American Society of Nephrology Kidney TREKS Program

Molly Rubin; Stewart H Lecker; Nirupama Ramkumar; Stephen M Sozio; Robert S Hoover Jr; Mark L Zeidel; Benjamin S Ko

doi:10.1681/ASN.0000000000000384

American Society of Nephrology Kidney TREKS Program

J Am Soc Nephrol. 2024 Apr 23. doi: 10.1681/ASN.0000000000000384. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Molly Rubin¹, Stewart H Lecker², Nirupama Ramkumar³, Stephen M Sozio⁴, Robert S Hoover Jr⁵, Mark L Zeidel², Benjamin S Ko⁶

Affiliations

¹ ASN Alliance for Kidney Health, Washington, DC.
² Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
³ Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, UT.
⁴ Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Baltimore, MD.
⁵ Section of Nephrology and Hypertension, Deming Department of Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
⁶ Department of Medicine, University of Chicago School of Medicine, Chicago, IL.

PMID: 38652562
DOI: 10.1681/ASN.0000000000000384

Abstract

In response to decreasing numbers of individuals entering into nephrology fellowships, the American Society of Nephrology launched Kidney TREKS (Tutored Research and Education for Kidney Scholars) to stimulate interest in nephrology among medical students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. The program combines a one-week intensive exposure to kidney physiology with a longitudinal mentorship program at the participants' home institutions. Ten years in, an analysis was conducted to assess its effectiveness. We surveyed participants to assess their opinions regarding nephrology before and after the course and followed them longitudinally to determine their career choices. TREKS applicants who were not selected to participate were used as a comparison group. 381 people participated in the program and 242 completed the survey. After TREKS, both medical students and graduate students showed increased interest in nephrology, with rank scores of 5.6±0.2 pre- to 7.5±0.1 post-course for medical students (mean ± standard deviation, n=189, p=0.001) and 7.3±0.3 to 8.7±0.3 (n=53, p=0.001) for graduate students. In long term follow-up, TREKS medical students chose a nephrology pipeline residency at a higher rate than medical students overall (57% vs. 31%, p=0.01) and TREKS applicants who did not participate (47% vs. 31%, p=0.04). Nephrology fellowship rates for these groups exceeded the general population but did not significantly differ between TREKS participants and applicants. PhD students and postdoctoral TREKS participants had a higher rate of participating in nephrology research compared to TREKS applicants (66% vs. 30%, p=0.01). In summary, the ASN Kidney TREKS program has demonstrated that it can improve interest in nephrology in the short term and increase the number of individuals going into nephrology careers. This long-term effect is most evident in PhD students and postdoctoral participants. Further study is needed to assess the impact of TREKS on enrollment in nephrology fellowship programs.

Grants and funding

American Society of Nephrology