The Nephrology Fellowship program at Wake Forest School of Medicine provides a comprehensive graduate medical education program for training in the subspecialty of nephrology.

The ACGME accredited program is designed to prepare fellows for successful careers in either clinical practice or academic medicine.

We are proud to produce some of the best clinically trained fellows in the country. Our graduates are consistently sought after by successful clinical practices nationwide.

Welcome from the Section Chief

Section Chief Dr. Barry I. Freedman provides an in-depth overview of the Nephrology Section and training program.

Why Train at Wake Forest?

Our Nephrology Fellowship Program offers a unique training experience. We are located in the heart of North Carolina, with a broad tertiary referral area encompassing all of western North Carolina, southern Virginia, and southern West Virginia. 

We provide care to a broad variety of patients in the convenience of a single center, including military veterans, indigent patients, and tertiary referral patients.

Some additional highlights include:

  • We have a large home dialysis program, with around 20 percent of dialysis patients on home dialysis
  • Our transplant center is consistently ranked in the top 50 programs for transplant volume staffed by four transplant nephrologists
  • We have an active interventional practice with two full time interventional nephrologists
  • Our 22 clinical faculty are a diverse group of excellent clinicians, among the best in the nation at delivering clinical care and teaching and are motivated to produce the next generation of top clinical nephrologists

Program Options

Fellows can choose one of two training options:

  • Two-year clinical training program
  • Two-year clinical training program, followed by a one- to two-year master's degree program in the Department of Public Health Sciences. Graduates receive an MS degree in clinical epidemiology

After graduating from the two-year clinical fellowship, we also offer:

  • Training in interventional nephrology up to one year. This post-fellowship interventional training program is open only to fellows graduating our clinical program and allows the participant to accrue experience and procedure volume toward certification by external associations.
  • Though not formally associated with our nephrology fellowship, Wake Forest also offers a critical care fellowship training program. This program can be completed in one year after a nephrology fellowship. Wake Forest Nephrology fellows graduates are considered strong internal applications for this separate, highly competitive program.

Why Choose Wake Forest for Fellowship?

Hear from several current fellows as they describe what they love about being at Wake Forest and living in Winston-Salem.

Program Goals

Our program is designed to help fellows:

  • Evaluate and manage clinical kidney disorders in both inpatient and outpatient settings
  • Gain knowledge of depurative therapies in acute and chronic settings using both in-center and home dialysis modalities
  • Train in immuno-biology and transplantation nephrology
  • Gain exposure to interventional nephrology procedures
  • Maintain the most current medical knowledge through participation in clinical conferences, journal clubs and research conferences
  • Gain experience in clinical research