Dr. Dyer Diskin, MD, is a Nephrology Fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Christopher Springmann: Satellite Healthcare has funded your research into patients with end stage renal disease, ESRD, receiving in-center hemodialysis, patients who often suffer from high rates of frailty, physical inactivity and mortality. What is frailty? It's a word often used very casually by people, but what is the medical definition that is so significant to your work?

Dr. Dyer Diskin, MD: Frailty is something that we talk about very casually but it actually does have a very specific definition, and most of that medical definition is based off of how strong the patient's grip is and what their walking speed is which is sort of a reflection of gait, balance and lower, lower leg strength, and a lot more older people are getting access to dialysis at a later stage in their life, so it is something that is very important to focus on in the dialysis population.

NephTalk is a podcast series created with nephrologists in mind, from Satellite Healthcare, a not-for-profit dialysis provider and clinical researcher, with a special focus on home, as the industry's home dialysis leader. I’m Christopher Springmann.