The hidden incentives driving frivolous malpractice lawsuits

Physician
June 16, 2025

Eighty-five thousand medical malpractice lawsuits are filed per year, but the total number of claims reviewed by lawyers is unknown. What underlies their decision to proceed is their inability to determine which complication results from a systemic medical error in a medical intervention and which is just a random error of nature.

Reflected in this 85,000 is that two-thirds—52,000—are summarily dismissed and 4,600 are defense verdicts, and one-third—27,000—are settlements and 1,400 …

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Why what doctors say matters more than you think [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 15, 2025
YouTube video

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Physician Scott Abramson discusses his article “How doctors’ words can make or break patient care.” Scott shares two compelling scenarios illustrating the profound impact of a physician’s communication. He recounts a family …

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How Mark Twain would dismantle today’s flawed medical AI

Tech
June 15, 2025

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) spent his youth deciphering the Mississippi River, a system far more complex than any artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm. He learned that real understanding demands nuance, context, and skepticism. Were he alive today, he’d likely see NarxCare, the controversial opioid-risk AI algorithm, as a cautionary tale about the dangers of replacing human judgment with lies, damn lies, and statistics.

NarxCare scores patients based on morphine milligram equivalents and …

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Mastering medical presentations: Elevating your impact

Physician
June 15, 2025

As health care professionals, we are constantly immersed in data, intricate details, and complex ideas. Whether presenting at grand rounds, sharing research at conferences, or explaining treatment plans to patients, your PowerPoint slides can either amplify your message or obscure it in a deluge of information.

Let’s be clear: Effective communication is not merely a desirable trait; it is a clinical necessity. Communication …

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Marketing as a clinician isn’t about selling. It’s about trust.

Physician
June 15, 2025

Most of us didn’t go into medicine thinking about branding or strategy. We went into it to care for people. That was always the goal.

If we want to reach more of the patients who need us, we have to look at how we’re showing up. If we want to build a practice that’s sustainable and aligned with who we are, it matters. It’s not about selling. It’s about connection.

That starts …

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Graduating from medical school without family: a story of strength and survival

Education
June 15, 2025

Today I graduated from medical school. It should have been one of the happiest days of my life. And in some ways, it was. I earned this moment through sleepless nights, years of sacrifice, and an unshakable drive to serve and heal. I walked across the stage, accepted my diploma, stretched my smile from cheek to cheek, and looked directly at the camera. But behind that smile, I carried something …

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Inside human trafficking: a guide to recognizing and preventing it [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 14, 2025
YouTube video

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Public policy analyst Julia Drydyk discusses her article “Human trafficking isn’t what you think: Why education is key to stopping it.” Julia clarifies the crucial distinction between human smuggling and human trafficking, …

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Earwax could hold secrets to cancer, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease

Conditions
June 14, 2025

Most of us think of earwax as a nuisance–something to be cleaned out and discarded. But, did you know that this sticky substance is a natural part of your body that can reveal information about your health?

If you regularly clean your ears at home, it’s worth a second thought. Although a part of general hygiene, overdoing it–or using hairpins, toothpicks, and other pointy tools–can do Read more…

Why male fertility needs to be part of every health conversation

Conditions
June 14, 2025

June is Men’s Health Month, an opportunity to spotlight the unique health challenges men face—and to change the way we talk about them. One of the most overlooked and under-discussed topics in men’s health? Fertility. It’s time to bring it to the forefront.

As a fellowship-trained urologist specializing in sexual medicine and male fertility, I’ve witnessed firsthand how male reproductive health is too often sidelined in conversations around family-building. For far …

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Why health care must adapt to meet the needs of older adults with disabilities

Conditions
June 14, 2025

We all know the population is aging, but did you know that close to half of all adults over age 65 in the U.S. have some kind of disability? The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) includes as a disability any “physical or mental impairment that limits one or more life activities” or a history or record of such impairment.

Thus, disabilities include: physical limitations such as mobility issues, pain, and fatigue; …

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How doctors took back control from hospital executives

Physician
June 14, 2025

Several decades ago at our local hospital in northern Los Angeles County, an onslaught against doctors began. The administration marginalized and discredited them. It was not due to a lack of medical skill or knowledge, as certain physicians were labeled “troublemakers” and “threats” to health care in our small community.

The chief of staff and I, the chairman of the Department of Medicine, were members of the staff, some of whom …

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Improving patient encounters: time-saving strategies for physicians [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 13, 2025
YouTube video

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Endocrinologist Michael Morkos discusses his article “Mastering the art of efficient patient encounters: tips for physicians.” Michael shares practical strategies for optimizing the patient encounter to enhance both efficiency and patient satisfaction. …

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How art and science fueled one woman’s path to medicine

Physician
June 13, 2025

Dreaming of medicine

Everyone has an origin story. Mine doesn’t include any radioactive spiders or vats of glowing fluid, but I did get a few extra volts of electricity being defibrillated back to life at seventeen, and that’s close enough to a tragic backstory for me. It was a short-lived event, but long enough to change everything. I remember the blur of motion as a team of doctors worked around me. …

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In a fractured world, Brian Wilson’s message still heals

Physician
June 13, 2025

In memory of Brian Wilson (1942–2025).

In a world increasingly marked by fracture and fear, it is hard not to return to the quiet, aching clarity of Brian Wilson’s song Love and Mercy. Originally released in 1988, the song was not a protest anthem or a sweeping political critique. Instead, it was a simple, open-hearted wish: “Love and mercy, that’s what you need tonight. So, love and mercy to you and …

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4 traits every new attending physician needs to thrive

Conditions
June 13, 2025

When I conduct therapy for doctors after residency, I am supporting new attending physicians as they navigate one of the most intense and disorienting transitions of their careers. These early attendings often arrive feeling untethered. They’re rediscovering who they are, working through long-ignored anxiety, stepping into their authority, and trying to build lives that don’t begin and end with medicine.

When I talk about what makes a new attending “successful,” I’m …

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2 hours to decide my future: How the SOAP residency match traps future doctors

Education
June 13, 2025

“We are sorry, you did not match to any position.”

That sentence alone is enough to crush someone who has spent over a decade chasing the dream of becoming a physician. But what came next was a blur of rushed decisions, emotional exhaustion, and the pressure to uproot my life—without knowing if the choice was right for me or my family.

I entered SOAP, the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program—advertised as a …

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Essential questions about nurse practitioner liability insurance [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 12, 2025
YouTube video

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Nurse practitioner Surani Hayre-Kwan discusses her article “Are you protecting your career? 5 essential questions about your NP liability insurance.” Surani discusses the critical need for nurse practitioners to secure their own …

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Why being a physician mom is harder than anyone admits

Physician
June 12, 2025

There’s so much we don’t say out loud.

Not because it’s not true.
Not because it doesn’t matter.
But because somewhere along the way, we were taught that strength looks like silence—and that if we’re struggling, it must mean we’re doing something wrong. Or maybe we just forgot, in the brain fog of postpartum hormones and the blur of sleepless nights.

I’m a family physician. I’m also a mother to an amazingly bright and …

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9 domains that will define the future of medical education

Tech
June 12, 2025

A comprehensive 2025 framework on medical education reform has laid bare a critical challenge: The traditional path to becoming a doctor is failing to meet the demands of modern health care. The consequences are stark: 70 percent of medical students report frequent feelings of burnout, persistent health disparities remain entrenched, and a median debt of $200,000 is pushing graduates away from essential careers in primary and public service care.

This new …

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When the diagnosis is personal: What my mother’s Alzheimer’s taught me about healing

Conditions
June 12, 2025

I’ve spent my career as a neurologist diagnosing and managing neurodegenerative diseases. I’ve counseled families through heartbreaking prognoses, navigated complex care plans, and educated patients about conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. I thought I understood what it meant to live with a memory disorder, until my mother became my most challenging, most personal patient.

Her diagnosis came gradually, as these things often do. First, it was the missed appointments and forgotten dates. …

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