Transplant Curriculum
The goal of the Transplant Program at the University of Utah Health is to help fellows become competent in caring for renal transplant patients and patients with renal
complications of non-renal transplants. Fellows will have the opportunity to work in both inpatient and outpatient clinics at the University of Utah Hospital. Over the course of 24 months, fellows are expected to demonstrate progressive increase in competency.
- Months 1-6 - Fellows function at least a the level of accurate reporting of the history, physical and other data, i.e., they correctly recall and state the relevant facts. Fellows begin to understand or comprehend this information, reviewing and reporting the relevant facts in an organized and efficient manner. Fellows begin to describe how to apply this information to make diagnostic and therapeutic decision.
- Months 7-12 - Fellows are able to accurately interpret the history, physical examination and data. The information is analyzed and an accurate differential diagnosis is formulated. Fellows are able to perform urinalysis accurately. Fellows continue in their abilities to design a diagnostic plan and therapeutic interventions.
- Months 13-18 - Fellows are able to correctly manage general nephrology patient care. This extends previous expectations to formulating a correct diagnostic plan, making the correct diagnosis. They should be beginning to critically analyze literature relevant to the care issues.
- Months 19-24 - Fellows are competent in all six core competencies. They function as self educators, reading and analyzing the literature, and adjusting their care based on this analysis. They also function as educators in a larger context, using their clinical experience and information they have obtained from the literature to teach their colleagues, staff and faculty.
Training Methods
- Handouts
- At the beginning of the Fellowship, Fellows are given The Handbook of Renal Transplantation (Danovitch), The AST Handbook of Transplant Infections (Kumar and Humar), How the Immune System Works (Sompayrac), and access to UpToDate. Additionally, they are given The Handbook of Renal Transplant Protocols for the University of Utah.
- Didactic sessions
- Weekly didactic conference – Renal transplant issues are covered in detail in the didactic conference held each Wednesday from 3:00-4:00 PM. Sessions are devoted to recipient evaluation, mechanisms of allograft rejection, immunosuppressive drugs, prophylaxis and treatment of graft rejection, non-rejection causes of graft dysfunction, major causes of posttransplant morbidity and mortality, and renal disease associated with liver, heart, and bone marrow transplantation
- Primer Course - At the beginning of the Fellowship, a multi-day course (a few hours each day) is given to provide a basic level of instruction regarding several issues in Nephrology. Those covered relevant to transplant include renal transplantation and UH Protocols, chronic immunosuppression, and approach to an elevated creatinine or fever in a transplant recipient.
- Conferences – Fellows must attend the following conferences:
- Nephrology Clinical Conference - See General Nephrology Section for details. General nephrology, dialysis and transplant cases are discussed in the setting of case-based presentations, Landmark articles, M&M, and journal club.
- NephrologyResearch Conference – See General Nephrology section for details. Several conferences are devoted to transplant yearly.
- Renal Pathology Conference – The conference is held each Friday from 12:30-1:30 PM during the two years. All biopsies of transplanted kidneys performed at University Hospital are reviewed as well as interesting historical cases. The conference is led by the Renal Pathologist using a multi-headed microscope and is attended by all Fellows.
- Inpatient attending rounds