I was invited to speak at the Canadian Society of Nephrology last fall. Swapnil set up a talk on social media. My first international speaking gig. Very cool.
We have two associates out on Maternity leave and another key partner retired a couple of months ago, so practice is tight. No way I could take half a week like I do for Kidney Week. I left for my 1:30 talk at 8:30 that morning. Direct flight from the D to Montreal. As I’m walking through the airport I’m looking for nephrologist ads. During Kidney Week there will always be a big a pharma company advertising in the airport. I love seeing those ads and trying to imagine wha percentage of the general population have any idea what Samsca™ or Aranesp™ are. Montreal had none of these advertisements. I took a taxi to the Hotel Bonaventure.
Found my way to the conference center and registered for the conference. The conference had about 450 people in total, about one 30th the size of Kidney Week. It is like Kidney Week Mini Me. Same clothes, same attitude but smaller. In this case a lot more than just one eighth the size.
Kidney Week is a major international conferences. I heard more foreign languages in Philadelphia last Novemebr than I heard at CSN which was being held in Montreal. We often associate size with quality but thie would be totally unfair to CSN. The lectures were amazing. They absolutly stand toe to toe with the quality you get at Kidney Week. Of course, there are some Canadian specific lectures that didn’t interest me, but the general nephrology content was excellent. Five lectures in particular were amazing:
1. Patient oriented symptoms of ESRD
emolients weak data but little down side. Baby oil, primrose oil. #csn15
— Joel Topf (@kidney_boy) April 25, 2015
newest evidence for Nalfurafine 5 mcg IV after HD 3x/wk. http://t.co/aHW2Si1mER and http://t.co/OzmBTZjs8C #csn15
— Joel Topf (@kidney_boy) April 25, 2015
Uremic Pruritus: other possible txs SSRI, Ondansetron, granisetron, thalidomide, activated charcoal 6g daily. (Never duplicated) #csn15
— Joel Topf (@kidney_boy) April 25, 2015
2. Conservative care With Dr. Fliss Murtagh
Murtagh is quite prolific. Is planning an RCT to look at onservative care vs dialysis in edge cases. http://t.co/IlP4czPkKq #csn15
— Joel Topf (@kidney_boy) April 25, 2015
#CSN15 murtagh survival data pic.twitter.com/91tBCuLDB1
— Joel Topf (@kidney_boy) April 25, 2015
3. Membranous nephropathy with Daniel Cattran
Some guy named Daniel Cattran to talk about GNs. Wonder if he knows anything. #csn15
— Joel Topf (@kidney_boy) April 25, 2015
“@kidney_boy: @kidney_boy Cattran listening to Hladunewich lecture like a sailor. pic.twitter.com/g99hjG02fS” #CSN15
— Joel Topf (@kidney_boy) April 25, 2015
4. FSGS with Dr. Hladunewich
Proof. It really happened. #CSN15 #thingsYouDontSeeAtASN pic.twitter.com/i2FrGX8qHa
— Joel Topf (@kidney_boy) April 25, 2015
5. Screening cancer tests in dialysis patients. Dr. Zimmerman gave an excellent and practical talk.
Things you see at #CSN15: speakers wearing hockey sweaters. Oh Canada. pic.twitter.com/1FyhhXHhtq
— Joel Topf (@kidney_boy) April 24, 2015
If your dialysis pt is/has: age >80, CHF, CAD, CVD, PVD, or BMI<19 they get all the risk of the screening and none of the benefit. #csn15
— Joel Topf (@kidney_boy) April 24, 2015
Stop doing screening mammograms in ESRD #Csn15 pic.twitter.com/1oK5CWXW8R
— Joel Topf (@kidney_boy) April 24, 2015
Their were also a few debates. I was disappointed that I had to choose between GN and the hypertension debate. It sounds like it was outstanding:
Next up at #CSN15: Debate on should BP target in proteinuric CKD be 130/80? @NavTangri vs Rob Quinn pic.twitter.com/kYgtFrcojF
— Swapnil Hiremath, MD (@hswapnil) April 25, 2015
Pro: @navtangri cites AASK fu in @nejm (free) http://t.co/Qlzqi4EUmF of subgroup data to support his position #csn15
— Swapnil Hiremath, MD (@hswapnil) April 25, 2015
#CSN15: @NavTangri referring to a sub-group analysis on a surrogate outcome in ACCORD. Quinn looking more confident….
— Scott Brimble (@S_brimble) April 25, 2015
Pro: @navtangri attempts a pre-emptive strike against Quinn by trashing REIN-2 http://t.co/99SqdSH9w1 (in @thelancet) #csn15
— Swapnil Hiremath, MD (@hswapnil) April 25, 2015
Con: Quinn: MDRD study primary and secondary outcomes were actually all negative. So was AASK. (proteinuria was only +ve outcome) #csn15
— Swapnil Hiremath, MD (@hswapnil) April 25, 2015
Con: Quinn demolishing AASK: if U ACHIEVE a low BP (regardless of Rx) less progression. But if U TARGET lower BP, there is no diff. #csn15
— Swapnil Hiremath, MD (@hswapnil) April 25, 2015
Con: Quinn uses http://t.co/8A4UcGTgKI from @thelancet to make gr8 point of subgroup analyses interpretation #CSN15 pic.twitter.com/lrkzietZY2
— Swapnil Hiremath, MD (@hswapnil) April 25, 2015
Swapnil and I did our social media session.
👏 2 @hswapnil 4 a terrific lecture on social media
— Tejas Desai, MD (@nephondemand) April 24, 2015
`
Thanks, Tejas! #CSN15 especially @kidney_boy killed it! And gr8 job by @brownpa79 to @periscopeco it https://t.co/Hk00Wqtwnm
— Swapnil Hiremath, MD (@hswapnil) April 24, 2015
The talk was broadcast live on Periscope. So 21st century.
LIVE on #Periscope: #csn15 @hswapnil and @kidneyboy social media talk https://t.co/T0r0cwwRV1
— Pierre Antoine Brown (@brownpa79) April 24, 2015
The plan was a one-two punch, where Sawpnil presented why you should engage with social medi,a and I followed with a “how to” engage in social media. It went well. I had some trouble using Keynote on the iPhone app to advance the slides. I used Keynote on the iPhone to control Keynote on my computer. It worked perfectly during my (admittedly abbreviated) practice sessions and for about half my presentation before it crapped out. I need a more reliable solution, please tweet recommendations. The AV-guy was pretty good at picking up my signals to advance the slides but it wasn’t natural and threw my rhythm off. I’m Sorry Canada, I could’ve done better. That was another difference from ASN. At CSN they had no trouble wiring in my MacBook Air to their AV set-up. Much slicker than the MUST USE POWERPOINT party line from ASN.
I’ll post the slides when I get a chance, but first I need to add a slide crediting @Doctor_V and Howard Rheingold, who involuntarily donated ideas to my talk. And I want to pump up the Who to Follow section with a description of mining Symplur to find thought leaders. I also need a slide telling people about Twitter4Nephrons.
In the end, I had a great time at CSN and would definitely go again; maybe not next year in Halifax, but why don’t we meet the year after in British Columbia?