Clinical excellence in nephrology: Examples from the published literature

BACKGROUND: Provision of exceptional medical care is a goal for the medical profession because this is what the public needs and deserves. Academic medical centers that value excellent clinicians may have the best chance to recruit and retain these faculty members. When our institution hoped to launch the Miller Coulson Academy of Clinical Excellence to measure and reward master clinicians, a critical first step was to use rigorous methods to develop a definition of clinical excellence. Published papers have illustrated that this general definition of clinical excellence is applicable to fields of psychiatry, cardiology, and pediatrics. SUMMARY: In this manuscript, we apply the definition of clinical excellence to nephrology. Using the same framework, we reviewed the literature to find clinical cases and exemplary nephrologists that highlight the specific domains. This collection of reports in nephrology illustrates that the definition of clinical excellence set forth by the Miller Coulson Academy is highly applicable to physicians caring for individuals with kidney disease. Relating the definition of clinical excellence to renal medicine is worthwhile in that it can help to exemplify the model to which physicians and trainees may seek to aspire. KEY MESSAGE: Many examples of clinical excellence in renal medicine can be found in the published medical literature. The domains of clinical excellence, described by the Miller-Coulson Academy of Clinical Excellence, apply very well to the field of nephrology.