The annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), """"""""Kidney Week,"""""""" is the largest gathering in the world of clinical, translational and basic science investigators working in the field of nephrology. During the first two days of Kidney Week, the ASN sponsors a series of intensive symposia including an annual 2-day educational clinical research symposium for clinician investigators, graduate students, post- doctoral fellows, early- to mid-career academicians, practicing physicians and allied health care professionals. The subject area of this symposium is reviewed thoroughly by the ASN's Post-Graduate Education (PGE) Committee and reflects important and time-sensitive areas of clinical and translational investigation with important clinical and public health implications for the management of kidney diseases and their related comorbidities and complications. This year's symposium will be titled """"""""Update on Patient-Centered Outcomes Research in Kidney Disease"""""""" and held during the upcoming ASN Kidney Week on 10/30-31, 2012, at the San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA. The symposium will feature lectures by 27 leaders in the field, most recognized as world class experts who will speak on diverse aspects of design and conduct of patient-centered studies. The topics covered will include sessions on the important aspect of """"""""patient-centeredness,"""""""" on strategies to incorporate the input and preferences of diverse groups of stakeholders into all aspects of the research process, and particular emphasis will be put on aspects of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities to be considered in such research. The course will also provide detailed information on existing datasets for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research with particular emphasis on Medicare Part D medication data that have just recently become available for research through the USRDS. Scientists currently using these datasets will discuss their hands-on experiences with these data resources. Day 2 will focus on important considerations about study design, a range of traditional to highly innovative analytical techniques, and the appropriate communication and reporting of findings from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research studies. The selected topics are fully consistent with the NIH roadmap as well as the objectives of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to promote clinical and translational research with immediate impact on community health. At this conference, ASN members and other interested participants will have the chance to interact with world leaders in the field. The purpose of this grant application is to request funds for travl awards for junior faculty and early career investigators, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students, so that they can attend this conference during the first 2 days of this year's Kidney Week. Individuals from minorities and women are well represented among both planning committee and invited faculty members, and there are plans to sponsor underrepresented minority applicants and women as well as individuals with disabilities for the travel grants and other activities.
The goal of this annual conference is to improve education and awareness of the kidney disease community about the importance of clinical research with immediate impact on improving kidney disease outcomes in the community. The focus of this year's conference is to update the clinician investigators about the design and conduct of """"""""Patient Centered Outcomes Research,"""""""" which is research that directly informs decisions that patients and providers face among on comparative strategies in real world practice settings of largely unrestricted populations of patients. In the past, conference participants have developed collaborative relationships with some of the faculty speakers, which greatly helps advance kidney disease research and the potential to develop therapeutic strategies that may serve to improve the health of the population.
