In the Spring of 2014, Swapnil asked Joel if he would start a nephrology journal club in twitter. Joel was knee deep in NephMadness at the time and told Swapnil to write up a description of how the journal club would work, half hoping that Swap would quickly lose interest, never finish it, and that would be the end of it. However, Swap wrote that up, published it on Medium, and the first NephJC followed a few weeks later. Topf and Hiremath started the ball rolling, but the journal club truly belongs to the community and everyone who contributes. In the last couple of years we have assembled a bespoke workgroup to direct NephJC and handle the myriad administrative duties that come with the project.
About NephJC
NephJC is an online medical journal club. We utilize the nephrology (and related specialties) Twitter community to generate discussion and review current literature related to nephrology. It is open to anyone: we regularly have nephrologists, residents, fellows, cardiologists, internists, urologists, radiologists, pharmacologists, and patients contribute to the discussion. We have a website, Twitter feed, and Facebook page. In 2018 NephJC formed a not-for-profit organization and was granted 503c3 status by the Internal Revenue Service, so donations are tax deductible. The money is used to support and extend NephJC’s mission. If you are interested in supporting us take a look here. What’s our mission you ask?
Mission Statement
NephJC’s mission is to increase free open access medical education (FOAMed) pertaining to nephrology, hypertension, and transplantation. We provide post-publication peer review through summaries and visual abstracts posted on our online site as well as through interactive twitter chats and periodic podcasts on the research and developments that are driving nephrology forward. NephJC also participates in, sponsors, and supports activities that strengthen the nephrology social network, #NephTwitter. One of the primary ways NephJC executes this is through the nephrology Social Medial Collective (NSMC) internship. The NSMC internship is training healthcare professionals to utilize and contribute to the nephrology social network.
Nothing about us without us
We try to reach out to patients with kidney disease to comment on the studies we discuss. Getting the patient perspective is too often forgotten in academic journal clubs. NephJC is trying to keep everyone involved. Read the patient commentaries.
Visual abstracts
NephJC in collaboration with the interns and faculty of the NSMC create a visual abstract for every article discussed.
Podcast
In 2019 NephJC started its own podcast, Freely Filtered. This is a round table discussion about a recent NephJC article.
Read a good book every now and then
The NephJC Book Club is an annual tradition. Every summer we blog our way through a book of medical interest and have a Twitter-based book club discussion.
In 2015 we started the book club with Atul Gawande's, Being Mortal.
In 2016 we read Eric Topol's, The Patient Will See You Now.
In 2017 we read Vanessa Grubb's, Hundreds of Interlaced Fingers.
In 2018 we read Siddhartha Mukherjee’s ‘The Laws of Medicine’.
In 2019 we read Andrew Bomback’s Doctor (Object Lessons).
In 2020 we read Rana Awdish’s In Shock.
In 2021 we read Joshua Mezrich’s When Death Becomes Life.
In 2022 we read Walter Isaacson’s The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Publish or perish
The NephJC work group knows something about academic medicine and we have taken to our keyboards to contribute what we have learned running a productive online medical journal club.
In 2020, Topf was the guest editor of an issue of Seminars in Nephrology, and dedicated the whole issue to Social Media and Medical education. Lots of NephJC and NSMC folk got in on the action. Seminars is here but we created a cool way to access it here.
In 2019, the NephMadness Executive team wrote about their experience over the last 7 years in EMJ Nephrology. Here
In 2019, the NephJC crew discussed the NSMC internship and how to digitally mentor interns in the era of social media. This was published in CJASN. Mentorship in the Digital Age.
In 2019, Farouk and Sparks wrote an editorial titled: the public physician in cardiology: the solution to information pollution in Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine. Here
In 2018, Farouk and Sparks wrote about the first ten years of the Renal Fellow Network in CJASN. Renal Fellow Network. Past and Future.
in 2018, Sparks and Topf wrote an overview about the origin of NephMadness, its state after 5 years and future plans for its development, in AJKD. NephMadness After 5 Years: A Recap and Game Plan for the Future.
In 2018, the NephJC crew discussed the use of social media in nephrology education and the concept of FOAMed which came out in Kidney International Reports. The Social Media Revolution in Nephrology Education.
In 2017, Oates and Graham-Brown reviewed how social media is changing medicine in NDT. Social Media in Medicine: A Game Changer?
In 2016 the NephJC team published a comprehensive history of the journal club in AJKD. The Evolution of the Journal Club: From Osler to Twitter.
In 2015, Hiremath and Topf contributed to an article on starting a Twitter Journal Club. 10 steps for setting up an online journal club.
In 2014, Hiremath and Topf teamed up to discuss the origins of NephJC for a special social media issue of International Review of Psychiatry. Social media, medicine and the modern journal club.
The NephJC Team
We have a page for this
Learn more & connect with us
Check out the NephJC webpage.
Sign up for the NephJC newsletter.
Check out the NephJC #VisualAbstracts
Like NephJC on Facebook.
Follow @NephJC on Twitter.
Follow @NephJC_Podcast on Twitter.
Email NephJC at captopril@nephjc.com