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Overcoming physician burnout during medical residency

Sun, 24 May 2026 11:00:55 +0000

I had matched into one of my top pick residencies, and I was living out my “dream life.” I was a very proud active-duty military member, and I was an oral and maxillofacial surgery resident. I loved where I lived, and my co-residents were amazing. The program fit my personality, and I was surrounded by

How moving from nursing to medicine improves oncology care

Sat, 23 May 2026 21:00:57 +0000

I still remember the heavy silence of the psychiatric unit during the peak of COVID-19. No family visitors, no group therapy, just the low hum of monitors and the crushing weight of isolation. One of my patients had survived a suicide attempt after losing his wife and daughter in a car accident. His grief filled

Why hospitals delay action on impaired physicians

Sat, 23 May 2026 19:00:12 +0000

The challenges in dealing effectively with this issue are compounded by multiple factors. These include an overall national shortage of physicians, particularly in rural communities, as well as being more prevalent in some specialties than others. In addition, if an impaired physician has been a long-standing member and past leader of the medical staff, is

Lifestyle, mindfulness, and the neuroscience of happiness

Sat, 23 May 2026 18:00:34 +0000

I have been gathering information about the neuroscience of happiness for over a year now, since the completion of my previous book, Legal Mind in Medicine, and decided to put a glimpse of it in an article form for the Memorial weekend reading. Happiness stands as a central human pursuit, shaping our physical health, mental

When normal creatinine hides post-operative kidney injury

Sat, 23 May 2026 17:00:54 +0000

The conversation in the surgical ICU happens the same way every time. “His creatinine spiked post-op, but it came back down before discharge. The labs look normal now. The kidney recovered.” Cardiac surgeons hear this reassurance so often it’s become standard. The patient leaves the hospital with normal kidney function on the discharge summary. By

The hidden cost of medical malpractice litigation

Sat, 23 May 2026 16:00:59 +0000

The emergency department was bright after midnight. An older man in his 80s arrived short of breath and frightened, surrounded by anxious family members. He had diabetes, chronic kidney disease, heart failure, and a recent fever. The nurse checked his blood pressure and tried to calm his daughter. The physician reviewed the chart and knew

Why medical training ignores the business of medicine

Sat, 23 May 2026 15:00:32 +0000

We spend a lot of time talking about how broken the medical system is: burnout, moral injury, administrative overload, loss of autonomy. We propose solutions: better workflows, more staffing, policy reform, technological innovation. But there is a harder truth we tend to avoid. The overall medical training system needs an overhaul. Medical training does not

Fragmented care needs clinical direction, not more data

Sat, 23 May 2026 14:00:09 +0000

Patients often assume that someone is directing their care. That there is a clinician who sees the whole picture, integrates the information, and guides what happens next. In many cases, that is not how modern care is structured. Patients move between clinicians (primary care, specialists, urgent care, consultants), each focused appropriately on a specific aspect

How lifestyle interventions reverse type 2 diabetes

Sat, 23 May 2026 13:00:02 +0000

I was a resident physician in New York City when I met a Jamaican woman in her early 40s, newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The hospital was always crowded and the schedules unpredictable, making continuity difficult. But appointment after appointment, she found her way back to me. She trusted me and even brought me

Why thymic involution is the aging organ doctors miss

Sat, 23 May 2026 12:00:12 +0000

There is an organ sitting behind my sternum that most of my patients have never heard of. Most of my colleagues rarely mention it. And yet, quietly, steadily, for the past four decades, it has been disappearing. The thymus. The schoolhouse of the immune system. The place where T cells learn to distinguish self from

How HIV stigma creates barriers to effective HIV care

Sat, 23 May 2026 11:00:20 +0000

HIV in Puerto Rico is no longer defined by lack of treatment, but by the persistence of stigma. From my perspective as a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) student and future Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (AGPCNP), stigma remains one of the most significant barriers to effective HIV care. While biomedical advances such as antiretroviral

Primary care, bloodletting, and what medicine got right [PODCAST]

Fri, 22 May 2026 23:00:42 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Robert C. Smith is best known for arguing medicine lost its mind. This episode he explains why he is still proud to be a doctor. Primary care physicians deliver 75 percent of the nation’s mental health care without training for it,

Prescribing is down, opioid overdose deaths are not

Fri, 22 May 2026 22:00:42 +0000

It is often said in popular literature that figures lie and liars figure. However, sometimes in science, the lie is by omission. What we don’t say can be even more important in our conclusions than what we do. Two charts illustrate this principle in a centrally important issue of U.S. clinical practice. The first chart

Wearable technology saves lives through early detection

Fri, 22 May 2026 21:00:52 +0000

I am a 94-year-old physician who would like to share a recent experience in which my Apple Watch played a critical role in the detection of a life-threatening event. Over the course of my career, I focused on early detection and prevention in medicine, particularly in colorectal cancer. This made my recent personal experience with

Medicare will pay for the work your nurses already do

Fri, 22 May 2026 20:00:20 +0000

Walk into any independent primary care practice and ask the nurse what she did on her lunch break. There’s a good chance she’ll tell you she was on the phone with the daughter of a dementia patient, calling the dialysis center to sort out a transportation problem, or following up on the discharge med rec

How cross-sector collaboratives cut health care costs

Fri, 22 May 2026 19:00:11 +0000

Health care costs continue to rise, yet the conversation about why often feels like a loop. Hospitals point to insurers. Insurers point to hospitals. Pharmacy benefit managers cite manufacturers. Manufacturers point back across the system. Meanwhile, patients are left trying to make sense of bills that feel disconnected from the care they received. In Massachusetts,

Diagnostic bias almost cost me my life

Fri, 22 May 2026 18:00:05 +0000

F*ck fibromyalgia? No, f*ck diagnostic bias. I’m in pain today, so please forgive the profanity. Pain has become a constant companion for me for several years now, though some days are worse than others. I am also a pediatrician, which means I am one of the “nice doctors” who does not curse. I have never

Diagnostic bias almost cost me my life originally appeared in KevinMD.com.

3 new pharma marketing tactics every physician should know

Fri, 22 May 2026 16:00:09 +0000

Weeks after a FiercePharma webinar told drug reps to make the lab worker their first sales point and not the patient’s doctor (to avoid a delay in “therapy adoption”), the three-day Fierce Pharma Engage conference in San Diego unveiled more aggressive, stealth sales tactics. At the well-funded meet-and-greet with 700 well-turned-out attendees, 150 speakers, and

Why health care accountability demands system readiness

Fri, 22 May 2026 15:00:01 +0000

Most conversations about failure in health care begin in the same place: What went wrong? A patient safety event. A staffing collapse. A breakdown in communication. A system failure that appears, at first glance, to be sudden and unexpected. But what if the more important question is not what went wrong, but what was already

Unlocking career flexibility with a Courage Fund

Fri, 22 May 2026 14:00:23 +0000

Most of the time in my work as a financial planner, my job is to help fellow physicians think long-game so they can craft a sustainable career and life they love. Today is different. We are going to focus on the short game and introduce a financial concept I call the “Courage Fund.” If you