Year Two

The Transplant Fellowship at Western University is established to foster advanced training in the area of renal transplantation to physicians who have already completed their general nephrology fellowship training. Our transplant fellowship-training program is accredited by both, the American Society of Transplantation (July 2008) and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) as an Area of Focused Competence (AFC) (July 2019). The Transplant Nephrology Fellowship is of one-year duration. Interested and qualified individuals may seek additional training in Transplant Nephrology-related research beyond the one-year clinical fellowship. For more information please visit LHSC Multi Organ Transplant Program. Applications for the Renal Transplant Fellowship are to include the following documents:
• Letter of intent
• CV
• 3 reference letters
• Funding source
• Copy of passport
Applications are to be addressed to Dr. Khaled Lotfy and sent via email to annemarie.dyson@lhsc.on.ca  Applications will be accepted from April to September for the next academic year. Interviews will be determined once a complete application has been received and reviewed.
For questions or additional information please contact annemarie.dyson@lhsc.on.ca 

This one-year fellowship training is designed to provide an educational environment, under which, the trainee thrives and is provided extensive exposure to both ambulatory and in-patient home dialysis Nephrology care. The Home Dialysis Fellowship runs out of the Kidney Care Center during which the trainee is expected to develop and augment their in-depth knowledge of home dialysis, supervise junior trainees, and complete a research and/or quality improvement project. The trainee has access to a local expert throughout the fellowship and will have graded responsibility as the fellow develops increasing expertise. The trainee also gets adequate exposure to become proficient in the insertion and repositioning of peritoneal dialysis catheters. Applications for the Home Dialysis Fellowship are to include the following documents:
• Letter of intent
• CV
• 3 reference letters
• Funding source
• Copy of passport
Applications are to be addressed to Dr. Arsh Jain and sent via email to annemarie.dyson@lhsc.on.ca      Applications will be accepted from April to September for the next academic year. Interviews will be determined once a complete application has been received and reviewed.
For questions or additional information please contact annemarie.dyson@lhsc.on.ca 
 

• Residents are provided with up to 4 months in their second year of residency to spend on their research endeavors.
• Our program is extremely proud of the productivity and excellence of our trainees in the field of research. Out of all the divisions under the Department of Medicine, the Nephrology Division has been the most successful in the number of CIP awards as well the number of national research awards our trainees have won (eg. Canadian Institute of Health Research grants, Kidney foundation grants, etc.). We believe that  involving trainees early in their career in research activities and providing appropriate supervison and mentorship has helped nourish this success.

Kidney Clinical Research Unit (KCRU)

The establishment of the KCRU has been instrumental in attracting trainees to research and empowering them to be successful. The supportive and multidisciplinary environment in the KCRU allows trainees to interact with strong research teams. Trainees often have the opportunity to not only work on their main projects but also get involved in other projects occurring in the unit, which widens their perspective and teaches them the way of collaborative research that is beginning to dominate the world.

• Many of our trainees have completed additional research training including their Masters' degree, and PhD under the supervision of faculty from the KCRU.
• The Nephrology program also organizes visits of internationally renowned researchers periodically to present to the staff and residents about their research areas. This serves to highlight accomplished researchers as a model for our trainees as well as expose them to different research ideas and domains within the field of Nephrology. It also opens the door for collaborative research links in the future.
• For more information please visit KCRU

Matthew Mailing Center for Translational Transplant Studies

Through this joint venture between London Health Sciences Center and Lawson Health Research Institute that is lead by one of our transplant Nephrologists (Dr. Anthony Jevnikar), residents have the opportunity to work as scientists and clinician-scientists with a primary interest in promoting accelerated translation of basic research in transplantation to improve patient care, novel immunotherapy, and tissue procurement. For more information please visit Matthew Mailing Centre

Gunaratnam Lab

Lead by one of our faculty member (Dr. Lakshman Gunaratnam), the Gunaratnam Lab is devoted to understanding innate immune pathways in ischemia reperfusion injury. Trainees have the opportunity to work with Dr. Gunaratnam’s team that is studying the potential role of kidney injury molecule-1, a protein that is expressed by the kidney tubular epithelial cells soon after injury, in regulating the innate immune response. By uncovering the detailed mechanisms that enable kidney epithelial cells to control early inflammation following transplant surgery, they hope to identify specific therapeutic strategies to increase the lifespan of transplanted kidneys. For more information visit Gunaratnam Lab

ICES Kidney, Dialysis and Transplantation Program

Several nephrology fellows have successfully conducted high-quality research projects with the support of data experts who access the large healthcare databases of Ontario. Dr. Amit Garg currently serves as Lead for the ICES KDT Provincial Program. For more information, please visit ICES

• Our program has and continues to participate in an innovative teaching initiative for residents through Schulich's annual Boot Camp for Resident Teachers (BCRT) - an intensive two day program aimed at building resident teaching capacity at Schulich through a train-the-trainer model. The workshop provides the opportunity for nominees to disseminate teaching skills to other learners and also use the experience as the basis for a scholarly project.
• Residents with a passion for education are nominated to attend The PARO "Train the Trainer" program, which consists of a one hour evening teleconference, a 5-1/2 hour in-person session in Toronto. After completing these elements, residents become qualified to deliver the Teaching to Teach workshop.

Residents actively participate in the Quality Improvement curriculum comprising of didactic sessions and half-days. They conceptualize, develop, and work toward a project with the goal of presenting it at the Department of Medicine Resident Research Day.