Fiscal Year 2007 - Department of Medicine - University of ...

includes 70 peritoneal and home hemodialysis patients.
The renal transplant program follows approximately
500 patients and has been re-invigorated
with the arrival of transplant surgeon Alan Hawxby,
MD, who has performed more than 50 transplants
in the last five months. The program is anticipated
to grow to more than 100 per year. The renal clinic
follows 700 chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients
with chronic renal insufficiency, proteinuria, hematuria,
or severe hypertension.
The VA Medical Center is the division’s second
major site for nephrology training and renal
care. The VA hospital exposes nephrology fellows
to patients with acute renal failure, CKD, and hemodialysis.
Training includes inpatient, outpatient,
and internet consultations.
Division Director Michael Flessner, MD,
PhD, holds the John D. Bower Chair of Nephrology
and Hypertension. Specializing in patients with
chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease,
he has specific interests in promoting home hemodialysis
and peritoneal dialysis in Mississippi. He
also works with the Mississippi chapter of the National
Kidney Foundation and Network 8 to increase
awareness and to slow the progression of
chronic kidney disease in Mississippi.
Flessner, who received the department’s 2006
Fred Allison Research Award in recognition of his
sustained productivity of superior and significant
research, has a grant from NIH to study the effects
of sterile, non-biocompatible peritoneal dialysis solutions
on peritoneal tissue. He also heads a project
on racial healthcare disparities in CKD patients and
is an active collaborator on the Jackson Heart Study.
Several faculty members are active researchers
with the Jackson Heart Study and
GENOA, including Drs. Tibor Fulop, Darren
Schmidt, Lajos Zsom, and Albert Dreisbach. Fulop
brings to the faculty a broad experience in primary
care and nephrology; his research interests focus on
the linkage between sleep disorders and cardiovascular
disease and CKD.
Zsom has extensive experience in dialysis
and transplantation, and is conducting research on
inflammation in dialysis patients.
Schmidt joined the faculty in August 2005.
He has strong interests in kidney disease in the setting
of chronic viral infection and continuous renal
replacement therapies. He recently started an HIV-
CKD clinic at the Jackson Medical Mall.
Dreisbach, who is board certified in both
nephrology and clinical pharmacology, chairs the
Renal-Hypertension Section of the American Society
for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He
is a member of the hypertension and chronic kidney
disease subcommittees of the CARe initiative, an
NHLBI-sponsored consortium that helps identify
genotyping priorities.
Active in diabetes research, Kent Kirchner,
MD, serves as assistant vice chancellor for VA Affairs
at the Medical Center and chief of staff at the
VA Medical Center. Drs. Anita Basu and Geeta
Gyanlami are on staff at the VA and act as attendings
and mentors for nephrology fellows.
Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education
Shirley Schlessinger, MD, is the medical director
of the Mississippi Organ Procurement
Agency as well as the renal transplantation program.
She is also a councilor representing Region 3 on the
United Network of Organ Sharing board of directors.
Luis Juncos, MD, our newest faculty member,
is a professor of medicine, physiology, and biophysics.
He is dual trained in nephrology and
critical care and is an expert in CRRT and acute kidney
injury. He has extensive research experience
and has NIH funding to carry out basic research in
hypertension and renal physiology.
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