TAMPA, Fla., Nov. 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nephrologist Stephanie Toth-Manikowski, MD, MHS, has joined Healthmap Solutions (Healthmap) as Corporate Medical Director, with a national scope of work that includes identifying advanced kidney healthcare best practices across patient populations.

Dr. Toth-Manikowski is a double board-certified physician in internal medicine and nephrology with a long-standing passion and commitment to caring for individuals with kidney disease. She has focused on increasing home dialysis use among racial and ethnic minorities, managing pregnancy for those with chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease (CKD/ESRD), and initiating urgent peritoneal dialysis for patients “crashing” into dialysis. In her new role with Healthmap, she will provide some key areas of focus to include:

• Early Identification: Strengthening data-driven techniques for early identification of kidney disease.
• Healthcare Equity and Barriers to Care: Addressing implicit bias and barriers to kidney healthcare for racial and ethnic minorities to improve long-term outcomes while leveraging her dedication to supporting underserved populations.
• Kidney Health Education: Improving patient quality of life and health outcomes by empowering patients and providers with innovative and usable information considering home dialysis options, kidney transplant treatments for both recipients and donors, and incorporating “food as medicine” to slow the progression of CKD, to list a few.
• Provider/Patient Relationships: Developing collaborative and transparent processes across the Healthmap organization that earn ongoing trust from healthcare providers and the member patients under their care.

“Dr. Toth-Manikowski’s extensive experience and passion for enhancing kidney care and helping people with kidney disease across the spectrum of populations is going to have a positive impact on Healthmap’s Kidney Population Health Management program,” said Eric Reimer, CEO. “We are delighted that Dr. Toth-Manikowski is joining our clinical team in our ongoing pursuit of innovative and value-based kidney care solutions.” 

Prior to joining Healthmap, Dr. Toth-Manikowski was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), where she was responsible for educating and supervising medical trainees, conducting clinical research focused on CKD, and managing patients with a full spectrum of kidney disease.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in Biology with honors from Harvard College, her Doctor of Medicine from UIC College of Medicine, and her Master of Health Science from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed her internal medicine residency and chief residency at Boston University Medical Center. Dr. Toth-Manikowski completed her nephrology fellowship at Johns Hopkins, where she also learned about clinical epidemiology and how to use large databases to answer questions relevant to CKD populations and interpret medical studies in the context of her patients. She is a member of the American Society of Nephrology and the National Kidney Foundation. She will continue to care for kidney patients in a weekly clinic and through community outreach programs.

Dr. Toth-Manikowski has received numerous awards during her career, most recently the 2021 Altruism, Compassion, and Excellence (A.C.E.) award for providing compassionate care to patients during the COVID-19 epidemic. In addition to having extensively published medical research and presented at prestigious forums, she has served on numerous medical committees and is an Editorial Fellow for the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

“As a Hispanic woman with extensive clinical and research experience in large urban academic hospital systems, I’ve developed a unique perspective around healthcare access and systemic equity issues,” Dr. Toth-Manikowski said. “My tremendous passion for serving the underserved and leaving no CKD patient behind is part of what drove me to join Healthmap’s noteworthy and effective approach to value-based kidney healthcare.”

ABOUT HEALTHMAP SOLUTIONS

Healthmap Solutions is an NCQA-accredited kidney population health management company serving health plans, health systems, accountable care organizations (ACOs), and provider groups seeking a value-based solution to improve the lives of millions of Americans living with kidney disease. Using its advanced technology, predictive analytics, and clinical expertise Healthmap detects kidney disease early and recommends clinically proven interventions to delay or slow disease progression. Healthmap’s Care Navigation team works with patients and a full spectrum of providers (primary care, nephrologists, cardiologists, endocrinologists, and dialysis providers), to deliver personalized whole-person care. Our approach is to proactively plan care transitions, and optimize renal replacement therapy, with a focus on in-home dialysis treatment and transplant. This approach results in improved care, outcomes, and experience for the person living with kidney disease, while lowering total medical costs for health plans and provider groups.

Contact:
Chris Cooney
President
The Wilmark Group
(407) 921-6932
chris@wilmarkgroup.com