KevinMD.com

How pain management solves a refractory headache

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 17:00:38 +0000

As a pain management specialist, I see patients every week who feel like they have tried nearly everything. They come to me after months, or even years, of battling chronic or refractory headaches. Their primary care doctor and neurologist have already walked them through the usual first-line options, yet the pain keeps coming back relentlessly.

Health care investing insights from a venture capital pro

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:00:50 +0000

A few months ago, a well-connected investor sent me a deal for a surgical device with a proprietary safety feature. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-cleared. Strong intellectual property. Thousands of units sold. Multiple institutional backers across several rounds. The investor who referred it had taken a company to a NASDAQ initial public offering and

The silent patient experience in the exam room

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:00:28 +0000

Doctor, you see only the faint visible smile on my exterior, my hand reaches out to shake yours as you enter the space. But you cannot see the “me” within, the fear, the stress, the anxiety that circulates inside me. These emotions swirl within, poking and prodding, they hang like a weighted chain about my

The silent patient experience in the exam room originally appeared in KevinMD.com.

A nurse’s final reflection on life, death, and regrets

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:00:18 +0000

I sat up on that thin mattress in a nursing home. My earthly possessions were gone. The house I loved so much and worked so hard to buy, built in 1918, was no longer mine. I had taken a second job just to move out of the dilapidated trailer my husband had brought me to.

Recognizing structural drift and institutional failure in health care

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 11:00:10 +0000

Most institutional failures appear sudden. A hospital collapses under regulatory scrutiny. A leadership crisis erupts. A safety breakdown exposes systemic weaknesses that had remained invisible for years. When these moments occur, they are often described as unexpected. But in complex systems like health care, failure rarely arrives without warning. The warning signs are almost always

Why your patient isn’t filling that prescription (and won’t tell you) [PODCAST]

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 23:00:33 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! What happens when a patient can’t afford the treatment you prescribe but is too embarrassed to say so? Health care executive Adam Cunningham joins the show to unpack the devastating ripple effects of medical debt, drawing on his KevinMD article, “The

The hidden toll of medical debt on patient health and survival

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 21:00:57 +0000

One hundred million Americans carry medical debt. Research published in JAMA Network Open found that medical debt is associated with higher mortality across every leading cause of death, including suicide. A national study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that people carrying debt burden are more than three times as likely to attempt suicide.

How one doctor navigated orthopedic residency while pregnant

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:00:02 +0000

The Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society (RJOS) Dr. Jessi Block Courage Award is awarded annually to an RJOS member who demonstrates strength and integrity in the face of everyday obstacles. The definition of courage is “the ability to do something that frightens one” and “strength in the face of pain or grief.” Courage is a conscious

National Nurses Week needs better nursing recognition

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:00:03 +0000

I was recently speaking with an intensive care unit (ICU) nurse, and she described a moment that perfectly captures the weight of her profession. She was managing a post-surgical patient whose vitals were quietly deteriorating. Before the monitor alarms even registered the crisis, she had anticipated the drop, prepped the pressors, and calmly updated the

Natural disaster trauma requires mental health planning

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 16:00:40 +0000

Super Typhoon Sinlaku got the coverage it deserved, the satellite loops, the wind speed updates, the landfall reports over the Northern Marianas. Every wobble in the eye wall drew a headline. No one was talking about what was happening inside people’s bodies. I have sat with patients days after a storm passed, experiencing blood pressure

The reluctant achiever: Navigating identity in medical training

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:00:42 +0000

I. Intake notes Subject presents as a high-functioning adult with a long history of academic success and an unusual number of existential questions for someone who technically has their life together. Primary characteristics include intellectual curiosity, restlessness, and a persistent suspicion that the conventional path laid before them (while impressive) might also be some kind

How imposter syndrome affects high-achieving professionals

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:00:47 +0000

He had just been named a partner. The youngest in the firm’s history. The first thing he said when he sat down in my office was, “I think they made a mistake.” I have heard some version of this more times than I can count, from physicians, attorneys, founders, and C-suite executives. People whose resumes

The medical practice marketing metrics that actually matter

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:00:17 +0000

Every month, thousands of physician practices receive a marketing report. It has charts. It has graphs. It shows impressive numbers moving in the right direction. And in most cases, it tells the practice almost nothing about whether their marketing is actually working. After managing paid digital campaigns for cosmetic and aesthetic medical practices, I have

Finding humanity in medicine after a sudden illness

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:00:36 +0000

The morning my mother passed away began like any other. She was getting ready for work. She finished her morning chai and just stepped out of the shower with the sunlight filling the bedroom. There was nothing unusual about that morning that was particularly alarming. And then, in a moment so small I almost missed

Silence isn’t neutrality: Why medical students can’t wait to find their voice [PODCAST]

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 23:00:51 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! What happens when medical students witness dehumanization during clinical rotations but feel too powerless to speak up? Kathleen Muldoon, a certified coach and professor in medical education, joins the show to unpack why moral courage is a skill you can practice

Coping with a childhood type 1 diabetes diagnosis

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 21:00:50 +0000

An excerpt from Confessions of a Problem Seeker: My Lifetime Journey From Busy Brain To Loving Heart. In his own intuitive way, with only a second-grade education, my dad knew something was not right. Just hours after peeing in a paper cup at our pediatrician’s office, the doctor called my mom at my father’s butcher

The ROI of ambient AI in health care and autonomous coding

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 19:00:12 +0000

When ambient listening and generative AI first entered the clinical mainstream, the value proposition was simple: Reduce documentation burden and give clinicians their evenings back. That promise resonated. Burnout was rising. After-hours charting had become normalized. Health systems needed relief. And ambient documentation delivered. But as deployments scaled from pilot projects to enterprise rollouts, the

Artificial intelligence is changing medical writing today

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 17:00:23 +0000

The moment was small, almost trivial. I handed my daughter her polished curriculum vitae (CV), clear, structured, and professionally phrased. All the information had been distilled and reorganized from her resume. She looked at it for a second longer than expected, then asked a single question: “ChatGPT?” I said yes, and felt an unexpected flicker

A humorous parody of medical specialties and the modern patient

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:00:35 +0000

Prologue As a practicing gastroenterologist for more than 50 years, now emeritus, I was privileged to have had colleagues with expertise in many specialties to whom I could refer patients. Since my career began, the constellation of these specialists has increased considerably. Patients often find themselves moving from one “ologist” to another, each very skilled

Managing food allergy anxiety through diagnostic testing

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:00:05 +0000

Food allergies affect roughly 8 to 10 percent of U.S. children and adults, and prevalence has risen steadily over the past two decades. Beyond the impacts on physical health, families managing food allergies experience persistent stress and vigilance preparing for unknown risks, whether it’s label reading, preparing for school, or going to restaurants or social