News

The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), USA, and the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore, India, were in an ISN Sister Renal Centers partnership from 2012-2017. They integrated a range of ISN granting programs within the collaboration to progress successfully through all levels to graduation.

The ISN SRC India-USA 3 SRC pair’s achievements exemplify the remarkable success stories to be showcased on the ISN@Work Gallery launching at WCN’21.

The gallery highlights the achievements of several recently graduated ISN Sister Centers and ISN members who have benefited from support through ISN granting programs, alongside notable awareness-raising advocacy and research initiatives.

The ISN and IPNA supported an annual pediatric nephrology training course for five years of this collaboration. The course included a case-based approach to nephrology issues and hands-on training through hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis workshops.

Trianing was provided by faculty and consultant visits from the supporting center, including a week-long visit from Dr. Salusky, an ISN Ambassador. Two fellows and two consultants received onsite training at UCLA. Four renal fellows were supported to attend and present papers at ACPN Malaysia and WCN in Mexico.

The partnership facilitated the development of a Renal Transplant Program at CMC. The CMC Pediatric surgeon spent six weeks of transplant training, including exposure to transplant surgery. A dialysis technician spent four weeks at UCLA to improve her exposure and expertise in HD and CRRT. The emerging center carried out its first transplant on November 15, 2017. Since then, the center has become a major transplant referral center in the region, having performed six transplants to date.

The CMC improved their hemodialysis room to include air conditioning and centralized reverse osmosis and the continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) room to provide a specific area for education, training, and patient care. A urine Multistix® machine was also secured through the SRC Program for screening children.

The emerging center undertook a collaborative research project led by Dr. Salusky in an area of local concern, FGF23 estimation in children with CKD.

Indira Agarwal comments, “The Sister Renal Centers Program provided an excellent platform for our growth and development to becoming a center of excellence. We were provided with tremendous opportunities to build our expertise and resources with guidance and support from a very prestigious center. This expertise has motivated us to support another emerging center to build its own identity and expertise.”

The center now runs a Fellowship program to continue improving the standard of kidney care in the region.