Davita Medical Insights

Listen to this podcast, in which Sara Colman, RD, CDE, the manager of Kidney Care Nutrition for DaVita interviews Natalie Sexton, MS, RDN, CSR, LD, a dietitian for DaVita in Longview, Texas, on the importance of clinicians emphasizing moderation rather than elimination in a kidney-friendly diet. Natalie and Sara discuss the typical diets for end stage kidney disease patients on dialysis, including the different modalities of peritoneal dialysis, home hemodialysis and in-center dialysis. They examine how the kidney diet compares to some of the generally popular diets, what some of the biggest misconceptions are about kidney friendly diets, what some of the common barriers are that prevent diet adherence, how nutrition can affect quality of life, what overall goals dietitians have for their patients, how clinicians can advise patients to incorporate some of their favorite foods, even those that are not kidney friendly, in their diets and how to use the recipes on davita.com in meal planning and other nutrition

Receiving the influenza vaccine has always been important for patients with kidney disease, but the COVID-19 pandemic makes influenza vaccinations even more crucial now. Listen to this podcast, in which Mandy Tilton, DNP, MSN, MBA, RN, CNN, chief nursing officer for DaVita Kidney Care interviews Jeffrey Giullian, MD MBA, FASN, chief medical officer for DaVita on why influenza vaccination is so crucial and whom he recommends be vaccinated during the pandemic. Dr. Giullian and Mandy also dispel some myths about the flu vaccine, state which form of the vaccine is most effective, discuss the benefits and safety concerns of getting vaccinated during spikes of COVID-19 prevalence in patients’ communities and provide guidance for clinicians in speaking with patients about influenza vaccination. Podcast Transcript: Mandy Tilton, DNP, MSN, RN (00:44): Hello and welcome to the DaVita Medical Insight Podcast. My name is Mandy Tilton and I have the honor of being the chief nursing officer for DaVita Kidney Care. I'm exc

According to Leslie Wong, MD, chief medical officer for the Nephrology Care Alliance (NCA) and practicing nephrologist at the Cleveland Clinic, during the pandemic, “…It's really incumbent upon us to stay united as health care providers. Remain positive, not just for each other, but for our patients, and make sure that we also help and celebrate when things go right.” Listen to this podcast, in which Sarah Carpenter interviews Dr. Wong on how COVID-19 has affected health care, in general, and kidney care, in particular. Dr. Wong discusses the impact of COVID-19 on clinician use of telehealth, the need to move care upstream to patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), the adoption of value-based care models, the roles of patient education and predictive analytics in managing kidney care, and the communities of patients, families, caregivers, and nurses and other health care professionals. He also provides information on how NCA can help nephrologists address some of these challenges. For more information on

“I would just really encourage folks to get upstream and get your patients the information early in their disease state, so that they can be more involved in their care and make good decisions for themselves,” says Josh Lowentritt, MD, a New Orleans nephrologist in private practice. Listen to this podcast, in which Martha Wofford, group vice president of DaVita Kidney Care, interviews Dr. Lowentritt on the importance of patient education, and empowering chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients to make active choices in their care. Dr. Lowentritt discusses his professional background, his passion for CKD education, like Kidney Smart, the patient’s perspective, the need for a CKD educator, the significant conversations related to diet, advice for nephrologists in providing education and the impact of COVID-19 on giving patients support. Podcast Transcript: Martha Wofford (00:40): Hello and welcome to DaVita Medical Insights Podcast. My name is Martha Wofford and I am a group vice president at DaVita Kidney Care,

“If self-care was important before the pandemic, it has become almost essential in everybody's life today,” says Usha Peri, MD, who is a DaVita medical council member and a SKY breath meditation instructor for the Art of Living Foundation. Listen to this podcast, in which Ryan Weir interviews Dr. Peri on self-care, with a focus on self-care for clinicians and during the pandemic. Dr. Peri discusses what burnout is and how to counteract it, what self-care means to her, how she became interested in the SKY breath meditation technique and why she became an instructor, and what tools she uses to help with her own self-care. During the podcast, she also demonstrates a couple breathing exercises that one can do in less than 5 minutes during a break in the day to unwind and reset before going back to work. Podcast Transcript: Ryan (00:40): Hello and welcome to the DaVita Medical Insights podcast. I'm your host Ryan. We're joined on the phone today by Dr. Usha Peri. Dr. Peri is on the medical council of DaVita and is

With the increased use of technology, such as telehealth and remote patient monitoring, during the COVID-19 pandemic and the overall shift to electronic health records and predictive analytics in health care in recent years, caring for patients from an individual, human perspective, rather than from a numbers or data perspective, is becoming more important. How can patient-centered care have an impact on patients who have chronic conditions like kidney failure? Dr. Francesca Tentori, vice president of DaVita’s Outcomes Research and Patient Empowerment team, discusses this with Ben Brown, senior manager of DaVita Clinical Enterprise team in Denver, CO, in this podcast. While this podcast was recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a national emergency in the United States, listen now to learn more about how integrated and coordinated care is delivered in DaVita centers. Podcast Transcript: Ben Brown (00:28): Hello and welcome to DaVita's Medical Insights podcast. My name is Ben Brown. I am a senior

Innovations in nephrology are taking place as the importance of kidney health is emphasized globally. Listen to this podcast, to hear how kidney care is transforming around the world, with insights from clinicians who share a passion for innovation: Jeffrey Giullian, MD, chief medical officer for DaVita Kidney Care; Janet Cowperthwaite, director of clinical operations for DaVita International; Sam Kant, MD, nephrology fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital; Szymon Brzosko, MD, chief medical officer for DaVita Poland; Mandy Hale, vice president of nursing for DaVita; Francesca Tentori, MD, vice president of outcomes research and patient empowerment for DaVita, Wisam Al Badr, MD, chief medical officer for DaVita Saudi Arabia; and David Roer, MD, vice president of medical affairs for DaVita Integrated Kidney Care. Listen and read more DaVita Medical Insights here. Podcast Transcript: Ryan Weir: 00:32 Hello, everyone. This is Ryan Weir with the DaVita Medical Insights Podcast. The importance of kidney health is emphasi

Jeffrey Giullian, MD, is passionate about his new—as of Jan. 1, 2020—role as chief medical officer (CMO) for DaVita Kidney Care. Listen to this podcast, in which Halie Peddle interviews Dr. Giullian on his priorities and vision as CMO for DaVita. He gives us some personal background on why he pursued a career as a physician, specifically in the field of nephrology, and what originally brought him to DaVita. Dr. Giullian also discusses his views on kidney care-related innovation and how kidney care is leading all of health care in the shift from volume- to value-based care. Listen and read more DaVita Medical Insights here. Podcast Transcript: Halie Peddle: 00:33 Hello, everyone. This is Halie Peddle with the DaVita Medical Insights Podcast. Today we're joined by Dr. Jeff Giullian, newly announced chief medical officer for DaVita Kidney Care. Dr. G., Thank you so much for joining us. This is our first opportunity to sit down with you since you started your new role. I'm excited for our listeners to get to know

Successful use of predictive analytics gives us the ability to minimize unwanted future events and maximize future health without unnecessary expenditure of resources, according to Vice President and Medical Director of DaVita Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Steven Brunelli, MD. Listen to this podcast, in which Ryan Weir interviews Dr. Brunelli on predictive analytics. Dr. Brunelli discusses why predictive analytics are so important; what makes patients with kidney disease well-suited to predictive analytics; how to take a dataset and make it beneficial for patients, physicians and health plans; how an ideal CKD model is defined; how predictive analytics support value-based care arrangements; and finally, how predictive analytics might be used in health care in the future. Listen and read more DaVita Medical Insights here. Podcast Transcript: Ryan Weir: 00:34 Hello everyone, and welcome to the DaVita Medical Insights Podcast. I'm your host Ryan Weir, and I'm part of DaVita's communications team. Today

According to Mandy Hale, vice president of nursing for DaVita, “It's really important for us as dialysis organizations to be very innovative and very laser focused on retaining our nurses, engaging them and attracting more nurses to the field of dialysis and nephrology.” Listen to this podcast, in which Christy Diehl, senior director in People Services for DaVita, interviews Mandy on why it is important to retain nephrology nurses. They also discuss how to retain these nurses and attract new ones through different types of support and training specific to nephrology. Listen and read more DaVita Medical Insights here. Podcast Transcript: Christy Diehl: 00:30 Hi, this is Christy Diehl and I am a senior director in People Services. Thanks for joining us today. I have the privilege of being joined by Mandy Hale, our VP of nursing, and I will pass it to her to share a little bit more about herself. Mandy Hale: 00:45 Well, thank you, Christy. Hi, I am Mandy Hale and as Christy said, I'm really privileged to serve i

“Competency is a critical factor in every practice as health care in America shifts from what we have understood historically as a volume-based approach to delivery, to now a value-based delivery system,” says Martin Schreiber, MD, chief medical officer of home modalities for DaVita Kidney Care. Listen to this podcast, in which Ashley Henson interviews Dr. Schreiber on what competency hubs are and why they are important within nephrology. Dr. Schreiber also discusses how physicians or care team members can successfully create or improve a competency hub in their practice.

Preemptive transplant is the best option for the vast majority of patients with ESKD; however, innovation is needed to keep up with the demand for kidneys. Listen to this podcast, in which Allen Nissenson, MD, chief medical officer of DaVita and emeritus professor of Medicine at UCLA along with Gabriel Danovitch, MD, medical director of the Kidney Transplant Program and professor of medicine at UCLA discuss the current state of kidney transplantation and how that state can be improved through innovation. Drs. Nissenson and Danovitch also describe how nephrologists and providers can help patients be transplant ready through education and waitlist support. Finally, they discuss current developments in transplantation that may help the transplanted kidneys function better in the future, as well as the need for innovations in kidney disease prevention.

“We are very far from parity and equality in terms of access to kidney transplant,” says Samira Farouk, MD. Listen to this podcast, in which Dr. Farouk and Sam Kant, MD, discuss the history of kidney transplants, the current barriers and some of the groups that are affected by the disparities in the system. They also talk about potential solutions for the future with the advent of new options and technologies.

Patients with ESRD who start on home dialysis have improved outcomes and enjoy a better quality of life compared with patients who start with in-center hemodialysis. Listen to this podcast, in which Ashley Henson interviews Jose Sibal, MD, on the patient benefits of starting at home and the factors that helped his home dialysis program to grow exponentially. Dr. Sibal also discusses the biggest obstacle to success in developing a home program.

Implementation science is the application of research findings and evidence-based interventions to routine clinical practice; it is an important part of innovation in health care. Listen to this podcast, in which Hunter Barnett interviews Mahesh Krishnan, MD, MPH, MBA, FASN, more in depth on what implementation science is and the successes that have been seen in implantation science for the kidney care community. They also discuss additional innovation opportunities—beyond implementation science—that are expected in the future within kidney care.

“Home first” has become a slogan in the nephrology community, but what does that slogan mean? Listen to this podcast, in which Ashley Henson interviews Mamatha Gandhi, MD, on how Dr. Gandhi has implemented the culture of home first into her practice and how she became a champion for home dialysis. Dr. Gandhi also discusses some of the challenges in starting a home program and the tools needed to make such a program successful.

  Although social media has traditionally been viewed by some as a way to personally advance oneself, now it is being used in a more academic way to advance medical education. Listen to this podcast, in which Bob Provenzano, MD, chief medical officer for Nephrology Practice Solutions and vice president of medical affairs for DaVita Kidney Care interviews Samira Farouk, MD, transplant nephrologist and social media enthusiast on how social media can revolutionize patient care, on both clinical and academic levels. Drs. Provenzano and Farouk discuss how the global nephrology community can be accessed through social media for clinical questions and to learn how medicine is practiced around the world.  

Currently, the United States is on a trajectory to experience a very significant nursing shortage, perhaps the worst the country has ever seen. Listen to this podcast, in which Christy Diehl interviews Mandy Hale, RN, vice president of nursing at DaVita, on the nursing shortage in nephrology. They discuss ways the shortage can affect patients and care teams, as well as cover strategies to address this concern.