Q3 2026 report · July 1 to September 30
Data through September 30, 2026; reading data as of October 4, 2026.
Clinicians wrote about AI this quarter more than about anything else: 77 essays by 59 different authors. Readers spent less time with the subject. The typical AI essay drew about two-thirds the reading of a typical KevinMD article, while essays on burnout drew about half again as much and essays on pain and opioids about 60 percent more. The 10 essays readers spent the most time with were all written by physicians.
Gaps like that are what this report is for. Surveys of physicians start with a question someone else chose. KevinMD works the other way around: Since 2004, it has published clinicians in their own words, on subjects they chose, under their own names. More than 45,000 posts later, that archive records what the people inside medicine talk about when no one is prompting them, and which of their essays readers stay with.
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This is the first Insights by KevinMD report: what KevinMD authors talked about from July through September, how that compares with the year before, and which of those subjects readers stayed with. KevinMD published 805 articles this quarter. Clinicians wrote 574 of them, under 321 bylines: physicians, residents and medical students, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and others.
The short version
- Three subjects led the quarter: AI (77 clinician essays by 59 authors), burnout (36 essays by 31 authors), and pain, opioids, and addiction (30 essays by 18 authors).
- AI gained the most ground, and the conversation has changed. In 2023, three of every four clinician AI essays dwelt on ChatGPT and chatbots. This quarter, fewer than one in five did. Readers have not kept pace: AI essays drew about two-thirds of the typical reading.
- Pain and opioids came back. The subject’s share of clinician writing nearly doubled from the year before, and readers spent about 60 percent more time on these essays than on a typical article.
- Burnout’s share fell this quarter, and a steady stream of clinicians is arguing for a different word: moral injury. Readers gave those essays nearly three times the typical reading.
- Rising from smaller bases: glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs and medical misinformation. Fading: insurers and denials, and vaccines.
Q3 2026 at a glance
805articles analyzed
574written by clinicians
321clinician bylines
30subjects tracked since 2004
Questions this report answers
- What did KevinMD authors write about most this quarter?
- How has clinicians’ writing about AI changed?
- Why are clinicians writing about pain and opioids again?
- Is “burnout” still the right word?
- What are clinicians saying about GLP-1 drugs?
- Why are clinicians writing about misinformation?
- Which subjects faded?
- Which essays did readers spend the most time with?
- How has clinician writing changed since 2004?
- What should we watch next?
What did KevinMD authors write about most this quarter?
Three subjects, well ahead of the rest. AI was the focus of 77 clinician essays, by 59 different authors. Burnout followed with 36 essays by 31 authors, then pain, opioids, and addiction with 30 essays by 18 authors. No other subject we track passed 12 essays.
Counting authors as well as essays matters. A subject can look like it is surging when one prolific writer is behind most of it. Malpractice, for example, looked like a rising subject until we counted: 9 of its 12 clinician essays this quarter came from a single physician. We call a subject rising only when it grows across many voices, and we compare each quarter with the four quarters before it, since a single quarter a year ago can be noisy.
Here are the subjects with the clearest movement, side by side:
| Subject | Essays (authors), Q3 2026 | Share of clinician essays, Q3 2026 vs. prior 4 quarters (percent) | Reading vs. a typical article (essays measured) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI | 77 (59) | 13.4 vs. 9.3 | 0.68 times (118) |
| Burnout | 36 (31) | 6.3 vs. 8.5 | 1.49 times (39) |
| Pain, opioids, and addiction | 30 (18) | 5.2 vs. 2.8 | 1.61 times (32) |
| GLP-1 drugs | 11 (9) | 1.9 vs. 1.3 | 1.14 times (15) |
| Moral injury | 10 (10) | 1.7 vs. 1.3 | 2.79 times (9) |
| Misinformation and social media | 10 (9) | 1.7 vs. 0.9 | 0.71 times (11) |
| End-of-life care | 8 (8) | 1.4 vs. 1.2 | 2.78 times (11) |
| Insurers, denials, and billing | 8 (6) | 1.4 vs. 2.3 | 0.91 times (21) |
| Vaccines | 6 (5) | 1.0 vs. 1.4 | 1.55 times (9) |
| Private equity | 2 (2) | 0.3 vs. 0.3 | Too few to measure (3) |
Essays and authors count clinician-written articles focused on the subject this quarter. Share is the percent of all clinician essays, this quarter against the four quarters before it. Reading is the median engaged time of the subject’s articles, by all authors, as a multiple of the median article published the same month; articles online less than a week are excluded.
How has clinicians’ writing about AI changed?
There is more of it, and it is about different things. AI was the focus of 13.4 percent of clinician essays this quarter, up from 9.3 percent over the previous four quarters. The podcast shows the same shift: 16 of the 73 episodes we analyzed this quarter centered on AI, more than one in five.
The bigger change is what the essays are about. In 2023, ChatGPT’s first full year, 78 of 103 clinician AI essays, about three in four, mentioned ChatGPT or chatbots at least twice. This quarter, 15 of 77 did, fewer than one in five. The writing has moved from the novelty of a chatbot to the tools now inside clinical work and what they do to care. A psychiatrist and internist argued that a “consent obtained” checkbox in an ambient scribe workflow is not, by itself, consent. A psychiatric nurse practitioner described patients arriving in clinic frightened by AI forecasts and proposed a name for it: “AI-anticipatory anxiety.” Physicians wrote about guarding against automation bias and about why prompt engineering fails a doctor at 2 a.m.
Readers have not followed at the same pace. Only 15 of the 118 AI essays we could measure, by clinicians and other authors alike, landed in the top quarter of articles by reading time. If they had been read like everything else, about 30 would have.
Why are clinicians writing about pain and opioids again?
Because the questions are back on their desks. Pain, opioids, and addiction made up 5.2 percent of clinician essays this quarter, up from 2.8 percent over the prior four quarters. One physician wrote a third of them, so we checked the rest on their own: The other 17 authors still more than doubled the subject’s share.
The essays argue about access as much as about drugs. Simon Feng, a family physician and addiction medicine specialist, wrote that the system around chronic pain “profits strongly from, even demands, the suppression of opioid prescriptions.” Francisco M. Torres, an interventional physiatrist, described patients who come to a pain referral expecting suspicion, and wrote that they “often report feeling judged, misunderstood, and abandoned.” Others wrote about kratom and 7-OH, harm reduction, and post-operative pain control lost to policy.
Readers stayed with them. The typical essay on the subject drew about 60 percent more reading than a typical article, and Feng’s essay on why doctors won’t prescribe opioids was among the 10 most-read of the quarter.
Is “burnout” still the right word?
Burnout is still the second-largest subject, but its share fell to 6.3 percent of clinician essays this quarter, from 8.5 percent over the prior four quarters. One quarter is not a trend. What is steadier is the argument about language: Moral injury has held at roughly 1 to 2 percent of clinician essays for a year, and this quarter 10 different clinicians wrote about it.
The essays make the case themselves. Devina Maya Wadhwa, a psychiatrist, explained why many clinicians are reaching for a new term: “That word is doing too much work.” Sarah A. Vlach, a physiatrist, drew the line plainly: “Moral injury is not burnout from overwork.”
Readers have not moved on from either. Burnout essays drew about one and a half times the typical reading, and moral injury essays nearly three times, among the highest of any subject.
What are clinicians saying about GLP-1 drugs?
Mostly about what happens around the drugs: regain, coverage, and stigma. GLP-1 drugs were the focus of 11 clinician essays by 9 authors, 1.9 percent of clinician writing, up from 1.3 percent over the prior four quarters. Hana Kahleova, an endocrinologist, wrote about weight regain after stopping the drugs and argued that “we’re funding the half of this equation with the least durable effect on its own.” Patience C. Ennis, a registered nurse, wrote about the stigma that follows patients even after the weight comes off, captured in a patient’s question: “If you know what it took to change my body, will you think less of me?” A family physician walked readers through what a tirzepatide study in the news actually tested.
Why are clinicians writing about misinformation?
Because they meet it in the exam room first. Misinformation and social media were the focus of 10 clinician essays by 9 authors, 1.7 percent of clinician writing, nearly double the 0.9 percent of the prior four quarters. Arthur Lazarus, a physician-author, described why corrections arrive too late: “By the time a correction appears, the claim may already feel familiar, socially reinforced, and emotionally true.” Elizabeth Agyeman Prempeh, a physician, took the opposite tack: “I believe real medical experts must become influencers.”
This is one subject readers did not reward. The typical misinformation essay drew about 30 percent less reading than a typical article.
Which subjects faded?
Three, compared with the year before. Insurers, denials, and billing fell from 2.3 to 1.4 percent of clinician essays. Vaccines fell from 1.4 to 1.0 percent. Burnout, as above, fell from 8.5 to 6.3 percent.
One subject barely registered at all. For all the attention private equity receives in health care, it was the main subject of only 2 clinician essays this quarter, though 15 mentioned it. In more than two decades of KevinMD, it has never been the focus of more than about one article in 250 in any year. When a physician does take it on, the argument is about history, not villains. Brian Hudes, a gastroenterologist who owned his practice for twenty years before more than ten as a hospital-employed physician, wrote: “Private equity did not make independent practice impossible. It arrived afterward and bought what was left at a discount.”
Which essays did readers spend the most time with?
Essays by physicians, about what practicing medicine costs the people who do it. Physicians wrote nearly six in 10 of this quarter’s articles. If reading were spread evenly across authors, a top 10 written entirely by physicians would turn up about once in 250 tries. It happened. These were the 10 most-read articles published on KevinMD this quarter, by engaged reading time:
- “Women physicians die sooner. Hospitals still won’t act.” (Ali Novitsky, MD)
- “I don’t like who I’ve become in primary care” (Wendy Shue, MD)
- “COVID trauma in emergency physicians can surface suddenly” (Howie Mell, MD, MPH)
- “Why doctors leave medicine after a malpractice suit” (Jordan Grumet, MD)
- “Administrative burden in primary care and the end of my career” (Susan Bennett, MD)
- “Family medicine match rates signal a workforce problem” (Ronald L. Lindsay, MD)
- “The hidden payment gap crushing independent physicians” (Kayvan Haddadan, MD)
- “Why doctors won’t prescribe opioids, and who profits” (Simon Feng, MD)
- “Why residency programs should cap Step 2 CK scores” (Deepak Gupta, MD, and Sarwan Kumar, MD)
- “Why ‘fine’ is not clinical reasoning in medical education” (Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA)
Wendy Shue, a family physician, put that cost in ten words: “I don’t like who I’ve become, working in primary care.” None of the 10 is about AI. On its own that could be chance, since AI essays were about one in six of the quarter’s articles, but it fits the pattern above. Clinician voices carried the quarter overall: The typical clinician-written article drew about a third more reading than the typical article by any other author.
How has clinician writing changed since 2004?
The archive lets us see how far this has moved. Electronic health records (EHRs) were the technology clinicians wrote about for a decade. They led every other technology topic we track in every year from 2009 through 2019, peaking in 2014 at about one KevinMD article in 27. Since 2020, they have settled at about one article in 100. AI stayed under 1 percent of our articles until 2019. In 2026, it is the focus of about one article in eight. Burnout traveled a similar arc: In 2008, not a single KevinMD article focused on it; by 2025, about one in 14 did.
The EHR years left a lesson that runs through this quarter’s AI writing. Matthias Muenzer, an obstetrician-gynecologist, summed up why the records were built the way they were in six words: “The buyer is not the user.” The AI essays above ask, in different ways, whether the next tools will repeat it.
What should we watch next?
- Whether the return of pain and opioids holds, and whether it widens beyond a few prolific voices
- Whether AI writing keeps climbing while reading lags behind it
- Whether more clinicians adopt moral injury as the word for their distress
- Whether GLP-1 and misinformation keep growing from their small bases
About this report
How we did this
We analyzed every article published on KevinMD from July 1 to September 30, 2026 (805 articles; podcast episodes, videos, sponsored posts, and our own spotlight posts were excluded), and every KevinMD post back to 2004 for the long view. Subjects were identified with a fixed list of terms for 30 subjects. An article counts toward a subject when the term appears in its title or recurs in its body (three or more times, or five for broad terms such as “payers”), and we checked samples of matches by hand. We count authors as well as essays, and we call a subject rising only when it holds up with its most prolific author removed. Author roles come from each author’s own published bio. Reading figures are engaged time per article from Google Analytics for July 1 to September 30, 2026, compared with the median article published in the same month; articles published in the final week were left out of the subject comparisons. Podcast figures come from transcripts of 73 non-sponsored episodes.
AI essays in the top quarter by reading time: 15 of 118, against about 30 expected. Physicians wrote 57.8 percent of the quarter’s articles; at that rate, the chance of an all-physician top 10 is about 0.4 percent. Private equity was mentioned at least once in 2.6 percent of clinician articles. Pain, opioids, and addiction with its most prolific author removed: 3.5 percent of clinician essays, against 1.5 percent over the prior four quarters.
These numbers describe what clinicians chose to write and publish on KevinMD and what our readers chose to read. They are not a survey, and they reflect our editorial choices about what to publish.
Insights by KevinMD
Insights by KevinMD draws on something no survey can reproduce: two decades of clinicians writing unprompted, and a live record of which essays readers spend the most time with.
The same record can answer narrower questions. Health systems, technology companies, life sciences teams, and investors sometimes want to know what clinicians have said about a single subject over time. Ambient AI scribes are one example: Clinicians have discussed them in dozens of essays since 2025 alone. If a question like that would help your work, we would be glad to hear from you. Get in touch. None of this work influences what KevinMD publishes.
Essays cited in this report
- Elizabeth Agyeman Prempeh, MD. “Why real medical experts must become medical influencers.” KevinMD, July 2026.
- Erin J. Silvertooth, MD. “Your ambient AI scribe consent checkbox is not consent.” KevinMD, July 2026.
- Jordan Grumet, MD. “Why doctors leave medicine after a malpractice suit.” KevinMD, July 2026.
- Ronald L. Lindsay, MD. “Family medicine match rates signal a workforce problem.” KevinMD, July 2026.
- Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA. “Why “fine” is not clinical reasoning in medical education.” KevinMD, July 2026.
- Sarah A. Vlach, MD. “Moral injury doesn’t care how many hours you worked.” KevinMD, July 2026.
- Dr. Simbiat Adighije. “Anticipatory anxiety about AI is showing up in clinic.” KevinMD, July 2026.
- Susan Bennett, MD. “Administrative burden in primary care and the end of my career.” KevinMD, July 2026.
- Ali Novitsky, MD. “Women physicians die sooner. Hospitals still won’t act.” KevinMD, August 2026.
- Dr. Ferney Bernal Buitrago. “3 habits that guard against automation bias in medicine.” KevinMD, August 2026.
- Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA. “Medical misinformation arrives before the physician does.” KevinMD, August 2026.
- Simon Feng, MD. “Why doctors won’t prescribe opioids, and who profits.” KevinMD, August 2026.
- Deepak Gupta, MD, and Sarwan Kumar, MD. “Why residency programs should cap Step 2 CK scores.” KevinMD, August 2026.
- Howie Mell, MD, MPH. “COVID trauma in emergency physicians can surface suddenly.” KevinMD, August 2026.
- Wendy Shue, MD. “I don’t like who I’ve become in primary care.” KevinMD, August 2026.
- Patience C. Ennis. “GLP-1 weight loss stigma changes what patients disclose.” KevinMD, August 2026.
- Kayvan Haddadan, MD. “The hidden payment gap crushing independent physicians.” KevinMD, August 2026.
- Matthias Muenzer, MD. “The buyer is not the user in electronic health records.” KevinMD, August 2026.
- Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, MBA. “GLP-1 weight regain: We are funding the wrong half.” KevinMD, September 2026.
- Francisco M. Torres, MD. “Why a pain management referral feels like an accusation.” KevinMD, September 2026.
- Brian Hudes, MD. “Why prompt engineering for physicians fails at 2 a.m.” KevinMD, September 2026.
- Brian Hudes, MD. “Private equity in medicine did not kill private practice.” KevinMD, September 2026.
- Devina Maya Wadhwa, MD. “Stop calling every form of physician distress burnout.” KevinMD, September 2026.
- Jeffrey Laman, MD. “What did the tirzepatide study actually test?” KevinMD, September 2026.
