Jonathan Webb, MD, professor and program director in the division of nephrology, recently had his manuscript “A Pilot Study for an Accelerated Internal Medicine/Nephrology Pathway (IMNP)” accepted into Kidney360, a prominent peer-review medical journal under the American Society of Nephrology.
IMNP was born out of need. While nephrology issues such as chronic kidney disease affect millions of Americans, and the prevalence of end-stage kidney disease continues to rise, interest in nephrology among internal medicine residents has steadily declined.
In 2019, the American Society of Nephrology hosted a training program director’s retreat and discussed a new initiative by Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education called the Advancing Innovation in Residency Education (AIRE) program, which allowed modification of traditional training guidelines through the creation of innovative pathways. “The idea of an accelerated four-year pathway was suggested, and I’ve been working on this model ever since,” says Dr. Webb.
Dr. Webb’s IMNP model is intended to offer an alternative pathway to advanced nephrology training. One of the barriers associated with recruiting new learners in nephrology is the training time required to achieve board eligibility. Dr. Webb hopes that the IMNP will help create interest in the field of nephrology while maintaining rigorous training.
The pilot has been successful in creating the first pathway to reduce traditional training time required for subspecialty training. It is hopeful that this will lead to other subspecialties pursuing similar models to reduce the burden of training length for all advanced medicine physicians. The pilot has also led to many relationships with nephrology program leaders across the country and amazing collaboration on ideas to improve the future of nephology training.
“I was honored to have the American Society of Nephrology accept this manuscript as the pilot is in early stages,” says Dr. Webb. "This publication will hopefully expand the recognition and adoption of this important study."