Eric A. Wechsler, MD, FNKF
Board-Certified Nephrologist & Internist · Fellow, National Kidney Foundation · Newport Beach, CA
Background
Dr. Eric A. Wechsler is a board-certified nephrologist and internist who has practiced in Newport Beach for more than twenty years. He studied neuroscience at the University of Florida, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors, before earning his medical degree at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine — where his work in free clinics across inner-city Miami earned him the Alpha Omega Alpha award for the best doctor-patient relationship in his graduating class.
He completed his internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and was named a Fellow of the National Kidney Foundation in 2011. He has been elected twice by his peers to chair the Division of Nephrology at Hoag Hospital Newport Beach, where he also serves as Chief of Dialysis Services — meaning the physician managing your care in the office is the same one directing kidney care at the hospital.
He has also built complex care at scale. As co-founder and CEO of Nephrology Specialists IPA, and Chief Medical Officer of its management organization, RheoMed, he built and still leads the care-management program covering more than 4,000 high-risk patients across Southern California under value-based contracts, with a team of nearly fifty people. Nearly all of those patients carried multiple conditions at once — advanced kidney disease alongside cardiovascular disease, diabetes, frailty and fall risk, cancer, and often food or housing insecurity. Building a program that worked for them meant treating the medical and the non-medical as one problem. Under his leadership, planned dialysis starts rose from 11% to over 60%, home dialysis more than doubled, and time to transplant listing fell by more than a year.
He serves as Chief Medical Officer of RheoMed and founded Southern California Kidney Associates in 2008. In 2012, after watching patients leave dietitian appointments confused and demoralized — told what they could never eat again, with no clear sense of what they still could — he built Pocket Dietitian, one of the first iPhone apps to translate complex dietary restrictions into practical, real-time guidance.
Dr. Wechsler continues to volunteer at the Share Our Selves Clinic in Costa Mesa, carrying forward work he began as a medical student. Through his concierge practice, he limits his panel to a small number of patients — applying the same anticipatory discipline he built for thousands to the care of a few.
"Managing four thousand high-risk patients taught me that almost every crisis was visible months before it happened. The work is noticing early — and then actually doing something about it."
Credentials & Appointments
Education & Training
- BS, Neuroscience — University of Florida, Phi Beta Kappa, highest honors
- MD — University of Miami Miller School of Medicine · Alpha Omega Alpha Award
- Internal Medicine Residency & Internship — Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
- Nephrology Fellowship — Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
Board Certifications
- American Board of Internal Medicine — Internal Medicine
- American Board of Internal Medicine — Nephrology
Hospital Appointments & Honors
- Hoag Hospital Newport Beach — Active Medical Staff
- Chair, Division of Nephrology — Hoag Hospital (twice elected by peers)
- Chief of Dialysis Services — Hoag Hospital Newport Beach
- Physician of the Quarter — Hoag Hospital Newport Beach
- Fellow, National Kidney Foundation (FNKF) — named 2011
Leadership & Founding Roles
- Founder — Southern California Kidney Associates, Newport Beach (2008)
- Co-Founder & CEO — Nephrology Specialists IPA
- Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer — RheoMed
- Creator — Pocket Dietitian (2012), mobile app for medical dietary guidance
- Volunteer Physician — Share Our Selves Clinic, Costa Mesa, CA
Professional Memberships
- Fellow, National Kidney Foundation (FNKF)
- American Society of Nephrology
- Renal Physicians Association
- American Board of Internal Medicine
- American Medical Association
- Orange County Medical Association
Medical Philosophy
One Problem, Three Names
Kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome are deeply intertwined — each accelerates the others. Dr. Wechsler treats the whole patient, not a single organ, coordinating care across cardiology, endocrinology, and primary care to address root causes rather than manage symptoms in isolation.
Prevention Over Intervention
Most kidney disease is not inevitable. With early detection and aggressive treatment of the conditions driving it, progression can be slowed — and often prevented. Dr. Wechsler's practice is built around proactive monitoring, aggressive risk-factor management, and patient education.
Access Without Barriers
Complex chronic illness demands more than a rushed office visit every few months. Through a concierge model, Dr. Wechsler maintains a limited panel of patients, ensuring same-day or next-day access, unhurried appointments, and direct communication — the standard of care that high-acuity patients deserve.
Coordination as a Core Service
Managing multi-system disease means navigating multiple specialists, hospitalizations, and transitions of care. Dr. Wechsler serves as a central point of coordination — reviewing records, communicating with consulting physicians, and ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
Now accepting a limited number of new patients.
Visits are by appointment. Contact us to arrange a consultation.