Our mission is to teach, role model, continually self-evaluate, innovate and inspire our learners to provide holistic patient-centred care in leading to a competent, compassionate, dedicated and well-rounded transplant nephrologist.
Our vision is to be leaders in Transplant Nephrology Education by empowering our learners to strive for excellence and innovation in all CanMEDS domains leading to a responsible, professional and competent nephrologist with a strong commitment to patient-centred care, research and commitment to society, to lead, represent and protect patients with renal disease.
The McMaster University AFC Solid Organ Transplant /AST Renal Transplant Fellowship Program is a learner-centred program with a strong emphasis on competency-based education. The program is unique in that it is accredited by both the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the American Society of Transplantation.
The McMaster University Renal Transplant Fellowship Program is a competency-based training program that has a strong emphasis on providing a comprehensive learning experience in order to achieve skills in all CanMEDS domains. The program is designed to be a one-year training program.
The curriculum is unique and aimed to provide exposure to all aspects of transplantation yet allowing for flexibility and self-directed learning. The program is tailored to learner needs and therefore a variety of assessment methods are utilized in order to provide trainees feedback and guidance.
There is a dedicated and protected transplant academic half-day led by faculty and presented in both lecture and case-based formats. The faculty are extremely motivated and oversee all aspects of education.
The Renal Transplant Program at McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton is one of the largest clinical programs in Canada and therefore fellows are exposed to a highly complex pool of patients. The program performs living donor, paired exchange, deceased donor, extended criteria donor and high-risk transplantation and has associated with it a large renal transplant outpatient clinic. The program emphasizes full patient care including an emphasis on performing transplant biopsies.
The academic program also has a strong clinical, basic science and medical education research component. There are numerous renowned faculty within the Division of Nephrology who lead major research projects and are leaders in their field. A strong research infrastructure to support trainees in pursuing either clinical, basic science or medical education research is provided. In addition, residents are provided training in completing a quality improvement and patient safety project.
The successful completion of the AFC/AST fellowship will grant the following certifications:
The fellowship program is designed for individuals who have graduated or will be graduating in the upcoming academic year from an Adult Nephrology residency program. For graduates from Canadian and foreign nephrology training programs, please provide the following:
For graduates from foreign Internal Medicine training programs, the deadline is December 1 prior to entry into the upcoming academic year which starts on July 1st.
The McMaster University Renal Transplant Training program has as its core objective to graduate trainees who are practical and competent transplant specialists. There is a strong emphasis on acquiring knowledge in a contextual manner to help integrate and consolidate knowledge in developing competencies in renal transplant-related problems and diagnostic procedures.
The McMaster University Renal Transplant Fellowship program is accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s AFC Solid Organ Transplantation program and American Society of Transplantation. The goals and objectives are designed to achieve comprehensive competencies as outlined by these accreditation bodies.
An outline of our milestone map and phases of training are identified below:
Transition to Discipline: Block 1
Foundations of Discipline: Blocks 2-5
Core of Discipline: Blocks 6-11
Transition to Practice: Block 12-13