Chief Medical Officer, DaVita

Prolific author and renowned authority on kidney disease, Allen R. Nissenson, MD, FACP is 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 a former President of the Renal Physicians Association and served on the RPA Board of Directors as a special advisor to the President. Dr. Nissenson is Immediate Past President of the Southern California End-Stage Renal Disease Network.

Dr. Nissenson served as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow of the Institute of Medicine, working in the office of the late Senator Paul Wellstone. Dr. Nissenson’s major research interests focus on the quality of care for chronic kidney disease patients, including issues of health policy, health care delivery and economics, anemia management, and the impact of anemia on brain and cognitive function. 

Honors include the President’s Award, given by the National Kidney Foundation, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Hemodialysis, presented by the University of Missouri on behalf of the Annual Dialysis Conference.