Background
Cristina Adriana Popa
From missed opportunities to equitable access: ...

Summary of the STEPS trial which will be a twitter spaces discussion

From missed opportunities to equitable access: Can STEPS redesign the kidney transplant pathway?
Background
Cristina Adriana Popa
Searchin’ For My Lost Shaker of Salt- Targeted ...

This week, we will discuss the HIT trial- a large randomized study challenging one of the most reflexive responses in hospital medicine: see hyponatremia, fix the sodium. But what if correcting the number doesn’t change what actually matters?

Searchin’ For My Lost Shaker of Salt- Targeted Treatment of Hyponatremia
news
swapnil hiremath
NephJC Covers LBCTs at the World Congress

The NephJC editors cover the simultaneous publication from the world congress

Background
Brian Rifkin
Is REACT (Renal Autologous Cell Therapy) the ...

This week, we will discuss the use of renal autologous cell therapy (REACT) in diabetic kidney disease.

Is REACT (Renal Autologous Cell Therapy) the “fifth pillar” in diabetic kidney disease?
Background
Brian Rifkin
2026 KDIGO Anemia Management Guidelines

This week, we will discuss 2026 KDIGO anemia management in patients with kidney disease

2026 KDIGO Anemia Management Guidelines

meta

Regarding the Situation with…Social Media in General

Regarding the Situation with…Twitter, Bluesky, Social Media

We at #NephJC pride ourselves on bringing you the best in nephrology publications and innovations without commercial bias. As we’ve stated during many a donation drive, we are beholden to none but our followers and readers.

Having said that, we’ve noticed a trend since the death of Twitter (yes, it will always be Twitter to the real FOAMed illuminati). The diaspora of NephTwitter were scattered throughout the nephro-universe of social media, never quite finding a new home. Perhaps the downfall of the Nephrologians can be a plot line for the next Mandalorian season?? Many left the social media space altogether because of the division, politicization and plain BS of some of the algorithms (I for one don’t need to see EVERYTHING Elon posts). However, we still believe there is a need for our unique style of nephrology education. Jon Stewart- yes, the comedian- recently likened social media to smoking: an addictive, attention seeking habit that is generally recognized as not healthy for most people and that is likely to be regulated for teen and self-regulate by adults. He believed the antidote was more long-form, nuanced edu-tainment. So, it light of the changing landscape, we are going to focus more on our blogs, VAs, and podcasts and less on live discussions on Bluesky.

NephJC is nothing if not nimble, and we have never been afraid of change.

So, given the low attendance at live chats (no judgement) we’re changing to a summary thread (a new 10 posts) with provocative questions to answer, at your leisure. We hope this keeps the discussions going without the need to be on social media for prolonged periods or at a specific hour and day. These threads will be posted at the familiar 9pm EST every other Tuesday. This shorter form will also allow us to post on multiple sites, and hopefully we will be easily accessible to you where you chat with other nephrophiles. Feel free to reply, chat, tag people in conversations whenever and wherever you see a #NephJC post. The team will be around, but we won’t be actively ‘moderating’ a one hour chat.

Sincerely,

NephJC Leadership


PS: As always we love to hear from our audience. If you have suggestions, or a better way to reach more people, we are all ears. Heck, if we hear enough complaints we might even bring back the chats!😉

Taking the reigns

In April 2014, Swapnil and I launched NephJC—and within weeks we were overwhelmed by the sheer work of running a twice-monthly, Twitter-based journal club. Fortunately, we also had a deep bench of friends on the internet. A rotating cast of brilliant volunteers stepped in, proving the old fortune-cookie wisdom true: many hands make light work.

Over the years, both Swap and I have taken on new responsibilities and new roles. Swap even has a big announcement on the horizon. As NephJC has grown, we’ve had to confront the hardest part of any grassroots digital project: succession. The good news is we’ve been spoiled with talent. Two exceptional leaders have been (not so) quietly steering the ship for the last 18–24 months, so much so that most of you won’t notice any change at all.

Today we’re making it official:

Your new Editors-in-Chief of NephJC are Brian Rifkin and Cristina Popa.

Both are highly decorated graduates from the NSMC. Brian won Rookie of the Year in 2021 and Cristina followed right behind him in 2022. She also tacked on the MVP award in 2024.

Swap and I will still be around, but less.

Twitter polls redux

A few months ago, we wrote about the nephro-twitterverse discovering twitter polls. Graham Abra and Thomas Hiemstra were early adopters, though response rates were ~ 20-40 at best then. But there are many more, with much better response rates. Check them out:

During #NephMadness, Krishna Penmatsa made a bunch of #PredictaPolls - check some notable ones:

 

Graham, again, on IgA nephropathy and pregnancy

Tomas Rohal on tweeps preference of social networks

Matt on the deprescribing PPI question

And the PPI article we discussed at #NephJC was actually decided on the basis of a twitter poll too!

What RRT modality would nephrons choose for themselves (sparked by a tweet from Scherly at #HDu)

Matt again on how nephrons  refer to themselves

Joel (was he making fun of my #DreamRCT, #MAGIK?) 

Participate in the #NephJC Caucus

Vote for the next #NephJC article and help make NephJC great again!

We are going to be talking about anemia on March 22nd with either some classic articles like Beserab and TREAT or the recent systematic review on ESAs and quality of life, but we have a hole in the schedule on March 8th. So help us figure this out by voting in our twitter poll.

Proton pump inhibitors cause CKD From JAMA Internal Medicine #PPI2CKD

Maybe statins really are good in dialysis. Long term follow up of the 4D study. #StatinHD 

Nephrectomies cause heart damage. Early CKD is sowing the seed for future CV catastrophe even at pedestrian GFRs. #GFRgood.

Sevelamer versus calcium based binders. A systematic review showing a mortality benefit with sevelamer. #BinderWars

The winner will be discussed March 8th and the others may be put in the cue to be discussed in April and beyond. The loser will drop out of the race and endorse Rubio.

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The Neph-Twitterverse discovers Twitter polls

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A few weeks ago, the folks at twitter announced they were rolling out Twitter polls. Previously, tweeps would use manually counting responses or the RT-if-you-agree Fav-if-you-don't approach. This is how the polls were supposed to work:

So what, you might say? A few users (notably @conradhackett from Pew research) played a lot with them, sample poll:

The ease of setting one up, and the option to just click and be done were some of the major selling points. But it wasn't clear if would be just a passing fad or something more. I used one at the #KidneyWk, but there were few responders

Then Matt decided to poll the #nephjc followers after the suPAR chat

And Thomas Hiemstra decided to design his next #DreamRCT on therapy for Membranous nephropathy with a series of tweets:

Second scenario

And it wasn't long before Graham Abra re-ran an older question on the utility of urine eosinophils in allergic interstitial nephritis

another one on the duration of steroids in SLE, in remission

So we guess polls on twitter are here to say. Nephrology tweeps find it awesome (and I can say so with confidence, backed by facts, or shall we say, a poll?)

Swapnil Hiremath

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#NephJC does #pericytes - part 1

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Not #parasites or ... #pedicure?

This was a fantastic chat last night, with great questions from Mal Parmar, Scott Brimble, Dylan Burger and others; clear and articulate answers from Ben Humphreys - and a link heavy tweeting from Matt Sparks. The transcript will read almost like a review article - or commentary.

American Chat Transcript

Stay Tuned for the EU/African chat, occurring in just over 2 hours at 8 pm *BST* - with first author Rafael Kramann joinin in this time.