Dena E. Rifkin

​Dr. Rifkin's work has focused on the interplay between chronic kidney disease, hypertension, aging, and relevant patient-centered outcomes in these areas.  She uses data from prospective cohort studies and randomized clinical trials as well as locally enrolled studies to answer questions relevant to the care of patients with these issues.

Examples of published work include an investigation of differences in perception of risk of kidney failure between nephrologists and their patients as compared to risk scores and outcomes [https://cjasn.asnjournals.org/content/14/2/206]; a study of how daily sodium intake is associated with blood pressure [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28866091]; and a prospective cohort exploration of the relationship between blood pressure and cognitive function [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25896923].

Dr. Rifkin's published work is available in pubmed:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/dena.rifkin.1/bibliography/40128701/public/?sort=date&direction=descending

Dr. Rifkin integrates research mentoring into all of her research work.  She has worked with medical students, medical residents, and pre-and post-doctoral students with a variety of previous experience, teaching them the tools of study design, data analysis, and technical writing over the course of a project.  

Dr. Rifkin also has an interest in creative writing and has served as the editor of the narrative medicine section of the American Journal of Kidney Disease for over 10 years.  She has mentored several students on creative writing Independent Study Projects at UC San Diego.

Dr. Rifkin is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Diego and a board certified internist and nephrologist. She serves as Associate Chief of Medicine at the VA San Diego Healthcare System. She completed her medical degree, medical residency, and chief residency in internal medicine at Yale and her fellowship in nephrology at Tufts Medical Center. She holds an undergraduate degree in computer science, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.