One of the tensions in NephMadness is how to decide the winners for each contest. Last year, Matt and Joel scripted every result. We were quite happy with the results but many people complained about the process. One option that was repeatedly suggested was to let the people vote. We decided not to do that, but we do have that information.

In the first round the Blue Ribbon Panel results agreed with the crowd in 25 of the 32 contests. The discrepancies were in these contests:

• Hypertonic saline got more votes than sodium restriction (189 to 153)
• SLED beat Conventional RRT (223 to 119)
• Norepinephrine beat vasopressin (204 to 138)
• Pregnancy in kidney transplant beat pregnancy in dialysis (210 to 132)
• Low sodium intake as a mortality risk factor beat high sodium intake as a hypertension risk factor (185 to 157)
• Obesity: ESRD Survival Factor beat Obesity: ESRD Risk Factor (180 to 162)
• Upstream Hemodynamics beat Downstream Vascular Biology (179 to 163)

We tip our collective hat to the wisdom of the crowd.

The top three vote getters in the first round:

1. Laparoscopic PD Placement with 312 votes (91%)
2. Nephron-Sparing Surgery with 289 votes (85%)
3. Epigenetics in Nephrology with 261 votes (76%)

The closest match was Vanco vs Pip/Tazo 172 to 170 with the edge to vanco.

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