Picking Up the Slack: Collaboration Tools to Build Community and Increase Productivity in Nephrology

With a growing need to recruit the future nephrology workforce, medical educators and members of the nephrology community are turning to innovative approaches to improve communication and stimulate dialogue in the field. One feasible strategy is the use of electronic collaboration tools such as Slack (Slack Technologies, San Francisco, CA), which facilitates real-time conversational communication in a private or semiprivate virtual workspace. The potential uses of Slack for nephrology education, research collaboration, and community building are outlined in this overview.