DaVita® Medical Insights

Shaping the Future of Healthcare

Welcome to DaVita Medical Insights: a blog platform that gives clinical thought leaders the opportunity to share their knowledge and engage in a collaborative online community.

The current state of healthcare is cause for significant concern. Approximately half of American adults have one or more chronic health conditions, which are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. The cost of healthcare to individuals, governments and society is staggering, and healthcare expenditures are projected to grow by 5.8 percent per year through 2024. In addition, the growing needs of our aging population strains our ability to deliver high-quality, cost-effective care.

As clinicians, we play a vital role in helping to improve the healthcare landscape and deliver true value to patients and all stakeholders. This blog can provide us a space to share thoughts, ideas and information on how we can continue to enhance clinical outcomes and quality of life for our patients—while also being responsible stewards of the public resources that enable us to carry out our mission.

I encourage you to engage with this blog. Share your thoughts on posts that interest you, or email us if you are interested in authoring a blog post.

Join us as we shape the future of healthcare—we look forward to collaborating with you.

Allen R. Nissenson, MD, FACP, FASN, FNKF

Prolific author and renowned authority on kidney disease, Allen R. Nissenson, MD, is chief medical officer for DaVita Kidney Care and emeritus professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where he has served as director of the dialysis program and associate dean. Dr. Nissenson is also co-chair of the Kidney Care Partners Quality Initiative. Dr. Nissenson served as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow of the Institute of Medicine from 1994–1995 and worked in the office of the late Senator Paul Wellstone. He is a former president of the Renal Physicians Association (RPA), served on the RPA Board of Directors as a special advisor to the president and is a former president of the Southern California End-Stage Renal Disease Network. He is the author of more than 700 scientific papers and the editor of two dialysis textbooks, one in its fourth edition and the other just released in its 5th edition. Dr. Nissenson earned his medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School and is the recipient of various awards, including the AAKP Medal of Excellence award, the Lifetime Achievement Award in Hemodialysis and the National Kidney Foundation “Man of the Year” award. Twitter: @DrNissenson