Dr. Keia Sanderson, MD, MSCR
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
Director, Pediatric Dialysis Services
University of North Carolina
What was your main motivation for pursuing a field in nephrology?
I always wanted to be a helper. I wanted to help others in need. That was something my parents helped foster in me at an early age. I didn’t know that I wanted to be a doctor right away or even in high school. I didn’t know nephrologists existed until medical school. It was through shadowing experiences that gradually led me into medicine and then eventually in Nephrology. For example, I shadowed a family medicine doctor for a school science project and became interested in Family Medicine because I saw that it was an opportunity to help sick people. This led me to declare my interest in pursuing medicine as a college undergraduate student. When I was in medical school I learned about kidney physiology and met and shadowed other nephrologists and I was particularly inspired by the field and enjoyed learning kidney physiology the most.
What are the primary differences between kidney diseases found in adolescents compared to adults?
There are many similarities and much overlap of kidney disease between adolescents and adults. The primary difference between the age groups are the underlying causes. Adolescents are more likely to have kidney disease related to something that were born with (e.g. a genetic mutation or developmental abnormality) while adults may be more likely to have an acquired kidney disease such as diabetic kidney disease that they have required as a result of long-standing diabetes.
How do the symptoms of acute kidney diseases vary from those of chronic ones?
Kidney disease both acute and chronic are relatively asymptomatic and there aren’t a lot of symptom variation. In some acute kidney diseases you might have blood in your urine that you can visibly see or swelling of your face and ankles. This may be the only clue. The many other parts of kidney disease often only show up on labs.
Has there been any discoveries regarding nephrology in the last few years that have shaped the field of research?
Too many to count! Lots of exciting research on ways to treat diabetic kidney disease which is very common and challenging disease to treat in adults.
People are working on an artificial kidney for those that develop kidney failure which would help so many people who have kidney failure and don’t have a matching kidney donor.
Has the COVID-19 Pandemic affected your career in any way? If so, how?
We’ve had to learn to navigate the new normal with more video clinic visits for our patients to reduce their exposure to the clinics and the need for travel. In some ways this is helpful for patients but in some ways its difficult for patients and nephrologists. Its hard to tell if someone is sick through a virtual visit!