Physician voices

12,751 articles · Since 2006

Physicians writing on KevinMD about the life of the profession: the work itself, the exhaustion, what women physicians are paid and asked to carry, the losses the profession has been slow to name, and who decides how physicians work. Five maintained records draw on this archive: Physician burnout: what physicians say, in their own words, Primary care: what physicians say, in their own words, Women in medicine: what women physicians say, in their own words, Physician suicide: what physicians say, in their own words, and Physicians and administrators: what physicians say about who runs medicine, in their own words.

Latest articles

Why women in medicine can’t follow a blueprint built for men

Dawn Sears, MD

November 12, 2026Nov 12, 2026

Ladies, we have been building our careers based off of a blueprint never meant for us. We were told we could have a fulfilling lifelong career in medicine, just like physicians have been doing for a millennium. This blueprint was designed for a different gender. I offer you the alternative “pink-print” for women in medicine; it may have more glitter, glam, and possibilities than was previously expected in this noble …

What practicing medicine with limited resources taught me

Dr. Farouk Jjingo

November 12, 2026Nov 12, 2026

Medicine teaches us to look for answers. We are trained to order the appropriate investigation, obtain the necessary imaging, consult the relevant specialist, and use the available evidence to reach a diagnosis and treatment plan. But what happens when some…

As a young physician practicing in Uganda, I have learned that resource limitations do not eliminate the need for good clinical decision-making. They make it …

Why I didn’t scold my patient for a blood sugar of 527

Dr. Muhammed Jaffar

November 11, 2026Nov 11, 2026

The referral slip pushed across my desk during the busy afternoon outpatient department read like a quiet emergency: GRBS 527. Metformin 500 stat. Refer to diabetologist. Sitting across from me was a 42-year-old kindergarten teacher, her primary complaints being an…

In a crowded clinic, time is the rarest commodity. When confronted with a blood sugar of 527, the systemic pressure on a doctor …

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Why doctors are miserable even after they make it

Lily Johnston, MD, MPH

November 10, 2026Nov 10, 20262

An excerpt from Disconnected: A Surgeon's Search for Healing in a Broken System. It's 2022, and at age thirty-eight, I have finally arrived at the summit. Seventeen years. That's how long it took to ascend this mountain: four years of…

An excerpt from Disconnected: A Surgeon’s Search for Healing in a Broken System.

It’s 2022, and at age thirty-eight, I have finally arrived at the summit. Seventeen years. That’s how long it took to ascend this mountain: four years of college, four years of medical school, seven years of surgical residency and research, and two more years of subspecialty fellowship in vascular surgery. Seventeen years, all leading to this moment. …

Interruptions in health care cost patients and trainees

Gus W. Krucke, MD

November 9, 2026Nov 9, 2026

Earlier in my career, I rounded with interns, residents, a chart rack, and a charge nurse. We disagreed and had competing demands, but working alongside one another gave us some sense of what was happening down the hallway. I knew when a nurse was doing something that could not wait. The nurses knew when I was examining a patient, teaching, or helping a family understand that someone was dying. We …

Why life as an attending feels like medical school again

Harold Kraft, MD

November 9, 2026Nov 9, 2026

When you are a medical student, you secretly believe a comforting myth: Once you pass your boards and survive training, you will finally stop running. Then you become an attending physician. And one morning, it hits you: You are still…

When you are a medical student, you secretly believe a comforting myth: Once you pass your boards and survive training, you will finally stop running.

Then you become an attending physician. And one morning, it hits you: You are still sprinting. You are wearing different clothes, but you are still gulping lukewarm coffee, and still staring at a glowing tablet.

The tragic comedy of that shared rat race is now a two-minute …

Why independent physicians need a third option

VitalMD

November 9, 2026Nov 9, 2026

Physicians today face enormous challenges in order to remain independent and, for private-practice OB/GYNs, it's about to get harder. Come January 1, 2027, obstetrician-gynecologists across the country will see a significant restructuring of maternity care services codes. The specialists' longstanding…

Physicians today face enormous challenges in order to remain independent and, for private-practice OB/GYNs, it’s about to get harder. Come January 1, 2027, obstetrician-gynecologists across the country will see a significant restructuring of maternity care services codes. The specialists’ longstanding billing model will become more encounter-based, creating a greater number of individual billing events. This transition will offer more opportunities to appropriately capture the care OB/GYNs provide, but it …

Expedition medicine needs evidence, not just summit photos

Michael Grinn, MD, MPH

November 8, 2026Nov 8, 20262

In cardiac anesthesia, a monitor gives me information. It does not make the decision for me. The number still needs a person who understands what is happening, what has changed, and what to do next. That distinction is central to…

In cardiac anesthesia, a monitor gives me information. It does not make the decision for me. The number still needs a person who understands what is happening, what has changed, and what to do next.

That distinction is central to how I think about expedition medicine. In January 2027, our ASCENT expedition through Pulse at the Peak is planned for Aconcagua, a mountain approaching 7,000 meters. The question I want to …

Will AI replace doctors who no longer have time to care?

Robert Pretzlaff, MD, MBA

November 7, 2026Nov 7, 2026

I work in San Francisco. Every morning I walk six blocks from the train to my office, and as I look down the street, I notice how many cars are wearing hats. The "hat" is the rooftop sensor dome, LiDAR…

I work in San Francisco. Every morning I walk six blocks from the train to my office, and as I look down the street, I notice how many cars are wearing hats. The “hat” is the rooftop sensor dome, LiDAR and cameras, on the Waymo self-driving cars that fill my city’s streets. If they have not come to your city yet, they are on their way. Waymo opened to the …

Are Teams chats private? Not when a lawyer comes asking

Timothy Lesaca, MD

November 6, 2026Nov 6, 2026

Workplace messaging platforms such as Microsoft Teams have become a regular part of clinical work. Health care organizations rely on them to coordinate schedules, manage logistics, and keep teams connected across different locations and telehealth settings. Because these channels are closed to outsiders and separate from the electronic health record, clinicians may view them as informal, friendly, and private. However, it’s worth reconsidering that belief, as it is far from …

Will AI replace doctors? I’m not worried for 7 more years.

Larry Kaskel, MD

November 6, 2026Nov 6, 2026

I'm sixty-four years old. I've practiced internal medicine for more than thirty-five years, and I figure I've got another seven good years left. And I'm not particularly worried about artificial intelligence replacing me. That doesn't mean I think AI is…

I’m sixty-four years old. I’ve practiced internal medicine for more than thirty-five years, and I figure I’ve got another seven good years left. And I’m not particularly worried about artificial intelligence replacing me.

That doesn’t mean I think AI is overhyped. Quite the opposite. I suspect it’s going to transform primary care faster than most physicians appreciate. Some of what we do today will look positively antiquated by the time I …

Negative feedback changed me. Praise never did.

Bill Kinnard, MD

November 6, 2026Nov 6, 2026

Positive feedback is all the rage these days. Parents (and grandparents) are hyper-focused on encouraging Junior. "Great job" may be the most common words out of this grandfather's mouth when on duty with the little ones. A crayon scrawl that…

Positive feedback is all the rage these days. Parents (and grandparents) are hyper-focused on encouraging Junior. “Great job” may be the most common words out of this grandfather’s mouth when on duty with the little ones. A crayon scrawl that only goes off the paper and onto the kitchen table a few inches merits a “well done!” Generous kudos are a big part of the work environment as well. All …

Leaving a role is not leaving medicine

Joe Pazona, MD

November 5, 2026Nov 5, 2026

I spent eight years as a urologist in rural Washington, two of them as chief of staff at our hospital. I loved my patients. I also saw, up close, what happens when a community can't get specialty care close to…

I spent eight years as a urologist in rural Washington, two of them as chief of staff at our hospital. I loved my patients. I also saw, up close, what happens when a community can’t get specialty care close to home. I watched a woman die of bladder cancer after years of being treated for “recurrent UTIs.” The medicine was never the hard part. Access was.

Later, in a leadership role …

Read more…

Leaving a role is not leaving medicine

I went to space and still teach physician expert witnesses

Gretchen E. Green, MD

November 5, 2026Nov 5, 20262

When I traveled to space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard in May 2025, I fulfilled a dream that had begun nearly forty years earlier at Space Camp. I became the first woman physician commercial astronaut, an achievement that still feels…

When I traveled to space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard in May 2025, I fulfilled a dream that had begun nearly forty years earlier at Space Camp. I became the first woman physician commercial astronaut, an achievement that still feels extraordinary to me.

You might think that after reaching my highest goal, I would leave my previous professional life behind. After all, I retired from clinical medicine in 2024 and have …

The unfinished dreams I carry into my oncology clinic

Rashmika Potdar, MD

November 4, 2026Nov 4, 20265

I am a practicing hematologist-oncologist in the U.S., standing here against all odds I could never have imagined overcoming. It was not a linear journey; I arrived here carrying the unfinished lives of generations of women before me. Today, I…

Today, I live independently. I earn my own money. I make decisions about my own life and, as a physician, the lives of others. And yet I feel as though I have borrowed …

Does a DNR order mean do not intubate? Not always

Ferdinando Mirarchi, DO

November 4, 2026Nov 4, 20265

A 49-year-old man was alive because emergency physicians had saved his life once before. Now, three years later, another emergency physician saved his life again. But instead of a thank you, this physician and the hospital that saved his life…

It all began with nine words reportedly spoken by another physician: “That damn ER doctor should have never intubated you.”

Sometimes when you …

Voting is not enough: why medical society membership matters

Lorraine Marasco Schratz, MD

November 3, 2026Nov 3, 20262

As physicians head to the polls, we are afraid for our patients and our profession. We are in a moment of extraordinary turbulence. Administrative overload, political intrusion into clinical care, workforce shortages, hospital and program closures, and public distrust have…

The future of medicine will be shaped by more than who wins at the ballot box. Our elected officials need not only …

Medical malpractice lawsuits need a test for merit

Howard Smith, MD

November 3, 2026Nov 3, 20262

Medical malpractice lawsuits make doctors very vulnerable in an unsettling future. Since the 1960s, medical malpractice lawsuits caused the unmitigated failure to control health care costs. Even today we have no idea of the number of medical malpractice lawsuits filed each year and, least of all, how many of these lawsuits are non-meritorious. Likely it is intended for us not to know because whatever is measured is managed and those …

Are civilian hospitals ready for 1,000 war casualties a day?

Matthew Turner, MD & Kaitlin Rainwater-Lovett, PhD, MD

November 3, 2026Nov 3, 20262

The looming threat of LSCO It has been decades since the United States has experienced sustained, high-casualty large-scale combat operations (LSCO) at the level of the Second World War, the Korean War, and Vietnam. However, in the changing geopolitical landscape,…

The looming threat of LSCO

It has been decades since the United States has experienced sustained, high-casualty large-scale combat operations (LSCO) at the level of the Second World War, the Korean War, and Vietnam. However, in the changing geopolitical landscape, the possibility of the U.S. entering LSCO is high. Within the next decade, these conflicts are most likely to be with near-peer adversaries in complex, austere, and ambiguous environments.

In …

Patient satisfaction surveys grade the wrong thing

Dr. Gurdev Singh

November 2, 2026Nov 2, 2026

Nearly every hospital in America now asks its patients a question that no sane person has ever asked a friend: Would you recommend us? It arrives a few weeks after discharge, in an envelope or an email, along with its…

Nearly every hospital in America now asks its patients a question that no sane person has ever asked a friend: Would you recommend us?

It arrives a few weeks after discharge, in an envelope or an email, along with its relatives. Did the doctors listen carefully? Was the area around your room quiet at night? Were the room and bathroom kept clean? On a scale of zero to ten, how would …

Physician voices

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