As a second year nephrology fellow, I took full advantage of the range of conferences available. One of my favorites was without a doubt KIDNEYcon. While this was my first KIDNEYcon in person, it wasn’t my first KIDNEYcon altogether as I originally heard about the conference from one of my attendings who lectured in 2017. With the primary lecture series streaming for free, I was able to watch the 2017 lectures from the comfort of my house!
The format of the in-person conference is very individualized. It takes place over two days, with elective workshops in the mornings and then a structured conference series in the afternoons. I chose acid base, fluid, and electrolytes and nephropathology for my two workshops. Both were excellent (every wonder how sweet 5 percent dextrose tastes or how salty three percent saline tastes? I can now answer that question!), and in addition to fun, I picked up multiple clinically useful tidbits from Joel Topf and David Goldfarb. The pathology session was absolutely incredible as well. We toured the facilities at Arkana Labs and then had a rapid-fire review of normal and abnormal histology given by the kidney pathologists. They were great teachers and it was quite clear, this was not their first educational rodeo.
The main conference was excellent as well, and I highly recommend that anyone interested in the conference explore the lectures for themselves. What you don’t see from the online lectures though is how small and tight knit the conference series was. I literally sat next to one of the presenters and all of the presenters were very happy to discuss further. We even tried to shift the rotation of the earth together! Time will tell if we were successful.
No conference experience is truly complete without talking a little about your experience outside of the conference walls. Little Rock was an extremely enjoyable city to visit. The conference took place in part at the William J Clinton Library which we explored during a break and it was fascinating. Throughout the museum are binders with the daily itinerary of President Clinton during his time in office, it was amazing to read these bits of presidential history. In a Clinton-centric Arkansas trip, we also visited Bill Clinton’s childhood home.
Altogether, I cannot recommend KIDNEYcon enough. Come check it out for yourself. Travel awards are available. April 12-14, 2019.
Ankur Shah, MD @NephroShah
Assistant Professor, Brown University
NSMC intern, class of 2018