A Nephrologist is a physician who is a medical specialist that specializes in kidney care and treating diseases of the kidneys. The term nephrologist comes from the Greek word “nephros”, which means kidney, and “ologist” refers to someone who studies. Nephrologists are also called kidney doctors. Nephrologists, following medical school training, are educated in Internal Medicine and then undergo more training to specialize in treating patients with kidney diseases. They commonly treat chronic kidney disease, acute kidney injury or failure, high blood pressure, kidney stones, end stage kidney disease including different forms of dialysis and transplantation.
Nephrology is categorized as a specialty of Internal Medicine. Nephrologists must graduate from an approved medical school, complete a three-year residency in Internal Medicine and pass the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada internal medicine specialty certification exams before they can begin to study nephrology.
Once they have passed the Internal Medicine Royal College exams, they must complete a two fellowship in an accredited Nephrology program, and thereafter successfully complete the Royal College examination in the Specialty of Nephrology.