Learning In Lovely Location

Meetings, odds, and ends fill the day as I ready myself for the first trip of 2010. Tomorrow I will flee Omaha and its never-melting snow for a conference on continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). I have taken on responsibility for a program at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center of Omaha, and immersing myself in the topic for 3.5 days seemed a great way to get up to speed. The fact that the meeting is on Coronado Island, near San Diego, during the last dreary week of February is completely a coincidence and had nothing to do with my desire to attend.

If you believe the location of this meeting did not influence my decision to attend, I would like to sell you the Coronado bridge (see photo).

CRRT has become the default treatment for most intensive care unit patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). It makes sense that if you unstable enough for an ICU, then you are unstable enough to not tolerate intermittent hemodialysis. AKI is the focus of a special section in the just-published February issue of ASN Kidney News, and an article by Ashita Tolwani (starting on page 12) focuses on this very issue.

The role of CRRT in AKI seems fairly clear; we are currently exploring the best way to deliver it to patients ranging from 10 to 300 pounds. Various options for hardware exist, and their relative advantages and disadvantages must be explored. CRRT may also be able to play a role in sepsis and other conditions, and I will attend sessions discussing these cutting-edge issues.

For the rest of the week my posts will deal with CRRT, packing for such a trip, and the lovely weather in Coronado. I will be in a hotel conference room from  7am till 7pm while I’m there, but at least when I look out the window I will not see dirty snow.

Masks, Hot or Not

“Why do you use your real name?”

Eventually most people who read my blog ask me this question. We all read other blogs written under pseudonyms, be they  a goddess or another fictional name. Many commenters also use pseudonyms. Working behind the veil of a screen name allows people to discuss things with candor; otherwise they might not feel free to open up for fear of reprisal or embarrassment.

Within my world of academic medicine, most bloggers hide their identity, at least to some degree. Some posts, although pseudonymous, include the author’s identity, or enough clues to figure it out. Others work hard to separate their real name from their blogosphere self.

Online identity is one of the first thing a new blogger decides. My own rationale for blogging came about because of my work. In starting a new magazine for the American Society of Nephrology, I needed to learn about social media and the role it could play with traditional media. The best way to learn this stuff is to jump in and do it. It did not make sense to have an anonymous online identity when I wanted these activities to compliment stuff I do offline under my real name.

Isis has posted her rules for pseudonymous blogging:

Anyone who could fire me/prevent my career advancement knows about my blog. I write with the knowledge that they may be reading it.  Some of them do.

I never, ever, ever write about my students.  Ever.

I never write about a colleague without their knowledge.  My immediate colleagues and collaborators know about my blog. 

I never write things about another scientist that I would not say to them openly and in public.

I don't divulge top secret MRU-related stuff.

These are good rules for any blogger no matter how they handle their identity, and ones to which I generally adhere. Given these rules, I feel completely comfortable being “out” on the web. Occasionally I get snarky, but not in a way that will cause irreparable harm to myself or my relationships.

I still remember the sense of freedom I felt when I turned 40. About that age I realized that other people really could not do that much to harm me. I bring that same attitude online now. Of course, I still have enough fear to give proper attribution to the photo-art supplier… cause FWDAOTI is cool, but stealing intellectual property is not.

Photo courtesy of PhotoXpress.

On The Road Again

Tomorrow I hit the airport en route to Renal Week, the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Nephrology. After some administrative work, my week will be devoted to all things kidney. From the most basic science to the most novel clinical trial, 14,000 devotees of urine (or lack thereof) will be gathered to celebrate their favorite organ.

Attendees and other kidney fans are invited to Tweet the Week. We will be twittering about the meeting and other events surrounding it. I am sure Renal Week will provide fodder for this august venue as well.

I will also try to update everyone on the weather. After all, I will be in San Diego. I get to gloat at those I leave behind in Nebraksa.

A new podcast should also be available soon. I chat with current president Tom Coffman and president-elect Sharon Anderson about the ASN. Look for it and other meeting stuff on the site or in our iTunes area.

For the rest of the day, well, my brain has already flown west…

Birth and Kidneys

Another month is upon us. Time flies whether you're having fun or not!

The second issue of my "child," ASN Kidney News, is at the printer. The whole process of starting this magazine is sort of like giving birth every other month without the benefit of drugs. It is a labor of love, though, much like childbirth. It has been fun to explore issues and updates outside of my usual scientific and clinical relm. The March issue will feature dialysis issues. For those of you who don't practice nephrology, the folks at Medicare (which pays for most dialysis treatments in the US) have come up with new "conditions for coverage" which must be met if we want to be reimbursed for providing treatments. The stated purpose of these new changes is to improve patient care and outcomes. The secondary purpose seems to be killing more trees to generate all the required paperwork. So far, my life hasn't been affected too much (and it is all about me).

On a more uplifting note, World Kidney Day is coming up (see logo above). WKD started to educate everyone about the rising risk of kidney disease. This year it falls on my birthday, so I feel it will be a truly magical occasion. Go kidneys!

Greetings again! Yes, it's been a long time (more than 4 months) since the last posting, but I haven't been goofing off. I've been working on a magazine that will debut later this month for the American Society of Nephrology call ASN Kidney News.

At first, this endeavor required a couple of hours here and there. As the first issue draws near, and we are trying to get the next issues started, those hours are adding up. This project has come with a steep learning curve; while I had worked with traditional medical journals, I had not done anything with ad-driven magazines before. I have a great managing editor, Dawn McCoy, and I have to say that this has been one of the most enjoyable and gratifying things I have done.

One task I took on after my editorial advisory board suggested it was creating puzzles for the magazine. I cannot imagine what it took to make a crossword puzzle before computers; it's hard enought to fit in theme words with autofill!

Anyway, my first word search got bumped from the magazine because we had too much other content (a good problem). I'm posting it here; the theme is an educational program of the ASN, Renal Weekends. I promise the solution will be posted in less than 4 months.