Harini Sarathy, MD

HS Assoc Clinical Prof

Dr. Harini Sarathy is an Associate Professor at the University of California, San Francisco and board-certified nephrologist who treats patients in the inpatient and outpatient setting at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG). She also sees patients at outpatient dialysis clinics - both in-center and home dialysis patients. She is the Director of the chronic kidney disease (CKD)-Renal Plus Clinic at ZSFG and Medical Director of a community dialysis clinic.

Dr. Sarathy's research interests focus on innovations to reduce health disparities in nephrology, with a focus on the the safety net population, through research, implementation science and innovations in trainee education. As the Director of the Renal Plus clinic for patients with advanced kidney disease, she leads a multi-disciplinary team and has instituted collaborative workflows, shared decision making pathways, and support systems to improve adoption of home dialysis, access to kidney transplantation, palliative nephrology, and support for older adults with advanced CKD choosing to forego dialysis. Her research interests also include improving blood pressure control in the CKD and ESRD population, and improving genetic testing for better diagnosis of CKD and she has been a co-investigator on NIH and PCORI trials that advance the science related to these.

Dr. Sarathy works closely with fellows, residents and students as a clinician educator and is passionate about teaching and mentoring in all the different clinical settings. She leads the CKD and ESRD curriculum for nephrology fellows and developed an innovative ESRD/Home Dialysis sub-specialty track for advanced training of fellows in home dialysis during fellowship training. She was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award by the UCSF Academy of Medical Educators in 2020 and was honored with an induction to the UCSF Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators in 2025.

Education
Fellowship, 2018 - Nephrology, University of California San Francisco
Residency, 2015 - Internal Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine - Jacobi Medical Center
MHS, 2010 - Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
MBBS, 2007 - Medical School (MD-equivalent), Seth G.S.Medical College & K.E.M. Hospital
Honors and Awards
  • Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators, UCSF, 2025
  • Foundations for Excellence in Physician Leadership (FEPL), UCSF, 2024
  • Hearts Grant Award, San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, 2020-2021
  • Excellence in Teaching Award, UCSF's the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators, 2020
  • Catalyst Awards Program Fall 2017 cycle, UCSF, 2017
  • Ben J Lipps Fellowship Program, American Society of Nephrology (ASN), 2016-2018
Publications
  1. Cluett JL, Blazek O, Brown AL, East C, Ferdinand KC, Fisher NDL, Ford CD, Griffin KA, Mena-Hurtado CI, Sarathy H, Vongpatanasin W, Townsend RR, American Heart Association Council on Hypertension; Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; Co. Renal Denervation for the Treatment of Hypertension: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979) 2024. PMID: 39101202


  2. Roy M, Saroha S, Sarma U, Sarathy H, Kumar R. Quantitative systems pharmacology model of erythropoiesis to simulate therapies targeting anemia due to chronic kidney disease. Frontiers in pharmacology 2023. PMID: 38125882


  3. Wilson L, Gress AF, Frassetto L, Sarathy H, Gress EA, Fissell WH, Roy S. Patient Preference Trade-offs for Next-Generation Kidney Replacement Therapies. Clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN 2023. PMID: 37874941


  4. Brathwaite KE, Levy RV, Sarathy H, Agalliu I, Johns TS, Reidy KJ, Fadrowski JJ, Schwartz GJ, Kaskel FJ, Melamed ML. Reduced kidney function and hypertension in adolescents with low birth weight, NHANES 1999-2016. Pediatric nephrology (Berlin, Germany) 2023. PMID: 37052695


  5. Cohen JB, Bancos I, Brown JM, Sarathy H, Turcu AF, Cohen DL. Primary Aldosteronism and the Role of Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonists for the Heart and Kidneys. Annual review of medicine 2022. PMID: 36375469


  6. Sarathy H, Salman LA, Lee C, Cohen JB. Evaluation and Management of Secondary Hypertension. 2022. PMID: 35227430


  7. Sarathy H, Cohen JB. Renal Denervation for the Treatment of Hypertension: Unnerving or Underappreciated? Clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN 2021. PMID: 34083217


  8. Levy RV, Brathwaite KE, Sarathy H, Reidy K, Kaskel FJ, Melamed ML. Analysis of Active and Passive Tobacco Exposures and Blood Pressure in US Children and Adolescents. JAMA network open 2021. PMID: 33620445


  9. Amatruda JG, Katz R, Peralta CA, Estrella MM, Sarathy H, Fried LF, Newman AB, Parikh CR, Ix JH, Sarnak MJ, Shlipak MG. Association of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs with Kidney Health in Ambulatory Older Adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2020. PMID: 33305369


  10. Wu C, Smit E, Peralta CA, Sarathy H, Odden MC. Functional Status Modifies the Association of Blood Pressure with Death in Elders: Health and Retirement Study. Volume 65 of Issue 7. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2017. PMID: 28306145


  11. Sarathy H, Henriquez G, Abramowitz MK, Kramer H, Rosas SE, Johns T, Kumar J, Skversky A, Kaskel F, Melamed ML. Abdominal Obesity, Race and Chronic Kidney Disease in Young Adults: Results from NHANES 1999-2010. Volume 11 of Issue 5. PloS one 2016. PMID: 27224643


  12. Sarathy H, Pramanik V, Kahn J, Abramowitz MK, Meier K, Kishore P, Melamed ML. The effects of short-term vitamin D supplementation on glucose metabolism in dialysis patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Volume 47 of Issue 3. International urology and nephrology 2015. PMID: 25636811


  13. Ros RL, Kucirka LM, Govindan P, Sarathy H, Montgomery RA, Segev DL. Patient attitudes toward CDC high infectious risk donor kidney transplantation: inferences from focus groups. Volume 26 of Issue 2. Clinical transplantation 2011. PMID: 21554396


  14. Kucirka LM, Sarathy H, Govindan P, Wolf JH, Ellison TA, Hart LJ, Montgomery RA, Ros RL, Segev DL. Risk of window period hepatitis-C infection in high infectious risk donors: systematic review and meta-analysis. Volume 11 of Issue 6. American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons 2011. PMID: 21401874


  15. Kucirka LM, Sarathy H, Govindan P, Wolf JH, Ellison TA, Hart LJ, Montgomery RA, Ros RL, Segev DL. Risk of window period HIV infection in high infectious risk donors: systematic review and meta-analysis. Volume 11 of Issue 6. American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons 2011. PMID: 21366859