Klemens B. Meyer, MD

Contact Information

Appointments: 617-636-5866

Direct telephone number: 617-636-9421

Home telephone number: 617-489-2060

Office fax number: 617-636-2369

Personal eFax number: 617-977-0940

Email: kmeyer@tuftsmedicalcenter.org

Titles

Tufts Medical Center

Director of Dialysis Services

Tufts University School of Medicine

Professor of Medicine

Dialysis Clinic, Inc.

Medical Director for Information Systems

Medical Director, DCI Boston and DCI Walden Pond

Medical Director for Home Dialysis, DCI Ball Square

Education

Undergraduate

AB summa cum laude in History and Literature, 1978

Harvard College, Cambridge MA

Medical School

Doctorate in Medicine (MD), 1982

Harvard Medical School, Boston MA

Training

New England Medical Center (now Tufts Medical Center), Boston MA

Intern, Resident, Chief Resident in Medicine, 1986

Fellow in Clinical Decision Making and Clinical Fellow in Nephrology, 1990

Board Certification

ABIM, Diplomate in Internal Medicine, 1986

ABIM, Diplomate in Nephrology, 1990. Recertified 2000 and 2010.

Interests

Clinical

Dr. Meyer's practice covers a broad range of chronic kidney disease, including kidney stones, glomerular disease and refractory hypertension. He brings formal training in clinical decision making to bear on his clinical practice. He has particular interest in helping patients and families to think through the choices entailed in chronic kidney disease treatment, in preparing them for dialysis and kidney transplantation, in coordinating their care by a multidisciplinary team, and in supporting both active and palliative home care. He is an active transplant nephrologist. He places particular emphasis on achieving a continuum of inpatient and outpatient care, on optimal management of vascular and peritoneal access, and on achieving care of the individual as well as of the disease.

Research

Dr. Meyer’s research interests are the measurement of patient experience and in dialysis informatics.

Other

Dr. Meyer is also actively involved in data-driven quality improvement activities. In his capacity as DCI's Medical Director for Information Systems, Dr. Meyer participates in the development and operations of both medical and business information systems, guiding the work of a team of approximately 50 information technology staff and three nurses at DCI and Keane, Inc. in Nashville and Chicago.

Other Professional Activities

Dr. Meyer serves on the Boards of Directors of the ESRD Network of New England and of the National Forum of ESRD Networks. He previously was the President Elect of the Forum and is currently serving as President until June 2013.

Publications

Meyer KB, Pauker SG. Screening for HIV: can we afford the false positive rate? N Engl J Med 1987;317:238-41. 

Meyer KB, Espindle DM, DeGiacomo JM, Jenuleson CS, Kurtin PS, Davies AR. Monitoring dialysis patients' health status. Am J Kidney Dis 1994;24:267-79.

Sarasin FP, Wong JB, Levey AS, Meyer KB. Screening for acquired cystic kidney disease: a decision analytic perspective. Kidney Int 1995;48:207-19.

Meyer KB, Kassirer JP. Squeezing more cost and care out of dialysis: our patients would pay the price. Am J Med 2002;112:232-4.

Unruh M, Yan G, Radeva M, Hays RD, Benz R, Athienites NV, Kusek J, Levey AS, Meyer KB; HEMO Study Group. Bias in assessment of health-related quality of life in a hemodialysis population: a comparison of self-administered and interviewer-administered surveys in the HEMO study. J Am Soc Nephrol 2003;14:2132-41.

Miskulin DC, Meyer KB, Martin AA, Fink NE, Coresh J, Powe NR, Klag MJ, Levey AS; Choices for Healthy Outcomes in Caring for End-Stage Renal Disease (CHOICE) Study. Comorbidity and its change predict survival in incident dialysis patients. Am J Kidney Dis 2003;41:149-61.

Unruh ML, Levey AS, D'Ambrosio C, Fink NE, Powe NR, Meyer KB; Choices for Healthy Outcomes in Caring for End-Stage Renal Disease (CHOICE) Study. Restless legs symptoms among incident dialysis patients: association with lower quality of life and shorter survival. Am J Kidney Dis 2004;43:900-9.

Unruh M, Miskulin D, Yan G, Hays RD, Benz R, Kusek JW, Meyer KB; HEMO Study Group. Racial differences in health-related quality of life among hemodialysis patients. Kidney Int 2004;65:1482-91.

Unruh M, Benz R, Greene T, Yan G, Beddhu S, DeVita M, Dwyer JT, Kimmel PL, Kusek JW, Martin A, Rehm-McGillicuddy J, Teehan BP, Meyer KB; HEMO Study Group. Effects of hemodialysis dose and membrane flux on health-related quality of life in the HEMO Study. Kidney Int 2004;66:355-66.

Raghavan SR, Ladik V, Meyer KB. Developing decision support for dialysis treatment of chronic kidney failure. IEEE Trans Inf Technol Biomed 2005;9:229-38.

Weiner DE, Miskulin DC, Seefeld K, Ladik V, Zager PG, Singh AK, Johnson HK, Meyer KB. Reducing versus discontinuing erythropoietin at high hemoglobin levels. J Am Soc Nephrol 2007:18:3184-91.

Meyer KB, Miskulin DC. Imperial or empirical measures of dialysis quality? Am J Kidney Dis 2007;50:691-5.

Weiner DE, Miskulin DC, Seefeld K, Ladik V, Zager PG, Singh AK, Johnson HK, Meyer KB. Reducing versus Discontinuing Erythropoietin at High Hemoglobin Levels. J Am Soc Nephrol. Epub 2007 Oct 31.

Unruh ML, Newman AB, Larive B, Dew MA, Miskulin DC, Greene T, Beddhu S, Rocco MV, Kusek JW, Meyer KB; Hemodialysis Study Group. The influence of age on changes in health-related quality of life over three years in a cohort undergoing hemodialysis. J Am Geriatr Soc 2008 Sep;56(9):1608-17. Epub 2008 Aug 21.

Servilla KS, Singh AK, Hunt WC, Harford AM, Miskulin D, Meyer KB, Bedrick EJ, Rohrscheib MR, Tzamaloukas AH, Johnson HK, Zager PG. Anemia management and association of race with mortality and hospitalization in a large not-for-profit dialysis organization. Am J Kidney Dis. 2009 Sep;54(3):498-510. Epub 2009 Jul 23.

Bhargava J, Germain M, Kitsen J, Cohen LM, Meyer KB. Knowledge and participation of front-line dialysis facility staff in end-of-life discussions. Nephrol News Issues. 2009 Aug;23(9):34-6, 38-40.

Miskulin DC, Weiner DE, Tighiouart H, Ladik V, Servilla K, Zager PG, Martin A, Johnson HK, Meyer KB; Medical Directors of Dialysis Clinic Inc. Computerized Decision Support for EPO Dosing in Hemodialysis Patients Am J Kidney Dis. 2009;54:1025-33.

Jhamb M, Argyropoulos C, Steel JL, Plantinga L, Wu AW, Fink NE, Powe NR, Meyer KB, Unruh ML; for the Choices for Healthy Outcomes in Caring for End-Stage Renal Disease (CHOICE) Study. Correlates and Outcomes of Fatigue among Incident Dialysis Patients. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2009;4:1779-84.

Gabbay E, Meyer KB, JL, Richardson MM, Miskulin DC. Temporal trends in health-related quality of life among hemodialysis patients in the United States. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2010;5(2):261-7. Epub 2009 Dec 17. PMID: 20019114

Tangri N, Moorthi R, Tighiouhart H, Meyer KB, Miskulin DC. Variation in fistula use across dialysis facilities: is it explained by case-mix? Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2010;5(2):307-13. Epub 2010 Jan 7. PMID: 20056763.

Calvo JA, Miskulin DC, Meyer KB, Weiner DE. Nadir hemoglobin levels after discontinuation of epoetin in hemodialysis patients. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2010;5(9):1621-7. Epub 2010 Jul 22.

Gabbay E, Calvo-Broce J, Meyer KB, Trikalinos TA, Cohen J, DM. The empirical basis for determinations of medical futility. J Gen Intern Med. 2010;25(10):1083-9. Epub 2010 Jul 20.

Johnson DS, Meyer KB, Johnson HK. The 2011 ESRD Prospective Payment System and the Survival of an Endangered Species: The Perspective of a Not-for-Profit Medium-Sized Dialysis Organization. Am J Kidney Dis. Epub 2011 Feb 16.

Honors and Awards

2006 Gift of Life Outstanding Physician – Nephrology Award. National Kidney Foundation of MA, RI, NH & VT