Department of Pediatrics

Faculty of Medicine

Nephrology

A focus on kidneys

In Dalhousie’s Division of Nephrology of the Department of Pediatrics, we focus on the physiology and diseases of the kidney through a combination of clinical and teaching activities and research.

Clinical activities

In collaboration with the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, our faculty members see about 3,500 patients every year. Some of these patients are experiencing end-stage renal failure and require nephrological expertise for their primary problems.

We also have an active dialysis program that involves both peritoneal dialysis (acute and chronic central auditory processing disorder), as well as:

  • hemodialysis
  • continuous venovenous hemofiltration
  • continuous venovenous hemodialysis
  • continuous arteriovenous haemofiltration
  • continuous arteriovenous hemodialysis

We’ve made pediatric kidney transplantation a priority for children in the Atlantic region. Our surgeons, who perform surgery on about eight children a year at the IWK Health Centre, are part of the larger adult program. We’ve also been able to reduce the number of chronic hemodialysis patients—although acute hemodialysis is still very necessary.

There is also an Inpatient Unit for Pediatric Nephrology on a facility shared with the Hematology/Oncology service.

Teaching activities

Fully accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the pediatric nephrology program offers an undergraduate lecture series in pediatric nephrology. The program is coordinated in collaboration with Memorial University so that similar material is taught at both centres.

We also offer pediatric residency rotations to both Dalhousie and Memorial. These rotations are very popular since they offer:

  • an organized teaching format
  • one-on-one weekly seminars
  • an adult organized lecture series
  • journal club
  • a pediatric series

There’s also a fellowship program, which typically runs for two years. When our fellows complete the program, we encourage them to broaden their training by completing an extra year at another centre.

Thanks to the effort of both the IWK Health Centre and our faculty—who work to ensure that our fellows develop research goals—most of our fellows leave the training program with at least one publication in their field.

Research interests

For the last 30 years, our program has benefitted from continuous external funding. This has resulted in basic science collaboration from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Department of Pharmacology.

On the clinical side, we’ve also enjoyed collaboration with:

We also have a basic wet lab operating within the pediatric nephrology site.

Our people

Faculty

Contact info

Email: philip.acott@iwk.nshealth.ca
Phone: 902-470-8195
Fax: 902-470-8900

Address:
Division of Pediatric Nephrology
PO Box 9700
5850/5980 University Avenue
Halifax, NS  B3K 6R8