Browsing by Author "Dharnidharka, Vikas R."

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    Responding to the workforce crisis: consensus recommendations from the Second Workforce Summit of the American Society of Pediatric Nephrology
    (Springer, 2024) Soranno, Danielle E.; Amaral, Sandra; Ashoor, Isa; Atkinson, Meredith A.; Barletta, Gina‑Marie; Braun, Michael C.; Carlson, Joann; Carter, Caitlin; Chua, Annabelle; Dharnidharka, Vikas R.; Drake, Keri; Erkan, Elif; Feig, Dan; Goldstein, Stuart L.; Hains, David; Harshman, Lyndsay A.; Ingulli, Elizabeth; Kula, Alexander J.; Leonard, Mary; Mannemuddhu, Sudha; Menon, Shina; Modi, Zubin J.; Moxey‑Mims, Marva; Nada, Arwa; Norwood, Victoria; Starr, Michelle C.; Verghese, Priya S.; Weidemann, Darcy; Weinstein, Adam; Smith, Jodi; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Importance: Pediatric patients with complex medical problems benefit from pediatric sub-specialty care; however, a significant proportion of children live greater than 80 mi. away from pediatric sub-specialty care. Objective: To identify current knowledge gaps and outline concrete next steps to make progress on issues that have persistently challenged the pediatric nephrology workforce. Evidence review: Workforce Summit 2.0 employed the round table format and methodology for consensus building using adapted Delphi principles. Content domains were identified via input from the ASPN Workforce Committee, the ASPN's 2023 Strategic Plan survey, the ASPN's Pediatric Nephrology Division Directors survey, and ongoing feedback from ASPN members. Working groups met prior to the Summit to conduct an organized literature review and establish key questions to be addressed. The Summit was held in-person in November 2023. During the Summit, work groups presented their preliminary findings, and the at-large group developed the key action statements and future directions. Findings: A holistic appraisal of the effort required to cover inpatient and outpatient sub-specialty care will help define faculty effort and time distribution. Most pediatric nephrologists practice in academic settings, so work beyond clinical care including education, research, advocacy, and administrative/service tasks may form a substantial amount of a faculty member's time and effort. An academic relative value unit (RVU) may assist in creating a more inclusive assessment of their contributions to their academic practice. Pediatric sub-specialties, such as nephrology, contribute to the clinical mission and care of their institutions beyond their direct billable RVUs. Advocacy throughout the field of pediatrics is necessary in order for reimbursement of pediatric sub-specialist care to accurately reflect the time and effort required to address complex care needs. Flexible, individualized training pathways may improve recruitment into sub-specialty fields such as nephrology. Conclusions and relevance: The workforce crisis facing the pediatric nephrology field is echoed throughout many pediatric sub-specialties. Efforts to improve recruitment, retention, and reimbursement are necessary to improve the care delivered to pediatric patients.
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    Using Electronic Health Record Data to Rapidly Identify Children with Glomerular Disease for Clinical Research
    (American Society of Nephrology, 2019-12) Denburg, Michelle R.; Razzaghi, Hanieh; Bailey, L. Charles; Soranno, Danielle E.; Pollack, Ari H.; Dharnidharka, Vikas R.; Mitsnefes, Mark M.; Smoyer, William E.; Somers, Michael J. G.; Zaritsky, Joshua J.; Flynn, Joseph T.; Claes, Donna J.; Dixon, Bradley P.; Benton, Maryjane; Mariani, Laura H.; Forrest, Christopher B.; Furth, Susan L.; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Background: The rarity of pediatric glomerular disease makes it difficult to identify sufficient numbers of participants for clinical trials. This leaves limited data to guide improvements in care for these patients. Methods: The authors developed and tested an electronic health record (EHR) algorithm to identify children with glomerular disease. We used EHR data from 231 patients with glomerular disorders at a single center to develop a computerized algorithm comprising diagnosis, kidney biopsy, and transplant procedure codes. The algorithm was tested using PEDSnet, a national network of eight children's hospitals with data on >6.5 million children. Patients with three or more nephrologist encounters (n=55,560) not meeting the computable phenotype definition of glomerular disease were defined as nonglomerular cases. A reviewer blinded to case status used a standardized form to review random samples of cases (n=800) and nonglomerular cases (n=798). Results: The final algorithm consisted of two or more diagnosis codes from a qualifying list or one diagnosis code and a pretransplant biopsy. Performance characteristics among the population with three or more nephrology encounters were sensitivity, 96% (95% CI, 94% to 97%); specificity, 93% (95% CI, 91% to 94%); positive predictive value (PPV), 89% (95% CI, 86% to 91%); negative predictive value, 97% (95% CI, 96% to 98%); and area under the receiver operating characteristics curve, 94% (95% CI, 93% to 95%). Requiring that the sum of nephrotic syndrome diagnosis codes exceed that of glomerulonephritis codes identified children with nephrotic syndrome or biopsy-based minimal change nephropathy, FSGS, or membranous nephropathy, with 94% sensitivity and 92% PPV. The algorithm identified 6657 children with glomerular disease across PEDSnet, ≥50% of whom were seen within 18 months. Conclusions: The authors developed an EHR-based algorithm and demonstrated that it had excellent classification accuracy across PEDSnet. This tool may enable faster identification of cohorts of pediatric patients with glomerular disease for observational or prospective studies.