Nephrologist, Brendan Bowman, MD

Brendan Bowman, MD, is a nephrologist treating patients with kidney disease. Bowman is intrigued by the functions and mechanics of the kidney. His expertise and knowledge allows him to help his patients throughout all stages of kidney disease.

My name is Brendan Bowman, and I’m a nephrologist here at University of Virginia. In the division of nephrology, we take care of patients with all forms of kidney disease. These forms include medical kidney disease, chronic kidney disease and dialysis patients.

Kidney medicine to me is really fascinating. It’s an underappreciated disease. The estimates from the CDC are one in seven Americans have this disease. The physiology of the kidney is fascinating, and of course, there’s lots of problems when that goes wrong. So, to me, it was really the interest in the physiology. Our patients are a group that don’t get as much care as some other groups in medicine. It's been a great opportunity to take care of an underserved population.

The most important thing that UVA Kidney Care offers is as an integrated healthcare system. We can provide dialysis therapy and transplant therapy all under the same roof. So, when patients come to see us, they’re going to be able to move through all stages of kidney disease together with one integrated team. And that’s something that very few universities in the country are able to offer, and we can do that here at UVA.

The most enjoyable part about the job I do is when a patient receives a transplant, particularly when a patient moves from dialysis to a transplant. I try to make a point of seeing all my dialysis patients in the hospital up here on 5 West after they receive their transplant. And that’s really kind of like giving a person a new lease on life. And that makes me feel like I’ve done my job.