The Division of Nephrology has grown from a faculty of 5 to now 9 with more growth expected in the next year under the leadership of Dr. Yanlin Wang, M.D., Ph.D., FASN, an internationally recognized leader in Nephrology. The mission of Nephrology is to provide state-of-the-art care to our patients and innovative education for the next generation of healthcare professionals and conduct cutting-edge research related to nephrology.
Patient Care
We are committed to provide state-of-the-art, patient-centered, personalized care for kidney disease including diabetic kidney disease that can progress to kidney failure and the need for dialysis and kidney transplant, hard-to-treat hypertension, genetic kidney diseases, kidney stones, primary glomerular disease, immune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus or an allergic drug reaction that affects the kidney. Given the diverse range of presentations with kidney disease, the UConn nephrologists see patients in many settings: the hospital including intensive care unit, the office (both main campus and the Canton), and ambulatory dialysis centers in Farmington, Avon, and Manchester. Avon Dialysis Center was opened in October of 2019, which has been selected to provide dialysis for COVID-positive patients since the pandemic. We have opened an outpatient Therapeutic Plasma Exchange Clinic since July, 2020. This clinic is located in Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) on the first floor of the University Tower, which allows patients in need to have same-day outpatient plasmapheresis treatment thus avoiding a lengthy inpatient hospital stay. See detailed information about our outpatient Therapeutic Plasma Exchange Clinic.
Research
The Division of Nephrology is actively involved in a wide range of research areas including basic science program in acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, outcomes of dialysis and therapeutic apheresis, scholarly reports of unusual or rare disorders, systematic evaluation of chronic periodontal disease in our population of chronic kidney disease. Each faculty member seeks to collaborate with colleagues to enhance new knowledge of kidney disease and education. Our research activities are funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, private foundations, and pharmaceutic companies.
Education
Nephrology faculty actively participate in education and training for first-year medical students through graduation, for internal medicine residents and for nephrology subspecialty training. Continuing Medical Education (CME) is also a large part of what we do, with local conferences including Medicine Grand Rounds, departmental CME courses and the Greater Hartford Nephrology Conference. Clinical electives for medical students and residents are organized to include both inpatient consultative nephrology as well as ambulatory nephrology exposure. We host visiting medical students and residents, as well as provide rotations for graduate nursing students in the APRN programs at UConn Storrs.