Nephrologists

[corona 247]

I have heard from many doctors of different specialties that nephrologists are one of the smartest physcians around. I am a MSII and have not been exposed to clinical medicine nor have ever met a nephrologist. Can someone tell me why this is true? I do not mean to insult or degrade nephrology in any way; I truly am interested about learining more about the field and was just curious about whats makes nephro so hard as to make most other docs praise the intellect of the renal guys (and gals)
Thanks!!

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[corona 247]

I know someone out there as some insight!

 

[JennyRx2007]

Don't know if they're the smartest out there, but I used to date a nephrologist that is one of the cheapest people that I know..hihi...hope that helps

 

[Renovar]

I have heard from many doctors of different specialties that nephrologists are one of the smartest physcians around. I am a MSII and have not been exposed to clinical medicine nor have ever met a nephrologist. Can someone tell me why this is true? I do not mean to insult or degrade nephrology in any way; I truly am interested about learining more about the field and was just curious about whats makes nephro so hard as to make most other docs praise the intellect of the renal guys (and gals)
Thanks!!

Nephrology is usually considered a cerebral field because:
1. Understanding the common problems that are dealt with in nephrology needs a good understanding of how kidney functions down to the level of different sections of the nephron and the amount of basic science and physiology needed is quite intense and not intuitive. Unlike cardiology or GI (ie. one can imagine the heart as a pump with pipelines supplying it, and GI as a hollow tube) where issues are much more self-explanatory/intuitive (not to say that there isn't any physiology or basic science involved, but they are much more conceivable by the average people).
2. Nephrologists are the primary physicians dealing with dialysis - 'nuff said. Stuff like urea kinetics, solute removal, membrane flux, etc are again not intuitive to most people.
3. Nephrologists not only need to know nephrology, they need to also be a good medicine doctor with good knowledge in general internal medicine. Whereas compared to some other subspecialty fields you can not worry about other aspects as medicine, that is not in case in nephrology. ESRD/HD patients all have other problems like hypertension, cardiac disease, diabetes and many of them have HIV, and are frequently affected by complications such as infections and electrolyte abnormalites.