Department of Medicine

Nephrology, Hypertension & Renal Transplantation

Welcome!

The Division of Nephrology, Hypertension and Transplantation at the University of Florida has a distinguished faculty who are involved in patient care, research and teaching.

The previous directors of the division include C. Craig Tisher, M.D., former Dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Florida and editor of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, and the late Robert Cade, M.D., inventor of Gatorade®.

The Nephrology, Hypertension, and Transplantation Division at the University of Florida has the major mission of providing outstanding clinical care in a setting of extensive basic and clinical research and training programs. Led by Dr. Richard Johnson, an internationally known investigator in hypertension and kidney disease, the program offers the following:

Clinical Program
The Division provides outstanding medical care for subjects with new onset and/or complicated hypertension, diabetic kidney disease, glomerulonephritis, acute and chronic renal failure, and renal transplantation. Patients entering the clinics are not just offered routine medical care but are invited to participate in clinical studies searching for the cause and or cure of their disease. The plan is to develop NIH Centers of Excellence in Hypertension and Renal Disease. The dialysis patients managed by the Division exceed national and local standards for the quality of their dialysis and the unit boasts one of the lowest mortality rates in the country. Two new dialysis centers recently opened. The transplantation program, previously led by Dr. Bruce Kaplan, and currently led by Dr. Meier-Kriesche and Dr. Dick Howard (from Transplant Surgery), is a state-of-the-art program utilizing the newest and safest immunosuppressive agents.

Education Program
The Division has an ACGME-certified training program in nephrology as well as a National Institutes of Health Training Program (T32) to provide exceptional training for the fellow who wants to enter into a career in clinical nephrology and/or a career in academic medicine in the field of nephrology, hypertension or transplantation. The next year we plan to develop a high-profile education program with the residents and medical students under the directorship of Dr. Zvi Talor. The program already has a history of exceptional teaching as evidenced by the fact that the most popular clinical nephrology textbook worldwide is co-edited by the Chief of the Section (‘Comprehensive Clinical Nephrology’, eds Richard J Johnson and John Feehally, Harcourt, 2003, 2nd edition) and that the extremely popular Nephrology and Hypertension for House Officers is edited by the prior chief and past Dean, Dr. C. Tisher (Nephrology Handbook).

Research Contributions
The Division has a long history of major contributions to the field, heralded by the introduction of physiologically based solutions to treat sports-related dehydration by the late Dr. Robert Cade (former Chief), leading to the invention of Gatorade, and to the discovery of one of the major cell types in the kidney involved in the excretion of body acids by Dr. CC Tisher (former Chief and past Dean). Current research is focused on identifying the cause and future cure of essential hypertension (Dr. R J Johnson), identification of critical transport mechanisms involved in kidney acid and ammonia regulation (D Weiner and C Wingo), the key role for the vasculature in mechanisms involved in kidney failure (M Segal, R J Johnson), studies to prevent hypertension and kidney disease in African Americans (R Johnson, CC Tisher and T Srinivas) and ways to predict and prevent rejection of the kidney transplant (H-U. Meier-Kriesche, M. Vaghela T.S. Srinivas, G. Guerra). The Division boasts over 1 million dollars direct yearly support by the NIH and other institutions with over 30 publications per year. Dr. Johnson (Director) has been invited to give a state of the art in past years for his societies. In addition, we inaugurated the Robert Cade Lectureship in Internal Medicine with Dr. Don Seldin as the first Cade Professor and with a celebration in Dr. Cade’s honor on January 15th, 2004 and we also launched the CC Tisher Visiting Professor lecture series with Dr. Eberhard Ritz as the first Tisher Visiting Professor in early March 2004.