ASPN Member of the Month is highlighting Dr. H. Rhodes Hambrick, MD, MS. Dr. Hambrick is being recognized for impactful contributions as a nephrologist and pharmacist, and also as a great teacher and clinician.
- Introduction and current role
I am a pediatric nephrologist and clinical pharmacologist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. My clinical practice spans the breadth of pediatric nephrology, with particular interests in acute kidney injury, dialysis and extracorporeal therapies, and clinical pharmacology, specifically how medication pharmacokinetics change in the context of acute kidney injury and in patients receiving dialysis. I help lead our acute dialysis and apheresis program and am closely involved in our chronic dialysis and kidney biopsy programs. Alongside my clinical work, I have built a career that intentionally combines collaborative research, program development, and medical education. Teaching and mentorship are especially important to me, and I teach a medical decision-making course for first-year medical students aimed at promoting understanding of clinical research and am a coach for our pediatric residency program, providing longitudinal mentorship and 1:1 observations for 1/4 of a class of residents.
- Clinical and research interests
Clinically, I am especially interested in critical care nephrology, acute kidney injury, CRRT, and the pharmacologic challenges of caring for children with kidney disease. My research sits at the intersection of pediatric nephrology and clinical pharmacology, focusing on how changing kidney function and extracorporeal therapies alter drug disposition and how to translate those changes into more individualized dosing.
Much of my work has focused on beta-lactam pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in critically ill children, including cefepime, ceftriaxone, piperacillin, and meropenem. I use population pharmacokinetic modeling, simulation, and model-informed precision dosing to study the effects of kidney function, CRRT prescription, and biomarkers such as cystatin C and urinary NGAL on drug clearance and exposure. I also consult for Cincinnati Children’s beta-lactam precision-dosing service, with particular expertise in kidney dysfunction and dialysis. Ultimately, my goal is to improve medication dosing for children with acute kidney injury, augmented renal clearance, and those receiving dialysis.
- Biggest accomplishments in the past year
This year, I became Medical Director of the Acute Dialysis and Pheresis Therapies program at Lurie Children’s, helping lead and improve dialysis and apheresis care across the hospital. My precision-dosing research has also continued to grow, with publications on beta-lactam pharmacokinetics, cefepime dosing during CRRT and neurotoxicity, and antimicrobial dosing during kidney replacement therapy, along with national presentations at pediatric nephrology, clinical pharmacology, and pediatric research meetings.
I was also named to the McGaw/Lurie Pediatrics Faculty Excellence in Education Honor Roll for the second consecutive year and selected as a pediatric residency coach. I helped launch a multi-institutional collaborative focused on dialysis and clinical pharmacology, which recently had its first publication accepted, and became board-certified in Clinical Pharmacology. I now apply that expertise through precision-dosing consultations at both Cincinnati Children’s and Lurie, including beta-lactams, mycophenolate, and tacrolimus.
More than any individual accomplishment, I am proud that nephrology, pharmacology, research, education, and program development increasingly feel like one coherent career.
- What you love most about your job
What I love most is the combination of complexity, relationships, and variety. Pediatric nephrology requires you to think deeply about physiology and make nuanced decisions, often in collaboration with intensivists, pharmacists, surgeons, nurses, and many others. At the same time, you get to build long-term relationships with children and families and to teach trainees how to approach difficult problems. I also love that no two days look quite the same: I might be managing a critically ill child on dialysis, teaching a resident, working through a pharmacology question, and developing a new guideline all in the same day.
- A fun fact about yourself
Outside of medicine, I sing Bass 2 with the Apollo Chorus of Chicago. Singing has been an important creative outlet for me, and I especially enjoy performing large choral works such as Messiah, Brahms’ Requiem, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. I even had a brief solo in the Bach St Matthew Passion as one of the high priests who condemns Jesus to crucifixion…in German, no less! I’ll sing it for you, if you ask politely 😉
Posted: September 9, 2026