Pranav Garimella, MBBS, MPH
Chief Medical Officer
Pranav Garimella, MBBS, MPH, joined the American Kidney Fund as Chief Medical Officer in January 2025. A nationally recognized leader in nephrology and an expert in rare kidney diseases, Dr. Garimella is AKF's first CMO and in this role, provides high-level clinical authority and insight to better serve the 1 in 7 Americans living with kidney disease.
Dr. Garimella is a board-certified nephrologist and the Director of Acute Dialysis Services and the Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Center of Excellence at UC San Diego Health, where he provides care to patients with a wide range of acute and chronic kidney diseases.
Dr. Garimella is an established researcher whose research focus includes novel biomarkers of kidney function, cardiovascular disease, bone health and mortality. His research has been funded by the NIH, the Veterans Medical Research Foundation and UC San Diego. Dr. Garimella is also a trained epidemiologist who has authored several book chapters and over 110 articles in peer-reviewed journals including Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and Kidney International. He serves on the Editorial Board for Kidney Medicine, and as an as ad-hoc reviewer for multiple journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, the Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, American Journal of Kidney Diseases, and Clinical Nephrology. He has also received several awards for his research, clinical work, professionalism and teaching, and is a fellow of the American Society of Nephrology (FASN).
As a leader in nephrology Dr. Garimella serves as co-chair of the PKD Foundation Centers of Excellence Program Advisory Committee, was a member of the ASN Quality Committee for 6 years and was chosen to be a California Health Care Foundation Leadership Program Fellow.
Dr. Garimella earned his medical degree (MBBS) from the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research in Puducherry, India, and an MPH in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health. He completed a fellowship in nephrology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and a residency in internal medicine at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County in Chicago.
