WashU Nephrology congratulates Anuja Java, MD, who has been appointed to the Veterans Affairs Kidney Medicine Field Advisory Board (FAB). She will head a newly launched kidney transplant subcommittee that is tasked with improving coordination of care and reporting quality of care for Veterans receiving maintenance dialysis in the community with a particular focus on increasing referrals for kidney transplant evaluations.
Dr. Java is a renowned physician-scientist and an expert in rare complement diseases and their involvement in kidney damage. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology and Director of Kidney Transplant at the John Cochran VA Medical Center.
“This is an opportunity for me to potentially define quality metrics and set some national goals and standards to improve transplantation nationally for the VA,” says Java.
Chaired by Rudy Rodriguez, MD, Director of Hospital and Specialty Medicine at the VA Puget Sound Health Care Systems and Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington, the FAB is helping to transform renal programs within the VA including the education of providers and patients. Java was appointed to the FAB through the VHA Kidney Medicine Program, which is under the leadership of Susan Crowley, MD, MBA, FASN, VHA National Program Director for Kidney Disease and Dialysis and Chief, Renal Section, VA Connecticut Healthcare Systems, and Paul Palevsky, MD, FASN, Chief of the Kidney Medicine Section at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and Deputy National Program Director of the VHA Nephrology Program.
The new transplant subcommittee will join the ranks of the other FAB subcommittees: point-of-care ultrasound technology (POCUS), quality metrics, home dialysis, eGFR implementation, and CKD and emergency preparedness.
In addition to her extensive clinical duties and extracurricular commitments, Java is also devoted to her research studies. In 2021, she was awarded a Longer Life Foundation Grant to study the role of complement genetic mutations in the development of preeclampsia. She was recently notified that the grant has been approved for full funding for a second year. The reviewing committee congratulated Java on her “excellent proposal” and stated that her project was among the most highly ranked.
Learn more about Dr. Java and her many accomplishments here. On Twitter, follow @anuja_java, and keep up with our division @WUNephrology.