NEPHRONPOWER 1000th post: A tribute to a Nate Hellman

The 1000^th post on Nephronpower is dedicated to the pioneer in the use of Web 2.0 and blogging in nephrology- Dr. Nathan Hellman (Nate). 

       

Nate was the creator and founder of renal fellow network, the most influential blogging site in nephrology and in many ways- medicine. It’s his dedication and passion that inspired the creation of nephronpower.

Nate was a fellow in the Division of Nephrology at MGH-BWH Harvard University, died in 2010 at the MGH following a short illness. He was 36 years old. Hellman completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 and spent the following year as a Fulbright research scholar at the Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades in Paris, France. He joined the MGH in August 2007 as a clinical fellow in the Division of Nephrology. He was to be appointed a faculty member in the Division of Nephrology in July. A recent award has been created under his name. 

I asked one of his colleagues Dr. Anna Greka to comment and she said, "Nathan touched all of our lives with his warm heart and spirit, great sense of humor and remarkable intellect." 

       Blogging in nephrology was non existence before him. He made this possible. The nephrology community has embraced what he had been doing for many years prior to its prime time. It’s due to his passion and commitment, many physician based blogs exist in nephrology. A recent publication by a prior renal fellow network writer summarizes that.  It’s due to his commitment, now journal based Web 2.0 websites have come to exist in nephrology namely CJASN and AJKD.  Divisions around the world also have blogging sites now with ECU and Univ of Toronto leading the way.

       None of this would have been possible without Nate. Thank you, Nate for making a positive dent in nephrology education. Today, he deserves a standing ovation from the medical education world of nephrology.