American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week Care of Kidney Transplant Candidates and Recipients 2025

The Care of Kidney Transplant Candidates and Recipients was a full-day Early Program held immediately prior to the main ASN Kidney Week 2025 Scientific Exposition. This course was designed to bridge the operational and clinical gap between “general” nephrology and specialized “transplant” nephrology.
Held in Houston, the program utilized a case-based approach to address the entire continuum of transplant care—from the initial evaluation and waitlisting process to the long-term management of immunosuppression and graft surveillance. It acknowledged the workforce shortages in transplant medicine and focused on empowering general nephrologists to handle more of the pre- and post-transplant burden.
+ What You Will Learn
The curriculum was practical and workflow-focused, aimed at clinicians who may not practice in a transplant center but manage these patients daily. Key learning outcomes included:

Evaluation Efficiency: Strategies to streamline the transplant workup and overcome barriers to listing (e.g., managing BMI limits or cardiac clearance).

The “Warm Hand-Off”: Best practices for transitioning care between the transplant center and the community nephrologist to prevent patients from “falling through the cracks.”

Immunosuppression Management: How to balance the risks of rejection (under-immunosuppression) vs. infection/malignancy (over-immunosuppression) in the long-term maintenance phase.

Living with an Allograft: Managing non-immunological complications such as post-transplant diabetes, bone disease, and cardiovascular risk reduction.

+ Event Details

Event: Care of Kidney Transplant Candidates and Recipients (ASN Early Program)

Date: November 5, 2025 (Wednesday)

Location: Grand Ballroom A, George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas, USA

Moderators: Vineeta Kumar, MD, FASN and Karin A. True, MD, FASN.

+ Who Should Attend

General Nephrologists: Who manage patients on the waitlist or provide long-term post-transplant care in the community.

Transplant Coordinators & APPs: Who handle the logistical hurdles of the evaluation phase.

Primary Care Physicians (GPs): With a large renal volume who need to understand when to refer CKD patients for transplant evaluation (typically GFR < 20-30). + Why Attend (or Watch) Workforce Reality: The course explicitly addressed the “Workforce and Resource Limitations” currently facing nephrology, offering models for how generalists and specialists can co-manage patients to ensure access to care. Faculty Expertise: The session was led by Dr. Vineeta Kumar, a leader in transplant education, ensuring that the content was not just theoretical but grounded in the operational realities of high-volume transplant centers. Beyond the Surgery: Unlike surgical conferences, this course focused on the “Medical Home” for the transplant patient—keeping the patient healthy enough to get the organ, and keeping the organ healthy after they get it. + Topics The agenda included focused modules: Pre-Transplant: Strategies to Increase Access to Organs. Waitlist Management: Keeping patients “active” and avoiding de-listing. Perioperative & Early Phase: The Failing Allograft: When to restart dialysis and when to consider re-transplantation. Long-Term Management: Optimization: Managing hypertension and dyslipidemia in the context of calcineurin inhibitors. Transitions: Protocols for sending the patient back to their referring nephrologist.