American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Renal Week 2006

The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Renal Week 2006 in San Diego, California was a big event attended by more than 12,000 nephrologists from all over the world. The conference was at the Convention Center at the beautiful bay of downtown San Diego.


Downtown San Diego

Joshua Schwimmer and I submitted the abstract Assessment of a Blog as a Medium for Nephrology Education which was accepted for poster presentation. The abstract was based on the idea behind the ClinicalCases.org project and was met with significant interest (and curiosity) at the conference. My other poster was in the much more traditional format of a case report: Dermatomyositis-induced Rhabdomyolysis as a Rare Cause of Acute Renal Failure.


Our poster Assessment of a Blog as a Medium for Nephrology Education

The art department of the Cleveland Clinic forgot to add the Clinic logo to the posters but that was a minor mishap compared to the poor guy who lost his poster on the plane (click to enlarge the photo below).


"Sorry, original poster missed in the plane"

There is a blog about ASN Renal Week 2006 but it looks like the authors were busier this year than in 2005 and managed to publish just a few posts.

In the long security line at the San Diego airport, a young lady saw my ASN conference bag choke-full with abstract and syllabus books and tried to pronounce: "Neph-ro-lo-gy... What is that?". "Kidney diseases", I answered. "Kidney? Do you carry one there?", quipped her boyfriend. We still have a lot to do in terms of educating the general public ;-)

About ASN:
"The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) was founded in 1967 as a nonprofit corporation to enhance and assist the study and practice of nephrology, to provide a forum for the promulgation of research, and to meet the professional and continuing education needs of its members."

More photos from San Diego:
Seaport Village in Downtown San Diego, California
Balboa Park, San Diego, California
San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California
Coronado, San Diego County, California