About
This is the website that I wish existed when I started as a first year renal fellow. There are multiple aspects to becoming a good fellow and nephrologist. Time constrains can prevent one from learning the breadth of nephrology in a timely fashion, but it’s important to learn the basics of clinical nephrology in order to function well in clinics and hospitals. It’s even more important to know why you do what you do, citing the literature that informs your practice. The evidence base changes each year and and knowledge quickly becomes stale without the engulfing the influx of all of the new data.
My name is Gerren Hobby. I’m currently a private practice nephrologist in Jonesboro, AR. I graduated from my nephrology fellowship at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in June 2018. This website serves two purposes for me. Firstly, it’s a way for me to solidify my knowledge. During my fellowship, I noticed several surprising leaps in my knowledge. Around the time of the first in-training exam, my grasp of the subject matter increased drastically. As a chief nephrology fellow in charge of didactics, my knowledge again deepened significantly in the areas I gave lectures on. What I found was that the more lectures I gave, the more I knew. This is why I created this website. In making this website, my knowledge for these specific areas will grow. In addition, my aim is to essentially create the perfect review paper on each subject — something that I would feel comfortable giving to a renal fellow who is doing deep reading on a particular subject for the first time. In doing so, the knowledge base of others and myself will hopefully increase expoentially.
This website gets it name “Salt” partially from the "salt and water” lectures that we had during fellowship as we covered the Burton Rose book “Clinical Physiology of Acid-Base and Electrolyte Disorders.” It also pays homage to the crass, blunt, but enticingly simple and accurate descriptions of renal physiology given by master clinicians. Repeatedly, their simple drawings of a particular process, drawn on a scrap sheet of paper at a side desk of a hospital hallway, beautifully illustrated intricacies of homeostasis and pathophysiology. A large proportion of renal physiology does just come down to that — salt and water. It is that level of simplicity that I strive for for in my descriptions and personal knowledge.
There will be three main parts to Salt Clinical Nephrology. Firstly, there will be core topics such as AKI workup and CKD management. These are the building blocks of nephrology practice and will be essentially stand-alone documents that a medicine intern could read and use to absorb more information from their clinical rotation. Secondly, there will be blog posts. These will be important, but less core topics that every nephrologist should know. They will be focused dives on particular topics such as onconephrology or types of Bartter syndrome. Lastly, there is a constant Twitter feed that will bring about noteworthy renal papers as well as deep cuts of the nephrology literature that I believe are relevant for the nephrologist. I hope that the combination of these three avenues of information will provide comprehensive coverage of the field of nephrology. I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I have enjoyed writing them.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER: No information on this website is medical advice. It is simply a discussion of nephrology topics. Patient care should be based solely on a healthcare providers clinical decision making and not on information contained in this website.
Upcoming topics and additions:
Citations for every knowledge statement
Daily blog posts covering deep dives into particular topics
Interpretation of the renal biopsy
Urine sediment interpretation
Evaluation of acid-base disorders
Proper chart documentation of hospital and clinic notes
A concise, yet complete overview of renal physiology
Post-transplant care
Ultrasound for nephrologists
The fastest ways to build core nephrology knowledge