#NephMadness 2021: Thank You

Posted on April 16, 2021 by AJKDblog in NephMadness // 0 Comments

The NephMadness Court of Champions welcomes a new member: Implantable Bioartificial Kidney

Each year, NephMadness has a few surprises such as an unexpected favorite in the Blue Ribbon Panel’s picks or a Twitter guide to NephMadness and Schitt’s Creek. This year, the ongoing response to COVID-19 and lessons learned during the pandemic continued to be a major part of the story, but as we saw with strong showings from the Medical Student Interest and Resident Interest teams, as well most of the Primary Care region, the ongoing development of the profession and patient care is a major focus for the future.

Speaking of the future, self-described “new kid on the block” Team HIF Stabilizers was the pick for the crowd, with 28% of bracket entries choosing it as champion, more than doubling the picks for the crowd’s runner-up COVID-19 in Dialysis. The Blue Ribbon Panel felt differently, with 2/3 of the vote going to champion Implantable Bioartificial Kidney over runner-up Dialysis Timing in Surgical ICU. Was this a #BlueRibbonFail? Take a closer look at those totals — the entire Artificial Kidney region had incredibly consistent performance, second only to the entire COVID-19 region’s performance. But, as members of the Blue Ribbon Panel noted, “COVID-19 will not be with us forever,“ whereas with “Implantable Bioartificial Kidney […] The future is here. 🎉”

NephMadness 2021 also produced another surprise: after an understandable reduction in participation in 2020 in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s 1,313 entries and 7,024 tweets rivaled pre-pandemic figures.


There was also strong international representation again this year – about half of NephMadness entries came from outside the United States:

After announcing the 2021 Champion and Winners, we would like to thank everyone who helped make this year’s NephMadness a reality (and apologies in advance to anyone we may have inadvertently missed):

AJKD Editors

Blue Ribbon Panel

Selection Committee

Region Writers

Commentary Contributors

Visual Abstract Creators

NSMC Interns

AJKD Social Media Advisory Group

These folks didn’t fit into a neat category but NephMadness 2021 would not have been possible without them:

  • NephTwitter as always for vibrant discussion and debate
  • Cathy Quinlan @KidneyCathy pulled double duty, serving as a member of the BRP and creating this year’s edition of her always helpful explainer video
  • East Tennessee Childrens Nephrology team @EastTNChildrens for their party post
  • The Curbsiders @thecurbsiders for the entertaining and informative podcasts
  • Yue (Flora) Chen from Penn Student Design for designing the 2021 logo (check out more of her work here)
  • Susan Allison for arranging free Nature Reviews Nephrology subscription for the Grand Prize Winners
  • Sarah Pratta and Nancy Rolya at Elsevier
  • National Kidney Foundation @nkf @NKF_NephPros
  • AJKD Staff: Nijsje Dorman, Alina Foo, Noah Skaroff, Andrew Fleming, Barb Saper, Flora Ho, and Tseion Mebratu

And finally, a special THANK YOU to all of our game players!

We wish you all the best as you take care of your patients and each other, and here’s hoping for a great NephMadness 2021!

The NephMadness Exec Team:

Friendly Reminder: The bracket fun may be over but NephMadness content will still be around on the AJKDBlog. US-based physicians can claim CME and MOC until June 14th, 2021. Instructions are provided below and at the end of every region post.

How to Claim CME and MOC
US-based physicians can earn 1.0 CME credit and 1.0 MOC point for reading this region.

  1. Register/log in to the NKF’s Professional Education Resource Center (PERC). If you select “Physician” in the drop-down menu during registration, the ABIM ID will pop up – make sure to complete this during registration to receive MOC points after course completion.
  2. Review the activity, disclosure, and accreditation information.
  3. Click “Continue” and review Course Instructions.
  4. Complete Post-Test. Please note: By selecting “Yes” to the participation questions for each region, the corresponding Post-Test questions will appear. Click “Save Draft” to save your responses and finish later. When you are ready to submit your answers, click “Preview” to review all responses, then click “Submit.”
  5. Click “Next” to complete the Evaluation form, then click“Submit.”
  6. Claim 1.0 CME credit and 1.0 MOC point per region (up to 8.0 total for 8 regions of NephMadness).
  7. Save/print your certificate.

The CME and MOC activity will expire on June 14th, 2021.

Final Standings | Match Results | NephMadness 2021 | #NephMadness

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