About
About
Building an ecosystem to shape future of kidney health
Building an ecosystem to shape future of kidney health
People affected worldwide
Global economic impact
Unaware they have it
I started Signals because kidney disease is both deeply personal and widely overlooked. As a Navy veteran and VA patient-turned-entrepreneur, I’ve seen the toll it takes on patients, families, and healthcare systems—and how often these challenges remain invisible outside the kidney community. I wanted to build something that could change that.
Before Signals, I spent nearly a decade leading IKONA, a company I co-founded to reimagine patient education through virtual reality. Along the way, I authored peer-reviewed publications, served as principal investigator on federal research grants, and worked with partners like the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and NVIDIA. That experience showed me both the potential for innovation in kidney care—and the structural barriers that hold it back.
What began as a simple newsletter quickly grew into a platform to amplify voices, surface insights, and connect people working across the “Kidneyverse.” Today, Signals advances kidney health through its media, research, and network—helping bring more visibility, collaboration, and innovation to the field.
We are joined by over 20,000 monthly readers in 55 countries, including many world class teams from industry, academia, government, and beyond.
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I've spent years delving into CKD and dialysis in America, and rarely have I encountered a resource of such depth, breadth and newsworthiness. A key starting point for understanding this complex, distorted but life-saving industry.
Staying well-informed is essential as both a CEO and Patient Advocate. Signals is my trusted resource for staying current on breakthroughs in research, emerging innovations, and healthcare policy. It also connects me with a dynamic network across the kidney care spectrum, engaging leading voices in the vital discussions shaping the future of the “Kidneyverse.”
Over the past two years, Tim Fitzpatrick has become a transformative voice in kidney care. He brings clarity to complex issues in value-based care, transplantation, and emerging treatments, making the field more accessible to providers, patients, and policy leaders alike. Through his writing, he has engaged tens of thousands of readers and fostered greater transparency across the kidney community. What sets Tim apart is his ability to make the complicated understandable while bringing people together to shape the future of kidney care — uniting stakeholders, sparking conversations, and driving progress across the field.
Signals has quickly become indispensable reading for me. The kidney and transplant spaces have rapidly expanded since I began advocating for policies to reduce the burden of kidney disease on patients, families, and communities. I always look forward to Signals content—whether it’s keeping me on top of priority news and opportunities, highlighting creative approaches to transforming the patient journey, or telling a story that needs to be told. Signals catalyzes passion, facilitates connections, and consistently brings readers back to the focus: relentlessly pushing forward for the people who need change the most.
Tim and Paul have been excellent partners in navigating the value-based care space. They combine deep knowledge with a strong network of experts to deliver thoughtful insights that go beyond surface-level analysis. The overview deck they prepared was comprehensive, practical, and immediately valuable — a resource we’ll continue to draw on. Highly collaborative and easy to work with, they consistently keep patients at the center while balancing real business needs. I would recommend them to anyone looking to better understand or operate within value-based care today.
