Ashita Tolwani, MD, MSc
Citation: Kidney News 12, 10/11
Ashita Tolwani, MD, MSc, will receive the Robert G. Narins Award for her many efforts in education and training of the next generation of nephrologists. Dr. Tolwani is professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Dr. Tolwani directed the UAB nephrology fellowship program from 2002 to 2010 and continues as associate program director. In that capacity, she co-directed workshops on curriculum development and assisted in developing the curriculum and teaching tools portion of the ASN website. She wrote the nephrology fellowship manual now available on the website.
A nationally known expert on continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) in the treatment of acute kidney injury in the ICU, she has lectured on this topic and general ICU nephrology at the ASN Board Review Course & Update every year since 2010. She founded and directs the UAB CRRT Academy, a two-day course offered annually since 2007 that is the only national CRRT training course that features hands-on training with simulation mannequins. Many nephrology fellowship programs require their fellows to take this course.
Dr. Tolwani has given educational lectures on acute kidney injury and CRRT at academic institutions throughout the United States and at national and international conferences. She has presented CRRT workshops and tutorials at international conferences in South Africa, Belgium, Italy, India, and Malaysia.
She has won virtually every award for teaching given in the UAB medical school and department of medicine, including the President’s Award for Teaching Excellence. UAB medical students have nominated her for their top teaching award every year since 2007, and she has won several times.
Dr. Tolwani is co-course director of the ASN critical care nephrology early program; on the organizing committee of the Acute Kidney Injury and CRRT International Conference on Advances in Critical Care Nephrology; and a workgroup member of the ASN initiative, AKI!Now: Promoting Excellence in the Prevention and Treatment of Acute Kidney Injury. She serves on the editorial boards of CJASN and Kidney International Reports.
Dr. Tolwani received her medical degree from the UAB School of Medicine where she also did her internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship. She became a faculty member in 1999. She also has a master’s in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.
