Description

The Care of Kidney Transplant Candidates and Recipients was a full-day Early Program held immediately prior to the main ASN Kidney Week 2025 Scientific Exposition. This course was designed to bridge the operational and clinical gap between “general” nephrology and specialized “transplant” nephrology.

Held in Houston, the program utilized a case-based approach to address the entire continuum of transplant care—from the initial evaluation and waitlisting process to the long-term management of immunosuppression and graft surveillance. It acknowledged the workforce shortages in transplant medicine and focused on empowering general nephrologists to handle more of the pre- and post-transplant burden.

What You Will Learn

The curriculum was practical and workflow-focused, aimed at clinicians who may not practice in a transplant center but manage these patients daily. Key learning outcomes included:

Evaluation Efficiency: Strategies to streamline the transplant workup and overcome barriers to listing (e.g., managing BMI limits or cardiac clearance).

The “Warm Hand-Off”: Best practices for transitioning care between the transplant center and the community nephrologist to prevent patients from “falling through the cracks.”

Immunosuppression Management: How to balance the risks of rejection (under-immunosuppression) vs. infection/malignancy (over-immunosuppression) in the long-term maintenance phase.

Living with an Allograft: Managing non-immunological complications such as post-transplant diabetes, bone disease, and cardiovascular risk reduction.