Laura Plantinga

Laura Plantinga serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Emory University, with additional affiliation in the Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics & Gerontology. Her research employs multidisciplinary, patient-centered approaches to improve care quality for underserved populations with chronic kidney disease (CKD), end-stage renal disease (ESRD), and lupus.

Her educational credentials include:

• PhD from Emory University
• ScM from Johns Hopkins University

Dr. Plantinga's research spans Chronic Diseases Epidemiology, Health Disparities, Health Services Research, and Renal Diseases, with specific focus on functional impairment in aging lupus patients, dialysis care coordination, and health equity. She develops interventions targeting care transitions between hospitals and dialysis facilities while examining geriatric syndromes in autoimmune populations.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications reveals dominant themes in lupus functional assessment (47% of articles), kidney transplantation disparities (20%), and dialysis care delivery systems (33%). Her work increasingly incorporates mixed-methods approaches to evaluate patient-reported outcomes and implementation barriers in real-world settings.

She leads three major funded initiatives: (i) a web-based hospital-dialysis communication platform; (ii) aging burden assessment in lupus; and (iii) patient-friendly functioning reports for clinical use. Dr. Plantinga collaborates extensively with Emory investigators across renal medicine, transplantation, geriatrics, and rheumatology.

Dr. Plantinga teaches Applied Data Analysis (EPI 536) and Epidemiology of Aging Populations (EPI 567) while serving as Senior Board Member for BMC Nephrology and Editorial Board member for the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, having authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications.