Interview with Allen R. Nissenson, MD
How has the Handbook of Dialysis Therapy evolved since the first edition?
This is the 6th edition of this book. Since the first edition was published in 1986 the book has expanded significantly, not only to reflect the evolving field of nephrology and the care of ESKD patients, but to place greater emphasis on the care of pediatric patients. For the first time Dr. Fine and I have worked with two additional exceptional editors, Drs. Mehrotra and Zaritsky to bring fresh thinking to the topics, authors and presentations.
What is the most exciting aspect of the new edition? What chapter or topic covered are you most excited about?
The expanded content and the ability of the reader to access the content through a variety of approaches including interactive, internet as well as the hard copy text. The chapters on quality, new forms of dialysis, and the COVID pandemic and its implications are all highlights.
Who will find the greatest value from this book and why? Has the audience changed since the book was first published?
Practicing nephrologists; Nephrologists in training; Nurses, technicians, dietitians and social workers who care for ESKD patients
What new ideas, practices, or procedures would you like to highlight for the new edition?
1. New approaches to management of anemia and metabolic bone disease
2. Necessary approaches to the safety of staff and patients during a pandemic
3. Slow progress in truly innovative approaches to the care of ESKD patients including devices, drugs and care delivery models
What problem do you hope the future generation of your specialty will be able to solve?
Elimination of the need for dialysis
Is there anything else about the book you’d like to say?
The greatest challenge that the book illustrates is that after 36 years we have made progress in the care of ESKD patients at the margins. While many patients have benefited from this incremental progress, there is still a need to much more aggressively drive innovation if we are truly going to be able to significantly improve the lives of these vulnerable patients.
About the Editor:
Dr. Nissenson is currently an Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, where he previously served as Director of the Dialysis Program and Associate Dean. Dr. Nissenson served as Chief Medical Officer and Chief Medical Officer Emeritus of DaVita Kidney Care (2008-2022), leading DaVita to industry standard-setting clinical outcomes. He is the immediate past Chair of Kidney Care Partners and immediate past Co-Chair of the Kidney Care Quality Alliance. He is a former president of the Renal Physicians Association and a current member of the Government Affairs Committee. Dr. Nissenson also previously served as President of the Southern California End-Stage Renal Disease Network, as well as Chair of the Medical Review Board. Dr. Nissenson served as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow of the Institute of Medicine, working as a health advisor to the late Senator Paul Wellstone. Dr. Nissenson is a partner in and Co-Founder of Renal Care Innovation Holdings, a company dedicated to accelerating the availability of innovative drugs, devices, and care delivery models for patients with kidney diseases. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Angion Biomedica where he is Chair of the Compensation Committee, Rockwell Medical where he is Chair of the Governance Committee and the Science and Technology Committee, and Diality, a company developing an innovative home dialysis platform where he is Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee. He was recently named to the strategic board of Oxidien Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Nissenson earned his M.D. from Northwestern University Medical School. Dr. Nissenson is the author of two dialysis textbooks, one in its fourth and the other recently published in its sixth edition. He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Renal Replacement Therapy, an official journal of the National Kidney Foundation. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Hemodialysis International the official journal of the International Society for Hemodialysis, as well as Medscape Nephrology, an innovative website focused on nephrology. He has over 730 publications in the field of nephrology, dialysis, anemia management, and health care delivery and policy, the latter including a seminal paper in Health Affairs on the end-stage renal disease (ESRD) program. Among his numerous honors is the President’s Award of the National Kidney Foundation. In addition, in 2007 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Hemodialysis presented by the University of Missouri on behalf of the Annual Dialysis Conference.
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