In Practice

The Kidney Health Initiative (KHI) sent a congratulatory letter to Stephen Hahn, MD, on his recent confirmation as Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The fourth annual NephJC Kidneys awards were hosted in Washington, DC on Friday, November 8 to coincide with ASN Kidney Week 2019. NephJC is an online medical journal club. They utilize social media and, in particular, the Twitter community to generate discussion and review current literature related to nephrology. It is open to anyone: nephrologists, residents, fellows, cardiologists, internists, urologists, radiologists, pharmacologists, and patients contribute to the discussion. Many contributors attended the NephJC event and took part in the Tweet-up.

Announced on October 7^th, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was jointly awarded to a trio of scientists, William G. Kaelin Jr., Peter J. Ratcliffe, and Gregg L. Semenza, for their work on “how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability,” The New York Times reports.

These “investigators uncovered detailed genetic responses to changing oxygen levels that allow cells in the bodies of humans and other animals sense and respond to fluctuations, increasing and decreasing how much oxygen they receive.”

On September 27^th, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) announced the appointment of Josephine P. Briggs, MD, as PCORI’s Interim Executive Director, starting on November 1, 2019. Briggs will lead the organization during its search for a replacement for Joe Selby, MD, MPH, who announced plans to retire as Executive Director by year’s end. She will continue her work as JASN Editor-in-Chief during this time.