KevinMD.com

5 principles for protecting physician reputation

Wed, 27 May 2026 17:00:59 +0000

Health care workers understand the power of a record. One sentence in a medical chart can follow a patient for years. A diagnosis, a risk label, or a preliminary impression may shape how future clinicians see that person. That is why we are taught to document carefully, update records when new information appears, and avoid

Profit motive in medicine: lessons from private detention

Wed, 27 May 2026 16:00:43 +0000

Who staffs the immigration detention centers, the temporary holding camps, the privately run facilities where thousands of frightened people are waiting behind fences and concrete walls? That is not a rhetorical question. It is a practical one. There are doctors, nurses, administrators, guards, transportation workers, and contractors working inside these institutions today. Some believe they

The quiet art of building trust with patients in pain

Wed, 27 May 2026 15:00:38 +0000

Before I ever stepped into a clinic, I learned diplomacy at the dinner table. I learned how silence could be strategic. How tone traveled faster than words. How disagreements could unfold without becoming rupture. How laughter, timed well, could soften a room. I watched adults negotiate boundaries, expectations, and emotions in real time and internalized

RFK’s food pyramid is a win for industry, not health

Wed, 27 May 2026 14:00:20 +0000

When Robert Kennedy Jr. (RFK) was confirmed as HHS director last February, overseeing the CDC, NIH, CMS, and FDA, many worried that modern medicines would become unavailable or scarce. Instead, industry has received unexpected windfalls and green lights from the new policies. Exhibit A: the exoneration of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) from its well-documented links

35 years after choosing psychiatry as a specialty

Wed, 27 May 2026 13:00:06 +0000

35 years ago, I stood in a hospital hallway and made a decision that would define the rest of my professional life. I was halfway through my internship year in radiation oncology, a field of high-tech linear accelerators and clear-cut protocols, but my heart had drifted toward psychiatry. When I finally voiced my intent to

The physician gender pay gap is an engineering problem

Wed, 27 May 2026 11:00:34 +0000

The physician gender pay gap persists after adjustment for specialty, hours, and productivity. A 2016 study in JAMA Internal Medicine found female physicians earned roughly $20,000 less per year than male counterparts after extensive controls. Subsequent analyses confirm similar patterns across specialties and career stages. Most of this literature treats the gap as evidence of

When a code blue on the psychiatry unit ends in a police interview [PODCAST]

Tue, 26 May 2026 23:00:45 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! You hear code blues overhead in a hospital all the time, but one on a psychiatry unit is different. A young patient died after a cardiac event, and what followed looked nothing like a code blue on a medical floor. Devina

The hidden cost of GLP-1 insurance coverage mandates

Tue, 26 May 2026 21:00:08 +0000

I have spent years caring for patients with obesity, and one of the most meaningful parts of this work is seeing what happens when people finally receive comprehensive, evidence-based treatment. I have watched sleep apnea disappear, blood pressure normalize, joint pain ease, and liver disease reverse. I have watched people who spent years feeling dismissed

Social determinants of health belong in medical school

Tue, 26 May 2026 19:00:48 +0000

There is so much going on in the world right now, which is precisely why I want to talk about a TV show. Not for escapism. Because this particular show is doing something that medical schools across the country are now being required to stop doing. The Pitt won Outstanding Drama Series at the 2025

Mission over margin: a community ER doctor’s discipline

Tue, 26 May 2026 17:00:30 +0000

The May 2, 2026, New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Perspective, “From Mission to Margin in Academic Medicine,” articulates an internal struggle I feel frequently. All physicians recognize the formative environment Dr. Vyas describes as something that must be fiercely protected, and his call to action against the commodification of training resonates deeply. As an

Payer contract renegotiation costs independent practices

Tue, 26 May 2026 16:00:36 +0000

A typical commercial payer contract for an independent practice gets signed once, usually under time pressure during credentialing, and then sits untouched for three to five years. The practice receives annual fee schedule updates from the payer, treats them as the new floor, and moves on. The contract is filed and rarely opened again. This

Medical malpractice lawsuits cost $56 billion a year

Tue, 26 May 2026 15:00:53 +0000

Medical malpractice is big business in the United States. The only database monitoring medical malpractice is the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). The NPDB’s annual report claims only 13,000 medical malpractice lawsuits. The NPDB was first established by the Health Care Quality Improvement Act in 1986. It was created by politicians (attorneys) for the express

Bedside medicine and the meaning of physician presence

Tue, 26 May 2026 14:00:43 +0000

Transitioning from one part of the country to another can be daunting, though for me it has become a fascinating lesson in both what differentiates us and what remains remarkably the same. Geography changes. Accents shift. Customs vary. Yet suffering, fear, hope, and love seem to speak a language of their own. I have continued

The residency personal statement is an identity problem

Tue, 26 May 2026 13:00:28 +0000

Last year around this time, a student offered me $1,000 to write the personal statement for their residency application. Not to coach them through exercises that would help them write it themselves. Not to edit a finished draft. One thousand dollars for me to write 800 words about their life that they could submit alongside

Doctors using AI are not being replaced by it

Tue, 26 May 2026 11:00:39 +0000

The U.S. health care system is adopting artificial intelligence faster than nearly any other sector, and for many patients, that’s unsettling. Patients consistently say they trust AI far more when it supports doctors rather than replaces them. But the rapid integration of AI in medicine, particularly in clinical settings, has left many wondering: Is rising

Doctors using AI are not being replaced by it originally appeared in KevinMD.com.

GLP-1s, weight loss, and the inflammation tests your patient needs [PODCAST]

Mon, 25 May 2026 23:00:21 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! A cardiologist who helped set national cholesterol and weight targets for 40 years now says those numbers can mislead. Richard M. Fleming, a physician specializing in cardiovascular and inflammatory disease, argues that weight loss on a GLP-1 does not automatically mean

Spirituality is a remedy for physician burnout

Mon, 25 May 2026 21:00:03 +0000

A physician, whom I will call Dr. Hannah, initially sought coaching from me to address burnout and optimize clinical documentation in the electronic medical record. One of the major challenges that surfaced in her first coaching session was that she did not know who she was outside of work. She also wanted to bring more

Spirituality is a remedy for physician burnout originally appeared in KevinMD.com.

Philanthropy for scientific research is underused

Mon, 25 May 2026 19:00:17 +0000

I often wonder why giving has so little to do with how much one has. A millionaire may hesitate to part with even a few thousand dollars for a person in need, while someone with only a modest savings may readily give away a meaningful share of it for a good cause. Clearly, something deeper

Why high-functioning adults are delaying psychiatric care

Mon, 25 May 2026 17:00:34 +0000

A pearl forms when an irritant gets trapped inside an oyster and can’t get out. The oyster doesn’t remove it. It layers over it until damage becomes structural. That’s what I keep seeing in patients who waited years before seeking psychiatric care. The delay is often interpreted as denial or avoidance. In practice, many adults

The quiet loss of dignity in medicine

Mon, 25 May 2026 15:00:07 +0000

When institutions begin to fear the consequences of telling the truth, the First Amendment becomes a parchment promise rather than a living principle. Medicine is not immune to this cultural shift. Physicians who once spoke freely about patient safety, training standards, and systemic failures now hesitate, not because they lack conviction, but because the corporate

The quiet loss of dignity in medicine originally appeared in KevinMD.com.