“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, and I am excited to be joined today by Dr. Josh Lowentritt, he's a nephrologist from New Orleans. And just thank you, Dr. Lowentritt or joining us to talk about the importance of education for patients with chronic kidney disease.
Dr. Lowentritt (01:03): Well, thanks.
Martha Wofford (01:06): Yeah, thanks for being here.
Dr. Lowentritt (01:07): Yes.
Martha Wofford (01:07): First off, can you start by telling our listeners a little bit about your background and maybe why you're so passionate about CKD education?
Dr. Lowentritt (01:15): Sure. So first of all, call me Josh, and I'm delighted to be here today to chat. I did all my nephrology training here in New Orleans at Tulane and finished up 2001. And I've been in private practice since then. So I'm doing hospital work, office work, I go to dialysis clinics. I still see my post-transplant patients after they get released back to me. And also do quite a bit of medical director work and work in population health and value-based care, which helps fill out my day.
So, that CKD education, it's strange that it's such a novel idea. I was so lucky when I was in training. We actually had a dialysis CKD PD educator embedded in our clinic when I was a fellow.
