32
James D Oliver III, MD, PhD
Chief and Director,
Nephrology
COL
|
MC
|
USA
WRB and USU
The mission of the Nephrology Service at
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
is to care for past and present warriors and
dependents with kidney diseases, to provide
forward nephrology care in deployed settings,
to prepare trainees to serve our beneficiaries,
and to conduct state-of-the-art biomedical
research.
The Nephrology Service is the largest in the
Department of Defense, offering a full
spectrum of clinical care in renal disease. The
Service is also home to the National Capital
Consortium nephrology training program, the
only independent nephrology fellowship in the
DoD.
The Nephrology Clinic provides consultative
and longitudinal care for the gamut of renal
diseases, to include acute kidney injury,
chronic kidney disease, end-stage renal
disease, hypertension, glomerulonephritis,
electrolyte and acid-base disorders, and renal
transplantation. Additional services offered
include 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure
monitoring. The clinic is co-located with the
Organ Transplant Service and has embedded
support from Pharmacy, Nutrition and Social
Work,
allowing
the
Service
to
offer
comprehensive integrative care conveniently
in one location. The clinic is supported by an
on-site laboratory. In 2016, the clinic saw over
4,000 outpatient and over 3,500 inpatient
encounters.
The Hemodialysis Unit is a 13-chair facility that
is the largest in the DoD, providing over 4,700
outpatient and over 800 inpatient treatments
in 2016. In addition to chronic dialysis,
supported services include acute intermittent
and continuous renal replacement therapies
and therapeutic plasma exchange. The
Hemodialysis Unit also serves as the clinical
site for the Army Dialysis Specialty Course,
training up to 12 active-duty technicians per
year.
The Nephrology Infusion Clinic is a six-chair
facility that provides peritoneal dialysis care,
patient education, intravenous infusions,
administration of selected chemotherapeutics
and
biologics,
intravenous
catheter
placements, and special testing protocols. In
2016, over 2,200 procedures were performed
in support of Nephrology, Organ Transplant,
Rheumatology, Gastroenterology, Neurology
and other referring services.
The
nephrology
training
program
has
graduated over 60 fellows from all three
services (Air Force, Army and Navy) over the
past 20 years. It is currently accredited
through 2022. In addition, fellows engage in
rotations at the Washington VA Hospital and
the Clinical Center at NIH.
The Service maintains a robust academic and
research program, with particular emphasis in
the areas of large population database
analysis, cost utility analysis, biomarkers of
kidney disease and Nephrology graduate
medical education. There were six peer-
reviewed
publications
co-authored
by
members of the Service in 2016. WRB
Nephrology had seven abstracts selected for
the 2016 national meeting of the American
Society of Nephrology (ASN). The Service is
Ne
ph
rolo
gy
Dr. Lisa Prince and Dr.
Brian Y’Barbo discuss
treatment goals with a
dialysis patient.
Hemodialysis is a
technically complex
treatment, requiring
physicians to monitor and
adjust a number of
medications and the
parameters of the
treatment to meet the
patient’s changing needs.
Discussion of these
changes, and the
patient’s report of any
issues they may be
concerned about, are key
in maintaining a high
level of wellness and
success in treating on-
going kidney failure.
33
also heavily invested in undergraduate
medical education at USU, lecturing and
serving as preceptors for modules in renal
pathophysiology.
Piloting of Nephrology-Specific OSCEs to
Assess Fellows’ Dialysis and Communication
Skills Now Being Implemented Nationally
The WRB Nephrology Service and training
program
spearheaded
collaborative
educational protocols utilizing nephrology-
specific OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical
Exams) to assess the competency of fellows in
dialysis care and communication skills, items
that are difficult to assess on standardized,
multiple-choice board certification exams.
These protocols were presented nationally by
Dr. Lisa Prince in May 2016 at the annual ASN
training program directors retreat in Chicago,
and are now part of a multi-institutional
implementation project, including programs
at Denver Health Medical Center, Medical
University of South Carolina, Albert Einstein
College of Medicine, University of Wisconsin
and University of California, San Diego.
Collaborative Kidney Disease Surveillance
Research Will Assess the Scope and Impact
of Kidney Disease in the MHS
The Nephrology Service, in collaboration with
the USU divisions of Nephrology and Health
Services Administration and the Centers for
Disease
Control
and
Prevention,
has
established a kidney disease surveillance
project to assess the scope and impact of
kidney disease in the Military Health System
(MHS).
Data will be collected to allow investigators to
isolate and clarify the important factors in the
development and progression of kidney
disease among MHS populations. Among the
questions to be considered are the
distinguishing epidemiological features of
populations with kidney disease; the factors
leading to progression of established kidney
disease, in particular progression to end stage
renal disease; quality and safety outcomes in
the care of kidney disease; and the economic
impact of kidney disease on the MHS.
HM3 Kayleah Morris
prepares to start
hemodialysis on a
patient in the dialysis
unit’s special isolation
room. It’s equipped to
protect patients and
staff in the event of
special needs
requirements for
patients who are
immune-compromised
and require a room that
filters the air of
microscopic particulate
matter.
The summary screen for a
dialysis treatment
performed by a portable
hemodialysis system. The
machine is also used to
provide dialysis in a
forward-deployed setting.