Adjunct faculty typically have an academic or research appointment at another institution and contribute or collaborate with one or more School of Medicine faculty members or programs.
Adjunct rank detailsAli Abu-Alfa, MD, FASN, FAHA
Professor AdjunctAbout
Research
Overview
I am primarily interested in improving the delivery and methods of peritoneal dialysis, as part of improving delivery of care and increasing accessibility to the therapy in both resource-rich and resource-limited settings. Given that 15 million patients in need of kidney replacement therapy will not have access to it in 2030 worldwide, solutions such as cheaper PD have been a focus for both the International Society for Peritoneal Dialysis and the International Society of Nephrology.
I have maintained a long-standing interest in optimizing the care of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) with particular focus on anemia management and CKD-MBD, and on the transition to the renal replacement therapy phase. Another long-standing interest has also been in Gadolinium-based Contrast Agents and their use in renal patients, focusing on risk reduction and updating policies, watching for any new adverse events now that Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis has essentially disappeared.
More recently, and with some funding becoming available, I rekindled our group's interest in studying glomerular diseases and the genetic basis for familial clustering we commonly seen in our practice at AUB, caring for patients from Lebanon as well as from surrounding countries with even higher consanguinity rates. A project has now moved to execution phase starting with establishment of a registry. A large number of biopsies have been sent to Yale for Electron Microscopy evaluation since 2012 which provides strong basis for diagnostic accuracy. Collaboration is planned with the Nephrology team at Yale as work progresses. Similar work was started for Polycystic Kidney Disease with an already launched prospective registry.