Global Kidney Care Podcast Provided by ISN

Augusto Cesar Soares dos Santos Junior hosts the latest episode of the Global Kideny Care podcast, and this special episode is part of the offerings for NephMadness 2026. Augusto is joined by Ana Catalina Alvarez Elias: Renal Research Institute, Lili Chan: Mount Sinai, Neil Reza Evans: UC Davis Health, and Kuang-Yu Jen: UC Davis Health, where they discuss the emerging role of Artificial Intelligence in nephrology. AI stands out as a truly transformative force and is reshaping how diseases are diagnosed, how nephrologists interpret complex data, and understand patients.

The International Society of Nephrology Education Working Group has undertaken the development of a comprehensive online program to advance understanding and education in this rapidly evolving field. The new curriculum ‘Genetics in Kidney Disease’ led by Drs. Becky Ma and Anuja Java, features a series of 11 recorded lectures covering key topics in nephrogenetics, together with roundtable-style panel discussions featuring leading experts on each topic for open conversations and deeper insights. This first episode of season six of the Global Kidney Care Podcast is a sneak peek at the first roundtable discussion on Genetics for the Nephrologist (monogenic, polygenic; testing methodology) with Drs. Amali Mallawaarachchi, Ali Gharavi, and Christie Thomas. To continue your education in Genetics in Kidney Disease, view the rest of the first module and the full curriculum here.

Clinical trial design in nephrology is evolving. In this episode, leading experts explore why a paradigm shift is needed from traditional biomarkers to patient-centered outcomes and practical strategies for advancing trial implementation. This conversation draws on insights from the ISN Consensus Meeting on Changing Paradigms of Studies in CKD (Vancouver, Nov 22-23, 2024) where clinicians, trialists, patient partners, regulators and industry scientists came together to rethink trial endpoints, outcomes and designs. Together, they discuss how reimagining kidney trials can generate more relevant, equitable, and actionable evidence for better kidney care worldwide. ParticipantsAdeera Levin Professor of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Canada, and Past-President of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN). Dr. Levin is a global leader in kidney health research, with extensive experience in chronic kidney disease (CKD) management, clinical trials, and international health system strengthening. Jennifer Lees Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Nephrologist at the University of Glasgow, UK. Dr. Lees’ research focuses on improving patient outcomes in kidney disease through better trial design, biomarker evaluation, and translational approaches linking research to clinical care. Kevin Weinfurt Professor and Vice Chair of Faculty, Department of Population Health Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, USA. Dr. Weinfurt is a behavioural scientist specializing in patient-reported outcomes (PROMs), ethical aspects of research participation, and improving the relevance of clinical trials to patients lived experiences. Hiddo J. Lambers Heerspink Professor of Clinical Trials and Personalized Medicine, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands. Dr. Heerspink’s work bridges pharmacology, nephrology, and precision medicine, focusing on optimizing kidney and cardiovascular outcomes through innovative clinical trial design and biomarker discovery. To read more, explore the related paper Changing Paradigms of Studies in Kidney Diseases published in Kidney International.

Winston Fung, an Associate Consultant at Prince of Wales Hospital and an Honorary Clinical Assistant Professor for the Chinese University of Hong Kong, hosts the second conversation on climate change and its impacts on kidney health. Winston is joined by Vivekanand Jha, The George Institute for Global Health, India, Professor of Nephrology at the University of Oxford, and the former President of the ISN. Also joining the conversation is Letizia De Chiara, junior PI at the University of Florence, Italy, and Maryvonne Hourmant, former president of the SFNDT.

The latest episode of the Kidney Care Podcast is a Conversation with Peter Kotanko, a leading expert on artificial intelligence applications for kidney care and the Emeritus Director of the Renal Research Institute in New York, USA. This conversation on the intersection of AI and Nephrology is the first installment in a series of conversations on AI and is part of the new ISN Academy AI resource section on the ISN Academy. This resource page will be updated regularly, providing the latest original and curated material on AI and Nephrology.

This episode features a discussion among kidney nurses about the challenges patients face while on their renal replacement journey, and the various ways nurses can support them and their caregivers. The conversation includes suggestions for new nurses entering the field, thoughts on improving patient support, and discusses how approaches may vary in different contexts. Ana Elizabeth Prado Lima Figueiredo – Professor, School of Nursing at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do SulElaine Bowes – Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist and Advanced Level Nurse Practitioner in Peritoneal Dialysis at Kings College HospitalFatima de Figueiredo - Renal Vascular Access Nurse, Kings Renal Unit, King's College Hospital Foundation TrustJane van der Jeugd - Nurse Practitioner: Transplantation I Nephrology, Flinders Medical Centre, Southern Adelaide Local Health NetworkZehra Aydin - Assistant Professor at Istanbul Atlas University

World Kidney Day (WKD) is observed annually on the second Thursday of March. In 2025, it falls on March 13, with the theme "Are Your Kidneys OK? Detect Early, Protect Kidney Health."In this episode, WKD Joint Steering Committee ISN co-chair Dr. Li-Li Hsiao is joined by IFKF-WKA co-chair Dr. Dina Abdellatif and Prof. Alessandro Balducci, past co-chair and current committee member. Together, they discuss who is at higher risk for kidney disease, available tests for early detection, and the 8 Golden Rules for kidney disease prevention. They also highlight ways to get involved in the WKD campaign.

Every year, the ISN Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program brings essential teaching and training to some 14,000 doctors and healthcare practitioners in the emerging world. This Program supports the conceptual design of local and regional meetings in resource-low countries by contributing to the organization of the meeting and helping arrange faculty for the meeting. This episode is hosted by Urmila Anandh (India), a member CME Program Committee and she is joined by Rümeyza Turan Kazancioglu (Turkey), Adrian Liew (Singapore) and Jaime Restrepo (Colombia) to discuss the activities and initiatives of the CME Programs Committee. They discuss how the committee serves the ISN and the global nephrology world.

For this episode of the Global Kidney Care Podcast, Jonathan Barratt, MD, MSc, PhD is Professor of Renal Medicine, Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Leicester and Richard Lafayette, MD, FACP is a Nephrologist and Professor of Medicine at the Division of Nephrology Department of Medicine, Stanford University discuss the changing landscape in IgAN and disease modification approaches. This podcast is supported by Vera Therapeutics

This latest episode of the Global Kidney Care Podcast is an effort of the ISN, ISPD, and Arbor Research Collaborative for Health (the coordinating center for the DOPPS family of studies). This episode is focused on PDOPPS, our international study of practice patterns and outcomes of peritoneal dialysis patients. The conversation is led by Roberto Pecoits-Filho, DOPPS Program Scientific Director and is joined by the president of the ISPD Edwina Brown from the Imperial College Renal & Transplant Centre, Jenny Shen from the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Jeffrey Perl from St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and the Principal Investigator of PDOPPS.

Fatigue is a common and debilitating symptom amongst people with kidney failure but remains under appreciated and understudied. Interventions to address fatigue in people with kidney failure requiring dialysis are lacking, highlighted by the lack of recommendations on managing fatigue in clinical practice guidelines. A Cochrane review was published in 2023 summarizing the benefits and harms of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for fatigue in people on dialysis. On this podcast, the review’s first author Dr Patrizia Natale joins us to discuss the study’s findings.

Recently the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation (PKDF) held a joint webinar to discuss and explore the significant impact of health disparities on the outcomes for patients with Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD). In the latest episode of the Global Kidney Care Podcast, Dr. Maria E. Diaz-Gonzalez de Ferris, Dr. Sambhavi Krishnamoorthy and patient advocate Funke Ojuri continue the conversation on Health disparities that are often driven by socioeconomic, racial, and geographic factors and how they play a crucial role in shaping the progression of ADPKD and its associated complications.