Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • What Physicians Say
  • My Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Speaking
KevinMD.com — Social media's leading physician voice
  • All
  • Physician
  • Burnout
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • All
  • Physician
  • Burnout
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
    • All
    • Physician
    • Burnout
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • What Physicians Say
    • My Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Speaking
KevinMD.com — Social media's leading physician voice
  • All
  • Physician
  • Burnout
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
    • All
    • Physician
    • Burnout
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • What Physicians Say
    • My Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Speaking
  • About Kevin Pho, MD, Founder of KevinMD
  • Aging and dementia: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Artificial intelligence: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Be heard on social media’s leading physician voice
  • Cancer: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Children’s health: what pediatricians say, in their own words
  • Contact Kevin
  • COVID-19: what physicians wrote as it happened
  • Custom enhanced author page pricing
  • Diabetes and obesity: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Direct primary care: what physicians say, in their own words
  • DMCA Policy
  • End of life: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Establishing, Managing, and Protecting Your Online Reputation: A Social Media Guide for Physicians and Medical Practices
  • GLP-1 drugs: what physicians say about Ozempic and its successors, in their own words
  • Heart disease: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Immigration and medicine: what physicians say about immigrant doctors and immigrant patients, in their own words
  • KevinMD influencer opportunities
  • Medical errors: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Medical ethics: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Medical malpractice: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Medical school: what students and physicians say, in their own words
  • Mental health: what psychiatrists and physicians say, in their own words
  • Nursing: what nurses and physicians say, in their own words
  • Opinion and commentary by KevinMD
  • Opioids: what physicians and pain patients say, in their own words
  • Physician burnout speakers to keynote your conference
  • Physician burnout: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Physician Coaching by KevinMD
  • Physician keynote speaker: Kevin Pho, MD
  • Physician personal finance: what physicians say about their own money, in their own words
  • Physician Speaking by KevinMD: a boutique speakers bureau
  • Physician suicide: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Physicians and administrators: what physicians say about who runs medicine, in their own words
  • Primary care physician in Nashua, NH | Kevin Pho, MD
  • Primary care: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Prior authorization: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Privacy Policy
  • Private equity and corporate medicine: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Race and medicine: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Recommended services by KevinMD
  • Residency: what residents and attendings say, in their own words
  • Scope of practice: what physicians, nurse practitioners, and PAs say, in their own words
  • Subscribe to the KevinMD enhanced author page
  • Subscribe to the newsletter
  • Surgeons and surgery: what surgeons say, in their own words
  • Take-home messages: what physicians say when asked to leave one
  • Terms of Use Agreement
  • Thank you for subscribing to KevinMD
  • Thank you for upgrading to the KevinMD enhanced author page
  • The electronic health record: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Vaccines: what physicians say, in their own words
  • Violence against health care workers: what physicians and nurses say, in their own words
  • What physicians say: the KevinMD records
  • Women in medicine: what women physicians say, in their own words
  • Women’s health: what physicians say, in their own words

Unlocking the secrets of medical practice success

Curtis G. Graham, MD
Physician
June 27, 2023
Share
Tweet
Share

“The cause of man’s problem is a lack of knowledge. It does not stem from a shortage of information but rather from the rejection of information.”
– Hosea 4:6

This event in medical history is one such lesson that describes the blinding of physicians to the realities of open-mindedness and the destructive potential that results from ignoring factual truth.

If it weren’t for the persistence and medical ingenuity of an early 1800s medical doctor, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, the impact of our management of childbirth would have been delayed for another century, and hundreds, maybe thousands, more women would have been killed from “Childbed Fever.”

At that time, physicians, like those of us today, were unable to recognize or accept the possibility that there was a simple solution to their worldwide “groupthink” in the practice of medicine concerning the prevention of maternal deaths caused by physicians and their lack of knowledge about the cause of Childbed Fever.

The fact that pregnant women in that era were the first to recognize the extreme danger of hospital birthing that far exceeded home deliveries was enigmatic. Only one European physician stopped to think about the cause of such tragedies. He had an open mind, focused and diligent enough to investigate potential causes. It required setting aside what he had been taught and trusted his intuition.

Seeing that the cause of the problem had to be within the hospital environment, he understood that births outside hospitals usually occurred without medical doctors. That led to connecting doctors with patient deliveries. Surgeons often worked on cadavers to learn more, without gloves or washing hands before delivering patients and cleaning the uterus by hand. Purulent infection of cadavers provided the cause.

He experimented with all the available cleaning solutions and discovered that washing the hands of delivery doctors in chlorine water prevented the infection almost 100%. He traveled around hospitals and gave them the secret. The problem was that all those physicians believed it was a hoax. Those who tried it a few times and quit doing it never noticed any benefit.

It took a few decades before the treatment prevention was accepted. Dr. Semmelweis was so distraught at his failure to convince other physicians that he covered his hands with purulent cadaver residue, slashed his hands, and died of the infection in a few days.

How does one physician persuade other doctors to believe him?

My own 20 years of research into the cause of physician attrition, early retirement, quitting medical practice, and reducing or eliminating all stressors that we all see within the private medical practice environment presently has convinced me that the great majority of physicians are increasingly facing problems that can be effectively resolved.

I know that if medical students are provided with business education while in medical school, it will not only result in an enormous improvement in the factors that today drive them away from medical practice and applying to medical school.

Physicians don’t have to look for outside jobs to supplement their poor income. The backup that basically 100% of physicians don’t have today is the business tools that all businesses in the world use to prosper, grow, and expand. Why are physicians denied these tools and strategies? We in private medical practice have a small business to maintain. We desperately need these tools.

This serious business problem can be related to outdated myths about the business of medical practice and the intentional educational restrictions against business education mandated by medical school education scholars and administrators for a hundred years.

ADVERTISEMENT

It becomes a problem for all physicians to either believe in the value and benefits of business education (not an MBA) or continue believing they are smarter and can handle their business better than the business experts. Medical students for the last century have never been told about the business side of medical practice.

It is insane to send a physician out into the population with no business education to start a business and make the medical practice business successful. Physicians aren’t dumb. You know that some organizations, all medical schools, or government contracts and oversight are getting all the benefits by not permitting physicians to learn about the business tools.

The other physicians know a powerful need for business education and do not have the money to get business knowledge before or after medical school. These physicians remain silent and tolerate the whipping and abuse—God bless them. The bottom line is that if business education is not provided while in medical school, it will never be affordable.

However, if the rules of medical school scholars and administrators persist—no business education—then medical practice as we know it will disappear very soon.

There is another option for all physicians to take advantage of, which is bulletproof to the swaggers of the medical school education system. Can you imagine that anyone or any educational system would ever attempt to provide a digital business education learning system online that is very affordable and far better than college courses because it is specifically designed for physicians in clinical medical practice?

It’s never been done before. Besides, it would have to be created by a physician who had a private medical practice business and who also had an expert level of business education.

Such a process has already been established that is affordable for all physicians who want to reach their maximum income and do it all while sitting at home with their feet on the coffee table and learning as fast as they choose. The interesting part of the program is that you can select one management process and one marketing strategy and start them within a week. Of course, you will need to read a few books by business experts on the topics you need more information about.

Nothing else that I know provides a way to start using business tools long before you know everything you need to know about medical practice management and marketing strategies. Activate one business management tool and one marketing tool and continue to add to that foundation for as long as you prefer. As you keep earning more income, you can afford to expand your profits to a higher level, step by step. You don’t have to be a millionaire—you need enough increasing income to accomplish what you started in your medical career to do.

Curtis G. Graham is a physician with forty years in medical practice, most of it in obstetrics and gynecology. For more than twenty-five years, he has researched and investigated the causes of, and the solutions to, the disintegration of health care and the medical profession, a subject he found no other physician had taken up in the medical literature. He lost his own private obstetrics and gynecology practice after reaching his maximum potential, without understanding at the time why it had happened.

His work is aimed at saving private medical practice, stopping physician attrition, and compelling every medical school to provide business education for medical students. He has built two business education websites for physicians, and he teaches the paths to success in practice that 98 percent of physicians never learn or know about, and without which they never reach their highest potential. He argues that once physicians understand the value and the benefits of business education (office management and marketing), there will be no more burnout, disappointment, attrition, or overwhelming practice circumstances.

He is the author of The Wounded Physician Project, first published in 2014 and updated in 2021, and The Medical Deep State, published in 2025. A third book, published in 2026, takes up the consequences physicians face at the hands of government, the health care system, and the deep state predators he says feed on physicians daily. He has written more than 350 medical articles on the power of a business education for physicians, and he warns that physicians have reached their tolerance levels, and that unless the medical system is renovated immediately, the country will be left with third-world health care.

He can be found at his website and on LinkedIn.

Prev

Social inflation's surge in medical malpractice insurance [PODCAST]

June 26, 2023 Kevin 0
…
Next

The transformative power of volunteering at the science fair

June 27, 2023 Kevin 0
…

Tagged as: Practice Management

< Previous Post
Social inflation's surge in medical malpractice insurance [PODCAST]
Next Post >
The transformative power of volunteering at the science fair

 

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Curtis G. Graham, MD

  • The shocking risk every smart student faces when applying to medical school

    Curtis G. Graham, MD
  • Why would any physician believe that the practice of medicine will become less abusive for them in the future?

    Curtis G. Graham, MD
  • The lie destroying medical careers: How lack of business education is ruining physicians

    Curtis G. Graham, MD

Related Posts

  • Medical school is more than practice problems

    Kira Kopacz
  • Digital advances in the medical aid in dying movement

    Jennifer Lynn
  • The secret to success in medical school: self-awareness and courage

    Kaelor Gordon
  • A medical student’s physician inspiration

    Uju Momah
  • Interstate licensure for telehealth can fuel medical practice growth

    Chad Anguilm, MBA, David L. Feldman, MD, MBA, and Remi Stone, JD
  • 5 tips to medical resident success

    Lisa Sieczkowski, MD

More in Physician

  • 3 reforms to counter wellness influencers in practice

    Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD
  • Choosing a limb lengthening surgeon requires accountability

    Hrayr Basmajian, MD
  • How to reassure patients: 5 steps beyond normal tests

    Devina Maya Wadhwa, MD
  • Setting boundaries as a physician doesn’t mean caring less

    Jerina Gani, MD, MPH
  • How emergency medicine decision making works under pressure

    Geoffrey Mount Varner, MD, MPH
  • Why I stay in emergency medicine: a dancer at nearly 100

    Howie Mell, MD, MPH
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Retirement isn’t the end of medicine, it’s a second act [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The conflict of interest that discloses as nothing

      Martha Rosenberg | Medications
    • 4 fibromyalgia myths the current evidence doesn’t support

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Conditions and Diseases
    • Why exhaustion can make you see things that aren’t there [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • AI governance in health care has to reach the exam room

      Amanda Heidemann, MD | Health Technology
    • The Pennsylvania measles outbreak and the cost of forgetting

      Christine King, CRNA | Conditions and Diseases
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why CDC opioid guidelines get the overdose data wrong

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Conditions and Diseases
    • Retirement isn’t the end of medicine, it’s a second act [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Sensory processing in autism and the brain’s volume control

      Josette Pelatan, PhD | Conditions and Diseases
    • What maternity care deserts cost a town

      Manisha Kaliaperumal | Health Policy
    • Why medicine needs a national physician license now

      Vaishali Popat, MD, MPH | Physician
    • A cold cost $945. The cost of primary care is broken.

      Susan Newman, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Why exhaustion can make you see things that aren’t there [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • 3 reforms to counter wellness influencers in practice

      Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD | Physician
    • Shift work and circadian rhythms shape the 24/7 workplace

      Deepak Gupta, MD | Conditions and Diseases
    • Paid for twice

      Physicians paid for G2211 twice. Most never bill it.

      Michael Duben, MD | Physician Finance
    • The next child

      Medicaid managed care and the case for mutual stewardship

      Steven Merahn, MD | Health Policy
    • Choosing a limb lengthening surgeon requires accountability

      Hrayr Basmajian, MD | Physician

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

Leave a Comment

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Retirement isn’t the end of medicine, it’s a second act [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The conflict of interest that discloses as nothing

      Martha Rosenberg | Medications
    • 4 fibromyalgia myths the current evidence doesn’t support

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Conditions and Diseases
    • Why exhaustion can make you see things that aren’t there [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • AI governance in health care has to reach the exam room

      Amanda Heidemann, MD | Health Technology
    • The Pennsylvania measles outbreak and the cost of forgetting

      Christine King, CRNA | Conditions and Diseases
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why CDC opioid guidelines get the overdose data wrong

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Conditions and Diseases
    • Retirement isn’t the end of medicine, it’s a second act [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Sensory processing in autism and the brain’s volume control

      Josette Pelatan, PhD | Conditions and Diseases
    • What maternity care deserts cost a town

      Manisha Kaliaperumal | Health Policy
    • Why medicine needs a national physician license now

      Vaishali Popat, MD, MPH | Physician
    • A cold cost $945. The cost of primary care is broken.

      Susan Newman, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Why exhaustion can make you see things that aren’t there [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • 3 reforms to counter wellness influencers in practice

      Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD | Physician
    • Shift work and circadian rhythms shape the 24/7 workplace

      Deepak Gupta, MD | Conditions and Diseases
    • Paid for twice

      Physicians paid for G2211 twice. Most never bill it.

      Michael Duben, MD | Physician Finance
    • The next child

      Medicaid managed care and the case for mutual stewardship

      Steven Merahn, MD | Health Policy
    • Choosing a limb lengthening surgeon requires accountability

      Hrayr Basmajian, MD | Physician

Copyright © 2026 KevinMD.com | Powered by Astra WordPress Theme

  • Terms of Use Agreement
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Leave a Comment

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...