to attend teaching conferences and time is protected to attend teaching conferences. Fellows will also participate/present occasionally in required conferences. All conferences have an option for remote viewing and most conferences are recorded to allow asynchronous review by fellows on night float or vacation. Teaching conferences include:

  • Renal grand rounds (weekly)
  • Nephrology fellows core topics series (weekly) that cover all core topics in general nephrology (acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease and its complications, hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, hypertension, electrolytes and acid-base physiology, glomerulonephritis, and more)
  • Transplant core lectures (biweekly to monthly) covering the fundamental aspects of transplant medicine (donor and recipient selection, transplant immunology, induction and maintenance immunosuppression, care of the transplant recipient and more)
  • Fellows conference (weekly) that rotates between fellow’s case conference, fellow’s journal club, and morbidity and mortality conference
  • Nephrology pathology conferences (biweekly)
  • Nephrology research conference (weekly; second year fellows; first year fellows invited)
  • Nephrology board review conferences (biweekly)
  • Additional non-required conferences are also available through the Department of Medicine including Medicine Grand Rounds and Resident Senior Seminars.