Nephrologists and physicians writing on KevinMD about the kidney: chronic kidney disease found late, dialysis and transplant, the eGFR race correction and what it teaches about algorithms, kidney injury that normal creatinine hides, kidney stones, and blood pressure as the unspoken cause. Board-review cases make up part of this archive. Two maintained records draw on this archive: Race and medicine: what physicians say, in their own words, and Heart disease: what physicians say, in their own words.

Persistent symptoms despite normal labs deserve attention

Conditions and Diseases
August 18, 2026

“I just don’t feel well,” she says. “I’m tired all the time.”

The patient is sitting across from you in clinic. She struggles to describe exactly what is wrong. There is no specific pain. No new shortness of breath. No fever. Nothing that immediately points you toward a diagnosis. It is a vague and broad symptom, almost an enigma.

You turn toward the computer screen. The laboratory results are reassuring. Most of …

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Persistent symptoms despite normal labs deserve attention

How nutrition for polycystic kidney disease changed my life

Conditions and Diseases
August 15, 2026

My grandfather died of a chronic kidney disease that he handed down without knowing it: polycystic kidney disease (PKD). My brother and I were born with it, too. It’s progressive and has no cure.

For most of my twenties, I felt physically fine. Channeling my anxiety about the future, I became a biomedical scientist. I spent those years trusting a simple assumption: If anything could change the trajectory of my condition, …

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How nutrition for polycystic kidney disease changed my life

Your kidney never fully recovered from surgery, and the labs won’t show it [PODCAST]

Podcast
July 27, 2026
YouTube video

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Your kidney test comes back normal after surgery, so you must have recovered. Except the damage can be hiding in plain sight. John Erbey is an epidemiologist by training and the founder and …

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Your kidney never fully recovered from surgery, and the labs won’t show it [PODCAST]

The person behind the diagnosis every chart hides

Physician
July 13, 2026

I never considered myself dismissive or noncaring. I entered medicine with a genuine desire to help, to make a difference, to care and to change outcomes. Like so many of my colleagues, my “why” had the same core message, rooted in the same simple truth: I love science and I care about people.

But somewhere between the first day of medical school and the years that followed, something changed. Not the …

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The person behind the diagnosis every chart hides

Stop screening for chronic disease in silos

Conditions and Diseases
June 17, 2026

New cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome guidance from the American Heart Association (AHA) reflects an important shift in how health care understands chronic disease.

For years, conditions including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease have often been discussed, managed and measured separately. The newest CKM framework recognizes a different reality: These conditions are deeply interconnected, driven by many of the same underlying metabolic processes and risk factors.

But perhaps …

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Stop screening for chronic disease in silos

What the eGFR race correction teaches us about AI

Health Technology
June 5, 2026

The number was wrong for twenty years. Nobody could see it.

For more than twenty years, a number quietly shaped the care of millions of patients. It told nephrologists when to refer. It told transplant committees who qualified for the waitlist. It told primary care physicians which patients were stable, and which were declining.

For Black patients, the number was wrong. By design.

The number was eGFR, and the formula behind it included …

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What the eGFR race correction teaches us about AI

When normal creatinine hides post-operative kidney injury

Conditions and Diseases
May 23, 2026

The conversation in the surgical ICU happens the same way every time.

“His creatinine spiked post-op, but it came back down before discharge. The labs look normal now. The kidney recovered.”

Cardiac surgeons hear this reassurance so often it’s become standard. The patient leaves the hospital with normal kidney function on the discharge summary. By every conventional metric, the surgery was a success. The acute kidney injury was resolved.

Except it didn’t. Not …

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When normal creatinine hides post-operative kidney injury

24-hour urine collection flaws expose clinical bias

Conditions and Diseases
May 16, 2026

There are few rituals in medicine as aspirational as the 24-hour urine collection. On paper we see an elegant examination. A direct measurement of renal function, grounded in physiology and liberated from the assumptions that plague our estimating equations. In practice, however, what we see is a plastic jug and a set of instructions that compete poorly with daily life. What we are left with is a quiet understanding, shared …

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24-hour urine collection flaws expose clinical bias

Lemon juice for kidney stones: Does it work?

Conditions and Diseases
December 30, 2025

An excerpt from My Eight Year Kidney Stone Journey.

In the fifth year of my kidney stone battle, after yet another painful episode, I reached a turning point. I remember recovering at home, sipping the bland herbal tea I had switched to (since I was even worried regular tea might have too much oxalate), and thinking, there must be something else out there that I can try. I refused to …

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Lemon juice for kidney stones: Does it work?

How early intervention and team-based care can change kidney disease outcomes [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 20, 2025
YouTube video

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Kidney transplant recipient Charlie Cloninger and nephrologist Nauman Shahid discuss their article “How early care saved my life from silent kidney disease.” Charlie shares his personal story of being diagnosed with kidney …

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How early intervention and team-based care can change kidney disease outcomes [PODCAST]

Why transplant equity requires more than access

Health Policy
September 7, 2025

A few months ago, I met a woman who had stopped speaking at dialysis. She had grown quiet, worn thin by the rhythm of a system that seemed to talk around her but never truly to her. When she finally spoke to me, it was not about her labs or transplant status. It was a whisper — “Do you think I’ll make it in time?”

In that moment, she wasn’t asking …

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Why transplant equity requires more than access

When doctors don’t talk: a silent failure in modern medicine

Conditions and Diseases
September 5, 2025

I shadowed a neurologist recently. As a high school student on the cusp of applying to college, I thought I’d’ spend the day quietly observing: watching labs get ordered, hearing terms I’d Google later, maybe seeing the human side of medicine up close.

But nothing prepares you for watching someone slowly lose their chance at life—not because of their diagnosis, but because two parts of the medical system weren’t speaking to …

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When doctors don’t talk: a silent failure in modern medicine

How early care saved my life from silent kidney disease

Conditions and Diseases
September 4, 2025

I never thought much about my kidneys. I felt fine, I stayed active, and at 74 years old, I figured I was in pretty good shape. But kidney disease has a way of sneaking up on you. By the time most people find out they have it, they’re already in trouble. That could have been me—but thanks to the right care at the right time, I got a transplant before …

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How early care saved my life from silent kidney disease

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How value-based care reshapes kidney disease management for better outcomes [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 3, 2025
YouTube video

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Nephrologist Timothy Pflederer discusses his article “How value-based care transforms chronic kidney disease management,” highlighting how value-based care (VBC) is reshaping the treatment of chronic kidney disease and end-stage kidney disease. Timothy …

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How value-based care reshapes kidney disease management for better outcomes [PODCAST]

Beyond the surgery: the human side of transplant care [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 24, 2025
YouTube video

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Physician and public health advocate Judith Eguzoikpe discusses her article, “Hope is the lifeline: a deeper look into transplant care.” She pulls back the curtain on the kidney transplant process, revealing that …

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Beyond the surgery: the human side of transplant care [PODCAST]

How value-based care transforms chronic kidney disease management

Conditions and Diseases
July 21, 2025

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects more than 1 in 7 U.S. adults, while approximately 2 in 1,000 are living with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD)—kidney failure that is treated either with a kidney transplant or through dialysis. Today, however, there is much that can be done to prevent kidney failure if CKD is diagnosed early and comorbid conditions are well managed. Patients with CKD and ESKD have multiple complex chronic …

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How value-based care transforms chronic kidney disease management

High blood pressure’s hidden impact on kidney health in older adults

Conditions and Diseases
July 18, 2025

Most people think of high blood pressure as a silent threat to the heart. But it’s time we start talking about another organ it quietly destroys: the kidneys.

As a public health researcher and clinician, I have seen how chronic kidney disease (CKD) creeps in unnoticed—especially among older adults—and how hypertension is often the unspoken culprit. Despite being preventable and treatable in its early stages, CKD remains a major cause of …

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High blood pressure’s hidden impact on kidney health in older adults

Finding balance and meaning in medical practice: a holistic approach to professional fulfillment

Physician
July 8, 2025

The modern medical profession presents practitioners with an abundance of opportunities that extend far beyond traditional patient care. Today’s physicians navigate complex roles as clinicians, researchers, educators, administrators, and community leaders while maintaining personal relationships and spiritual well-being. Rather than viewing these diverse responsibilities as competing demands, successful physicians learn to integrate them into a balanced approach that prioritizes meaningful contribution over external recognition.

The myth of perfect balance

The concept of …

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Finding balance and meaning in medical practice: a holistic approach to professional fulfillment

How a family’s strength led to a successful kidney transplant

Conditions and Diseases
June 24, 2025

An excerpt from The Healthy Kidney Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Manage Hypertension, Control Stress, and Prevent Renal Failure, Kidney Disease, and More.

A good friend and neighbor of mine is a kidney transplant survivor, and I wanted to thoughtfully document her thoughts on different parts of her journey. She is currently a married, African American woman, mother of a teenage son, in her forties, and works full time in …

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How a family’s strength led to a successful kidney transplant

Medicaid cuts are quietly fueling the diabetic kidney failure crisis

Conditions and Diseases
May 27, 2025

We’re constantly reminded of the organ shortage and the lives lost while waiting for a kidney. Like fish unaware they swim in water, we’ve accepted the rising tide of kidney failure as natural and inevitable, but it’s not. The most urgent question goes unasked: Why do so many kidneys fail?

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, with 40 percent of those on the kidney waitlist diabetic. Every day …

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Medicaid cuts are quietly fueling the diabetic kidney failure crisis

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