The nephrology fellowship at UC Davis Medical Center is a two-year program that combines inpatient consultations at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento and at the Sacramento VA Medical Center, outpatient hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis training, transplantation, and research. Options include elective rotations in pediatric nephrology, in nephropathology, and in interventional nephrology working with an Interventional Radiologist. We take pride in the teaching excellence of our faculty, several of whom have received teaching awards from housestaff and medical students.

Our clinical activities broadly represent the field of Nephrology including fluid and electrolyte metabolism. We provide consultative services for in-patients including general Internal Medicine, the medical and surgical intensive care units, the cardiac intensive  care unit, the hematology and oncology in-patient service, and the various surgical in-patient services. Our dialysis activities include standard dialysis for stable inpatients, SLEDD for critical care patients, outpatient dialysis in four community clinics and training for home peritoneal dialysis. We are developing a home hemodialysis training program. We support the Renal Transplant Service that performs about eighty kidney transplants per year. The Transplant Service is a Division of the Department of Surgery with whom we collaborate closely. In excess of 40 native and transplant kidney biopsies are performed each year using ultrasound guidance. The nephrology division is developing its own interventional nephrology service that will offer training for inserting tunneled dialysis catheters and angioplasty/declotting of arteriovenous access devices for hemodialysis. Currently, experience with and exposure to these procedures are available as an elective rotation with the Sutter Hospital Interventional Radiology program in Sacramento.

The University owns and operates the Medical Center at Sacramento, which is located in the center of the City of Sacramento. It serves both as a University referral hospital and as a neighborhood hospital, providing care for predominantly middle and lower income population. There is ample opportunity for interaction with medical students, interns, residents, and fellows in other subspecialty programs. The University of California Davis Medical Center has a broad range of residency and subspecialty training programs, providing broad exposure in all of the disciplines of internal medicine and surgery, to include obstetrics and gynecology. The Internal Medicine program also uses training resources at the affiliated Sacramento Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center.  The VA Medical Center provides training in geriatric nephrology as well as experience with kidney biopsies under CT guidance.

We have an intensive teaching program for our residents and fellows. In addition to inpatient consultation rounds, which are conducted 6-7 days a week at both UC Davis Medical Center and the VA Medical Center, we have weekly Nephrology Grand Rounds, Journal/Research Club, a monthly Renal Pathology conference, a biweekly clinical case conference, a renal physiology lecture series, a transplant and immunology lecture series, and a summer fellow lecture series designed to cover the core material in nephrology. There are weekly nephrology continuity clinics for fellows at both the UC Davis Medical Center and the VA Medical Center. In addition, fellows follow a cohort of peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis patients with one of the faculty throughout their fellowship.

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