It’s big,
it’s international
It’s going to be amazing
It’s that time again - we’re ready to kick off another year of the NSMC internship. We’ve almost doubled our class size from 25 to 42 this year. The NSMC also received more applications (114) than ever before. We are excited to introduce you to the class of 2019, the fifth NSMC class. Meet our interns below, hailing from 11 countries, who will be working on various projects including #NephJC, NephMadness, Renal Fellow Network, NephSim, GlomCon, and many more plus their own projects!
The class is listed below If you want to see them on Twitter, check out this list. Some statistics:
42 interns
19 women, 23 men
23 from the US and Canada
5 from Mexico, Central and South America
2 From Australia
5 from India
6 from the EU (that includes the UK)
1 from Africa
And, now, let us introduce the members of the class of 2019…
Ankit Sakhuja is a cardiovascular intensivist with a background in transplant nephrology. He has dabbled in #SoMe - but with its increasing importance in healthcare, he felt the need for a more structured mentorship to master the platform.
Samaya Anumudu is a nephrologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX where she also completed her nephrology fellowship. She completed her internal medicine residency and chief resident year at Cone Health in Greensboro, NC. Her specific interests are in medical education, public policy and advocacy, hypertension, and dialysis.
Vanessa Lerma is a fellow in nephrology at Regional General Hospital Lic. Ignacio Garcia Tellez IMSS, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.
Yasar Caliskan earned his medical doctor degree from Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine residency at the Istanbul Faculty of Medicin and studied molecular genetics as an ISN fellow in Dr Ali Gharavi’s laboratory at Columbia University Medical Center. His project was on the genetics of IgA nephropathy and other complex kidney traits. He will begin nephrology fellowship at the St Louis University School of Medicine this year. Currently, he is working as a visiting researcher in Dr Sanjay Jain’s laboratory at Nephrology Department of Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis.
Parker Gregg is a nephrologist and clinical researcher at UT Southwestern in Dallas, TX. Her focus on cardiovascular disease prevention in patients with CKD. She completed her internal medicine residency at the University of Washington, Seattle and her nephrology fellowship at UT Southwestern where she served as chief fellow. Outside of work, she likes to cook, sew, and bicycle.
Mario Funes Hernandez is a graduate of the National Autonomous University of Honduras and is currently an internal medicine resident at Saint Peter's University Hospital/Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson University. He will be applying for nephrology fellowship this year.
Krithika Mohan is nephrology fellow who is passionate about the best things in life: art, coffee, and nephrology.
Marvin Gonzale Quiroz is a senior Lecturer and CKD researcher at UNAN-Leon. He has nearly 10 years of experience in epidemiological and occupational study design. He is a founding member of the Consortium for the Epidemic of Nephropathy in Central America and Mexico (CENCAM) and a Member of the DEGREE Steering Committee and CENCAM Board.
Sam Krishnamoorthy is a nephrologist currently practicing in the community, looking forward to learn some social media skills. Home is anywhere between Mumbai to Midwest. She enjoy all aspects of nephrology and want to be a better physician and caregiver.
Vineet Behera is a nephrologist in Mumbai, India and graduate of AIIMS, New Delhi, India. He is interested in Transplant and Interventional Nephrology and loves traveling, adventure, and cricket. He believes that learning nephrology should be fun.
Vicki Sandy is a nephrology and internal medicine specialist registrar in St James Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. She is interested in postgraduate teaching as a means of counteracting burnout, and believes #FOAMed is an accessible, integrative method of promoting a lifelong love of learning. In her spare time she enjoys history and the outdoors.
Bhavnish Bucktowarsing is a the chief nephrology fellow at Ohio State University. He completed his internal medicine residency and served as chief resident at CMEF/North Eastern Ohio Medical University. His interests are in interventional nephrology, kidney physiology, and acid-base disorders.
Tiffany Caza is a kidney pathology fellow at Arkana Laboratories. She’s here to learn as much as she can in nephropathology to be ready to practice in a year. In addition to renal pathology, she’s passionate about research, immunology, art, and nature.
Ted FitzGerald is a specialist registrar in nephrology at University Hospital Waterford in Ireland. He is a graduate of University College Cork Medical School and completed postgraduate internal medicine training at Tallaght Hospital. Within nephrology his interests include intervention, patient experience, complement disorders, monoclonal Ig-related kidney disease, genetics and medical education.
Larissa Kruger is a nephron-loving Brazilian. Currently a chief resident at University of Connecticut, she will be starting as a nephrology fellow at BIDMC in Boston in July.
Derian Lai is an internal medicine resident at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX and soon to be nephrology fellow at the University of Colorado.
Katie Wang hails from upstate New York, and is currently a 2nd year nephrology fellow at Stanford University. She is excited for this opportunity with NSMC to learn, engage, and share ideas effectively through transformative social media platforms.
Vijay Kiran is an assistant professor in nephrology at Nizam's institute of medical sciences, Hyderabad, India. He is passionate about teaching and dissipating knowledge.
Madhuri Ramakrishnan is a wide-eyed wanderer in this wondrous world of Nephrology. Her journey has brought her from Hyderabad, India to the heartland of USA. She is a student for life and she is currently a nephrology fellow.
Vighnesh Walavalkar is a renal pathologist from San Francisco. His interests are glomerular disease and kidney transplantation 🔬. In his free time, he likes to play soccer ⚽️ and spend time with his two cats 🐈.
Abhilash Koratala is an academic nephrologist and nephrology-oriented point of care ultrasonography (POCUS) enthusiast. He is Associate director of the Nephrology fellowship program at University of Florida (U of Texas in near future).
Lena Vaynberg Eder is an internal medicine intern at Duke University. She grew up in LA and then studied at Brandeis University where she double majored in Public Health and Hispanic Studies. She attended medical school at Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine and has an interest in nephrology medical education!
Verner Vinegas is a nephrology fellow at the Mexico City at Mexican Institute of Social Security, National Health Center "La Raza", Master in Healthcare Management at Anahuac University, general medicine at Universidad La Salle.
Itunu Owoyemi is currently a transplant nephrology fellow at Thomas E. Starzl Transplant Institute, University of Pittsburgh. Aside pursuing her career nirvana in Nephrology, she enjoys exploring culinary delights.
Aldo Jimenez is a father of two, kayak fisher, foodie and wine lover. He is also a teacher, internist and nephrologist who left the big city for a small town and happy life.
Sarah Melville is a translational research associate with Cardiovascular Research New Brunswick and the IMPART research collaborative group at Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick in Saint John, Canada. She attended Northeastern University in Boston on a rowing scholarship and graduated cum laude with a BSc. in cardiopulmonary sciences. Later, she completed certification as a clinical research associate at the Michener Institute in Toronto and completed a knowledge translation professional certificate at the University of Toronto. Her current research interests include clinical assessment of innovations in cardiovascular diagnostics, e-health monitoring devices, health care and research ethics, and home blood pressure monitoring and blood pressure control with patients receiving dialysis.
Dr. Vandana Dua Niyyar is a nephrologist and professor of medicine at Emory University. Her clinical interests are in vascular access and promoting multidisciplinary collaboration in the field of vascular access. She serves in a variety of leadership roles, including as secretary-treasurer of the American Society of Diagnostic and Interventional Nephrology (ASDIN) and chair of the ASDIN ultrasound sub-committee. She is a member of ASN Continuous Professional Development Committee. She servers as co-chair of the ASDIN 2019 annual scientific meeting.
Harish Seethapathy grew up as a small town boy with a big city mentality. After graduating medical school in India, he followed his love of numbers and logic, and fell for Nephrology. He is currently having a fantastic time as Renal Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. He is a big-time soccer enthusiast - His soccer team being a goal down in a 'must-win' game and a potassium of 9 make him equally nervous.
Rhona Bejarano Salazar is a Venezuelan medical surgeon and nephrologist and graduated from the Hospital Universitario de Caracas in 2018. She believes that love and water is all we need.
Alejandro Meraz is a Nephrologist from Mexico, currently fellow of onconephrology at UHN, Toronto. He loves #SOME, #FOAMED, clinical reasoning, food, beer, corgis!!!!
Krystahl Z. Andújar Rivera is a nephrologist lucky enough to have completed her training in tropical Puerto Rico. As a recent graduate, she is looking forward to the care of her community and in discovering new ways of learning. She is passionate about patient education and prevention and when she’s not rounding at the hospital, you can find her hiking to the nearest waterfall.
Hugo Diniz is a nephrology fellow at “Hospital de São João” in Oporto, Portugal. He discovered his passion about nephrology early in his career, after completing his Integrated Masters Degree in Medicine with a review on the role of FGF-23 in CKD-MBD. He is a Point-of-Care Ultrasound enthusiast and committed into discovering new applications of ultrasound for the everyday challenges of a nephrologist. His other interests include AKI, cardio-nephrology, medical education, and kidney transplantation from donation after circulatory death. Outside of the kidney realm, he is an avid traveler and a Magic: the Gathering aficionado.
Lovy is a nephrology Resident at Sir Gangaram Hospital, New Delhi, India. She is fascinated by Glomerulonephritis and Transplantation.
Daniyal Jafree is a medical student on the MB/PhD program at University College London in the UK. He aims to build a career in translational medicine, bridging the gap between scientific and clinical interests in vascular biology and nephrology.
Charlie Hall is a junior doctor working in the East End of London. He is a passionate NHS advocate, with research interests in Medical Education, Mobile Health and all things Renal. He is also a part time rock climber, scuba diver and cook.
Justin Davis was born and raised in Geelong, a city in the southern part of Australia. He has spent the first 5 years of his medical training at Barwon Health University Hospital Geelong and is now a second year advanced trainee in nephrology at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne. When he isn’t answering phone calls about various patients dwindling eGFRs or general dialysis issues at work, you will find Justin doing some sort of extracurricular research or various other hospital-based busywork while listening to classical music (Beethoven, obviously). In his precious little spare time, he plays video games and wishes he had more time to set up a videogame stream with his best friend on Twitch, spends time with his fiancée Tenay, fails to find time to watch his local football team, the Geelong Cats and takes his King Charles Cavalier Spaniel Einstein for a run.
Renua Aiyegbusi is a nephrology fellow in Glasgow, Scotland. Her interests include AKI, transplant, global health, and medical education. When she’s not working you can catch her travelling, dining or exploring Scotland. She is currently learning to play golf.
Eric Au is a nephrologist and PhD student based at the Centre for Kidney Research and School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, Australia. He is interested in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics and how we can best apply clinical research to our clinical practice to improve patient outcomes.
Jia Hwei Ng is a postdoctoral nephrology research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Professionally, her aspiration is to improve the lives of patients with kidney disease and their caregivers. She is interested in patient advocacy and patient-centered outcomes research.
Arunkumar Subbiah is a nephrologist at AIIMS in New Delhi, India. He is from Chennai (where the best coffee is from!!). He completed his medicine residency from JIPMER, Puducherry, India and his nephrology fellowship from AIIMS. His interests include transplantation, AKI and critical care nephrology. He loves to learn and teach. He is looking to become more active in #SoMe.
Anshul Bhalla is a transplant nephrology fellow at Johns Hopkins. He is originally from New Delhi, India and completed his IM residency and Nephrology fellowship at Tufts Medical Center. He is passionate about medical education and hopes to make transplant exciting for trainees. His research interests include thrombotic microangiopathies and non-invasive diagnosis of rejection. He is a HIIT enthusiast, regularly practices yoga and loves to experiment with food and wine.
Timothy Kaleli is an internal medicine resident from Nairobi, Kenya. He is an earnest and passionate medical doctor and is open-minded and eager to learn.