Continuing Medical Education in Renal Pathology: Current Practices and Needs Among Nephrologists

BMC Medical Education (02/12/26) Han, Qianqian; Yuan, Jiamin; Zhao, Lijun; et al.

New research highlights the importance and need for renal pathology training. Researchers surveyed 256 nephrologists about their attitudes toward renal pathology in clinical diagnosis, treatment, and continuing medical education (CME). Among the respondents, 56.6% were female, 29.7% were older than age 40 years, 26.6% held senior titles, 41% had more than 10 years of experience, and 42.2% worked in Class B tertiary hospitals or lower. Although all participants endorsed the value of renal pathology, female and senior physicians expressed particularly positive attitudes, while those in primary institutions reported greater difficulty correlating pathology with clinical findings. Only 53.1% of the respondents attended at least one renal-pathology-related CME activity annually, most often limited by time constraints and insufficiently targeted content. Clinico-pathological case analysis was identified as the most essential training component, with senior physicians additionally seeking updates on advances and new technologies, and primary-level institutions emphasizing needs such as specimen referral support and telepathology consultation. Overall, the findings point to an urgent need to expand and tailor renal pathology CME, including practical remote slide-reading opportunities and training in report interpretation, research progress, and emerging techniques.

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