wElcome to kaÜNA

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Founded by Collins Oghor, MD, MBA, MPH in 2024, Kaüna is the product of a year-long Health Management practicum at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health & the Social Innovation & Change Initiative Fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. 

Kaüna is a new kidney care company. We aim to transform the management of chronic kidney disease in America by placing genuine patient care at the system's center and uplifting two other crucial stakeholders—the care coordinators and nephrologists whom kidney disease patients rely on for their care. 

Kidney care in America is at a crossroads. The $500 billion spent by the USA on kidney care annually is rising yearly, yet patients need better care. Similarly, providers are complaining that their working conditions are getting ever more restrictive, and they are taking home less money due to the outsized influence of powerful corporations that more or less control the industry. The Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative of 2019 was the US government saying, "enough is enough." The Presidential Executive Order empowered the Department of Human & Health Services to make drastic changes in how kidney care is delivered and ultimately incentivize early management, preventive care, transplant and home dialysis. 

While it is too early to say what impact the new policy and the myriad of changes it has ignited will have on patient care and provider working conditions, we have first-hand evidence that many providers are disaffected. 

At Kaüna, we believe that if the proper steps are taken, this crossroads could lead to a brighter, more positive future for kidney care.

Our vision is based on five core principles/beliefs:

1. Value-based care is the future of kidney care in America
2. Nephrologists, not corporations, must be in the driving seat of value-based kidney care 
3. Nursing care coordinators hold the key to successful value-based kidney care and must be recognized and rewarded accordingly 
4. Technological advancements in the next decade will enable care coordination, and thus value-based care, at a scale that is currently unfathomable
5. Nephrologists, nurses, and other allied health professionals must be foundational contributors to building the care technologies that will drive the future of kidney care 

We are incubated at the Harvard Innovation Labs where we are building our proprietary CKD management platform technology.