Kelly V. Liang, MD, MS, FASN, FACP
Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, University of Kansas Medical Center (Kansas City, KS)
— MEDICAL SCHOOL —
Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA
— POST-GRAD TRAINING —
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN
What is your current position?
Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, University of Kansas Medical Center (Kansas City, KS)
Where did you attend medical school and post grad training?
Medical School: Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, PA)
Post Grad Training: Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (Rochester, MN)
Why did you choose to become a physician?
I chose to become a physician in order to relieve suffering and to make a positive difference in the world. My parents always encouraged me and my two sisters to become physicians, having seen the opportunities that it afforded my paternal uncle, who was a pediatrician. In addition, I attended the Pennsylvania Governor's School for Health Care (PGSHC) during the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, and this program further reinforced my interest in the health care field. It showed me all the different health care professions, and it solidified my belief that becoming a physician would be one of the noblest professions well suited to my empathetic personality.
What field of internal medicine did you select and why?
I selected to subspecialize in nephrology because of its wide scope and connections with all the different disciplines in the internal medicine field. I genuinely enjoyed all the different subspecialties when I rotated through them as a resident at Mayo Clinic, and it was exceedingly difficult to choose one in which to subspecialize. Yet, I knew I wanted to become an “expert” in a field and subspecialize into something that would still allow me to practice a lot of general medicine. Nephrology has that unique mix of both acute intensive care (ICU nephrology) and longitudinal care (CKD clinic and dialysis patients). It also has connections with rheumatology (glomerulonephritides), cardiology (cardiorenal syndrome), hepatology (hepatorenal syndrome), hematology (onconephrology), and so forth. The pathophysiology in nephrology is one of the most challenging yet most gratifying to master. The mix of intellectually stimulating cases and both acute and chronic care drew me to the nephrology field and ultimately led me to subspecialize in it.
Please describe a typical day in your practice.
I practice at an academic medical center, so my practice is a mix of inpatient rounding on hospital consults in both the floor and intensive care unit settings as well as outpatient clinics and dialysis rounding. I also am involved as a principal investigator for a number of clinical research studies and work with a research team in recruitment of patients into clinical trials and registry studies.
What are some of your special interests professionally?
I have special interests and have done clinical research in glomerular disorders (particularly, lupus nephritis and vasculitis), cardiorenal syndrome, acute kidney injury (AKI), and kidney stone disease.
What are your interests and hobbies outside of medicine?
Baking, watching figure skating and gymnastics, dining out, listening to music, going for walks, and playing the piano and flute.
What advice would you like to share with medical students or what do you wish someone would have told you while you were in medical school?
Listen to your intuition and listen to patients. They will often guide you to the correct diagnosis or the right management decisions. Give yourself grace, as you will not always be able to alter the course of a patient's disease, and that does not mean you did anything wrong. Also, no one is able to please every single patient, so believe in yourself and your abilities.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Being able to change the lives of patients for the better.
What is your most treasured possession?
Photographs of family and friends.
Who is your hero of fiction?
Harry Potter.
What is your motto?
“Everything happens for a reason.”
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