Welcome to former renal fellow Andy Chuu, MD, who has joined the faculty of WashU Nephrology and the Veterans Affairs (VA) St. Louis Health Care System. Currently a clinical instructor, he will be promoted to assistant professor of medicine on October 1, 2020.
Born in St. Louis, MO, Dr. Chuu completed his undergraduate studies in Nutritional Sciences/Dietetics at the University of Missouri, Columbia, after a pre-med year at Saint Louis University. He earned his medical degree from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, AZ, completed his resident at the Mayo Clinic Arizona, and just finished a two-year renal fellowship here in the Division of Nephrology.
Chuu’s clinical interests include the study of cardiovascular diseases in chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease. During his renal fellowship, he was part of the research team that received the inaugural Clinical Innovation Grant awarded by the Division of Nephrology for a research study titled “The Effect of Intra-dialytic Potassium and Magnesium Fluctuations on Cardiovascular Functioning in ESRD Patients Undergoing In-center Hemodialysis.” The study was led by assistant profess of medicine Frank O’Brien, MD, with Michael Rauchman MD, Daniel Cooper, MD, Phyllis Stein, PhD, Andy Chuu, MD, and Amber Salter, PhD making up the other team members.
Presenting at the 2019 ASN Kidney Week, Chuu was first author of a poster titled “Effect of Transition from Vitamin D2 to Vitamin D3 Supplementation on Serum 25(OH)D Levels in Patients on Chronic In-Center Hemodialysis” and was co-author of the poster “Benefits of Renal Artery Stenting in Select Cases with Severe Renal Artery Stenosis and AKI,” which was selected as a topic of interest for students and residents, as part of the ASN Kidney STARS program.
The last few months of Chuu’s renal fellowship coincided with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. He got to see first-hand how our fellowship program and divisional leadership took on the response to the pandemic. “In addition to their response in fellow safety and patient care, they have also made great efforts to maintain important aspects of fellow training, such as education and wellbeing,” he says.
“I appreciate all that has been done by the faculty within our division to support the fellows and am also inspired by their efforts in battling this pandemic.”
Dr. Andy Chuu
Chuu’s outside interests include nutrition (he was a registered dietician until 2015), fitness and musical composition.
Follow Dr. Chuu @ChuuAndy and WashU Nephrology @WUNephrology on Twitter.