My eyes opened with the familiar heaviness of a Monday morning, and as I began to pull myself out of bed, I felt a shooting pain in my neck. I was alarmed, but not wanting to be too dramatic, I repositioned on my side, pushed off and got to my feet, struggled to put a dress on without moving my neck, and headed to class. Finding that the painless range …
What neck pain taught a medical student about patient trust
For half a century, the “gold standard” of labor safety has been a single, flickering line on a screen. But as recent reporting confirms, that line is often a lie. Our obsession with isolated fetal heart rate patterns has created a surgical “false positive pipeline,” driving C-section rates to historic highs without actually reducing the incidence of cerebral palsy.
The myth of the “failed” test
The skepticism surrounding EFM often stems from …
Artificial intelligence and the future of fetal heart rate monitoring
“Mom says she talks to me every day now.”
The son told me this during a clinic visit. His 82-year-old mother, once painfully lonely, now smiled again. She told everyone she spoke with her son every morning. He asked about her day. He reminded her to take her medication. He listened to her stories.
There was only one problem.
She was not talking to her son. She was talking to an AI voice …
The hidden dangers of AI voice assistants in elder care
Even with all the incredible advances in medicine over the past 70 years, there remain severe deficits in the care of many serious deadly diseases. Pancreatic cancer, multiple sclerosis, glioblastoma, Alzheimer’s, ALS, and ovarian cancer easily come to mind in that desperate category.
However, let’s get a perspective of what it was really like to practice medicine a hundred years ago. What kind of doctors were there? What did they do? …
Medicine in 1926: What being a doctor was really like
An excerpt from In Search of Dignity: A Lifetime of Reflections.
Several years before her death at the age of 55 years due to complications of cerebral palsy, my sister Ellen was again in hospital, this time in intensive care and on the brink of respiratory collapse. To say cerebral palsy had shaped her life is an understatement, in that it molded nearly every facet of her being, from the …
The Platinum Rule in health care: Moving beyond the Golden Rule
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!
Internal medicine physician Shiv K. Goel discusses his article “Claude for Healthcare vs. administrative burden: a physician’s review.” Shiv contrasts the two hours he spent fighting a prior authorization with the promise …
AI could end the administrative nightmare for doctors [PODCAST]
Most people expect a heart attack to announce itself with unmistakable force, crushing pain, shortness of breath, a dramatic collapse. Mine arrived quietly, unnoticed, and remained hidden for years. What I discovered in 2026 forced me to revisit events from 2018 and 2019 and confront how easily critical medical information can slip through the cracks when communication fails.
A routine appointment reveals a hidden past
On Jan. 8, 2026, during a routine …
Silent heart attack symptoms: my missed diagnosis story
I cannot claim to have been the one who nurtured our garden. That credit belongs to my wife. She is the one who waters the plants faithfully and notices when something needs care. I am more often the admirer, the one who pauses to appreciate a flower that seems almost too beautiful to belong in an ordinary backyard.
Among the plants that brought me the greatest joy was a passion vine. …
The passion vine: a lesson on restraint in medicine and life
Predicting shifts in the health care environment has always been difficult, but this year, the pace of change, driven by regulatory complexity, mounting financial pressures, and artificial intelligence (AI), makes long-term forecasts increasingly uncertain. Each year, TDC Group has predicted emerging health care trends over the next decade, focusing on the challenges, risks, and opportunities that shape the industry. …
The future of U.S. medicine: 10 health care trends in 2026
I read with interest HHS’s request for public input on how regulation, reimbursement, and research and development can accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence in clinical care. As someone who began his career as a software engineer, then became a practicing physician, and later founded a clinical AI company, I welcome this moment. It is overdue, and it is also fragile.
The promise of efficiency over autonomous medicine
AI’s greatest opportunity …
Artificial intelligence in clinical care: Shaping the HHS policy landscape
The way hospitals traditionally staff is burning out nurses and killing patients.
A single call-in or unanticipated census spike creates heavier patient loads for front-line nurses. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that surgical patients have a 31 percent increased likelihood of death within 30 days in hospitals with 8:1 nurse-to-patient ratios, compared to those with the optimal 4:1 ratio.
Further, when nurses were asked why …
Predictive staffing in health care: Solving the nurse burnout crisis
An excerpt from Narrative Medicine in the Age of Uncertainty: When Systems Strain and Stories Steady.
When a nonprofit hospital system posts a $201 million operating loss, lays off roughly 650 workers, and then buys naming rights to an NFL practice facility, it does not just create bad optics. It teaches a lesson.
Not to the marketing department. To the workforce.
In Philadelphia, Jefferson Health reported a $201 million …
Why your nonprofit hospital system is spending millions on marketing
Every reproductive endocrinologist knows that ovulation is triggered by estradiol. In our textbooks, the sequence is clear: Estradiol rises, triggers an LH surge, and ovulation follows, culminating in the formation of a corpus luteum, which produces progesterone to support implantation and pregnancy. It is straightforward and reassuringly precise, and it forms the backbone of our clinical practice.
Yet, from the very beginning of training, we are instructed to use artificial ovulation …
The Dozortsev-Diamond paradigm: Is progesterone the true ovulation trigger?
In 2025, the health care industry faced a crisis that has quietly reshaped how providers think about care: administrative workforce shortages. Clinics struggled to fill roles like medical billers, schedulers, and revenue cycle specialists, with vacancies lasting over 30 days in many cases.
The impact was tangible:
The real differentiator for high-performing practices was a surprisingly human …
Administrative workforce stability: the new clinical metric for 2026
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!
Professor of clinical psychiatry Michael F. Myers discusses his book Physicians With Lived Experience: How Their Stories Offer Clinical Guidance and the article “Breaking the silence: mental health and racism in medical …
Physician vulnerability and authenticity: How shared stories heal [PODCAST]
In Northern California and beyond, health care systems are rapidly integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and digital tools to transform how pain is recognized, measured, and managed. From algorithm-guided assessments to wearable sensors and predictive analytics, these tools promise to augment clinical decision-making and improve patient outcomes. Yet significant controversies remain, including concerns over algorithmic accuracy, bias, data privacy, and the extent to which technology should complement or potentially displace human …
AI in pain assessment: Balancing innovation with patient safety
This article is sponsored by InCrowd.
Health care professionals are constantly navigating changes in policy, clinical evidence and practice expectations all while delivering patient care. Over the past several months, InCrowd has been asking health care professionals across the United States to share their perspectives on three major developments: changes to nursing degree classifications, a state-level bill in Massachusetts that …
It is very cold in Islamabad. These days, I feel overwhelmed by joblessness, the constant lack of money, an upcoming medical exam, and the slow progress I am making in life. Apart from studying for my upcoming medical exam, the most consistent part of my routine has become counting money. I check all my bank accounts, calculate every remaining rupee, and make small, anxious plans about how I will manage …
Winter in Islamabad: Finding hope in the daily struggle
Physicians are renowned for their dedication to helping others. The problem is that their dedication has become synonymous with self-sacrifice and working for free.
Giving away time, energy, and expertise is simply “what good doctors are supposed to do.”
We work through lunch. We attend meetings during lunch. We respond to patient messages on our days off. We prepare lectures and teach without compensation. Leaders hold space for complaints and conflict and …
The hidden cost of uncompensated work on physician burnout
When I experienced burnout as a young primary care physician, I thought it was my fault. Actually, I didn’t know it was burnout; I had never heard the word. But I believed whatever was causing the deep exhaustion, lack of empathy, and feelings of uselessness were surely due to a flaw or weakness in me.
Eventually, I stumbled across the definition of professional burnout. I was so curious to understand what …
Physician burnout solutions: Why system change isn’t enough
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
