Roles
Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics
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Biography
Dr. DeFreitas is an associate professor of clinical pediatrics, who has been in practice for more than 9 years. She currently serves as the associate program director of the Pediatrics Nephrology Fellowship Program. Nationally, she holds leadership roles in the Neonatal Kidney Collaborative and the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children Study. Her dedication to research is specifically in the field of neonatal nephrology, exploring the impact of preterm birth on future kidney health. In addition to caring for all types of pediatric kidney conditions, she provides targeted care in kidney transplantation. -
Education & Training
Education
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Teaching Interests
My primary teaching roles have centered around the education of various trainees rotating through the pediatric nephrology core and elective rotations both in the inpatient and outpatient settings. This includes teaching of UM medical students, pediatric residents, and nephrology fellows on clinical rotations. I have been invited to speak in a didactic format to several of these audiences on topics related to pediatric nephrology. Extramurally, I have been invited to speak at local, regional, and national meetings also related to topics including my research interest of prematurity related chronic kidney disease. I have also been assigned to mentor and teach trainees in their scholarly work including several nephrology fellows and recently a medical student summer research intern funded by the NIH UM KIIMERA(University of Miami kidney Innovative & Interdisciplinary Medical Education in Research) Program. In addition, the development of workshop programming for our annual Pediatric Nephrology Seminar has provided a platform to educate the larger and international nephrology fellow community on core nephrology procedures and techniques. -
Research Interests
I am an associate professor and pediatric nephrologist with a research interest in the field of fetal programming of adult disease, specifically as it relates to the long-term cardiovascular and renal risks of preterm birth. As a fellow, I participated in the recruitment and follow up of 54 mothers and infants in a sub-study of the Gerber Infant Kidney Study at our center. The goal was to investigate umbilical cord histomorphometry and urine biomarkers across gestational age groups. In 2019, I was awarded the Batchelor Scholars Award to study the “Developmental Changes in Kidney Progenitor Cell Profiles among Preterm Infants”. I am an active member of the Neonatal Kidney Collaborative (NKC) as an Education Committee Co-Chair and also member of the Research Committee. I was awarded the KL2 Career Development Award through the Miami CTSI for the project entitled “Soluble Klotho as a Predictor of Reduced Nephron Endowment and Kidney Injury in Preterm Infants”. Other clinical and research collaborations include participation with the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children Study (CKiD) and the North American Pediatric Renal Trials and Collaborative Studies (NAPRTCS). Similarly, she has maintained collaborations with the Pediatric Nephrology Research Consortium (PNRC). -
Publications
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