Conditions

How immigrant physicians solved a U.S. crisis

Eram Alam, PhD

Conditions

November 24, 2025

In the decades following the passage of the Hart-Celler Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the face of American medicine irrevocably changed. This bill expedited the rapid entry of physicians from post-colonial Asian nations into the U.S. in significant numbers. In this migratory flow, South Asian physicians, in …

Pediatric leadership silence on FDA ADHD recall

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Conditions

November 24, 2025

“The FDA has issued a nationwide recall of lisdexamfetamine capsules.”

That sentence in Newsweek magazine should have triggered alerts, guidance, and coordinated response. Instead, the silence from pediatric leadership has been deafening. Newsweek turned to the FDA and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Where are the leadership of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics? Silent. Why?

The recall that should have sparked action

In …

The ethical conflict of the Charlie Gard case

Timothy Lesaca, MD

Conditions

November 24, 2025

Some cases linger in our memory because of the humanity at their center. The case of Charlie Gard, which unfolded in England in 2017, is one of those. It took place within the National Health Service and under a legal framework in which courts decide a child’s treatment when parents and clinicians cannot agree. Before it became a global controversy, before it drew international headlines, it began as something far …

The ethics of mandatory Tay-Sachs testing

Sheryl J. Nicholson

Conditions

November 23, 2025

Introduction

Tay-Sachs disease is a devastating genetic disorder that primarily affects individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, though it is also found among Cajuns in Louisiana and French-Canadians. This fatal condition typically manifests within the first six months of life and leads to progressive neurological deterioration, often resulting in death by age five. As medical science advances, the question arises: Should genetic testing for Tay-Sachs be mandatory for all individuals of reproductive …

Why toys matter in the exam room

Diego R. Hijano, MD

Conditions

November 23, 2025

Children often surprise us with the seriousness they bring to a clinic visit. Every so often, when the room feels tense, I turn to a simple question and ask what their favorite toy is. Caregivers smile, and children lean forward with the kind of excitement that only play can spark. In a moment, the atmosphere changes. The room feels lighter, the conversation easier, and the visit begins to unfold with …

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Why toys matter in the exam room

Glioblastoma immunotherapy trial: a new breakthrough

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian

Conditions

November 22, 2025

All clinical trials are fueled, in part, by optimism. A trial currently underway in California is fueled by the optimism of one patient in particular, Kayvon Goodarzy.

Despite decades of effort, there has been an abject lack of new approved therapies for glioblastoma (GBM). The standard of care for this deadly brain tumor has been chemotherapy and radiation, to less-than-ideal results. But that might be changing, and it’s all thanks …

New autism treatment guidelines expand options for families

Carrie Friedman, NP

Conditions

November 22, 2025

When the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry released its October 2025 policy statement expanding what counts as valid, evidence-supported autism treatment, it marked a turning point that has been needed for years. For more than a decade, insurance companies pushed a narrow, outdated narrative that applied behavior analysis was the only evidence-based intervention for autism. That narrative was not accurate. It shaped policy, and it left families with …

Is white coat hypertension harmless?

Monzur Morshed, MD and Kaysan Morshed

Conditions

November 22, 2025

It happens almost every clinic day. A patient walks in, sits down for their vital signs, and their blood pressure reads higher than expected. Sometimes much higher. Moments later, when I retake it myself after we’ve talked for a few minutes, it’s 20 or 30 points lower.

“But, doctor, I check it at home and it’s never this high!”

They are right. This is the phenomenon of white coat hypertension, blood pressure …

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Is white coat hypertension harmless?

Gen Z, ADHD, and divided attention in therapy

Ronke Lawal

Conditions

November 21, 2025

Halfway through a teletherapy session, you notice your therapist pause mid-sentence. They’ve just heard the soft clatter of your keyboard, or seen your eyes flick sideways to a second screen. You’re technically “there” on video, but a work email just popped up, laundry is buzzing, someone’s messaging you, and suddenly the session is sharing space with three other tabs in your brain.

On the therapist’s end, it can feel like talking …

Early-onset breast cancer: a survivor’s story

Sara Rands

Conditions

November 21, 2025

I found a lump at age 32, just four months after a clear clinical breast exam. No family history. No genetic markers. I noticed the golf-ball-sized mass one day while putting on my bra.

It turned out to be stage 3C, with spread to 14 lymph nodes, as advanced as it gets without being terminal. I went through a year of aggressive treatments: bilateral mastectomy, chemo, radiation, reconstruction, and hormone therapy.

My …

Remote second opinions for equitable cancer care

Yousuf Zafar, MD

Conditions

November 20, 2025

Where a person lives far too often determines the quality of cancer care they receive and, ultimately, their chances of survival. Despite decades of progress in precision oncology, stark disparities persist between patients treated in urban academic centers and those in rural or underserved communities. A JAMA Network Open study of nearly 37,000 patients found that when rural and urban patients receive the same, protocol-driven care, their outcomes …

Why psychiatrists can’t treat family members

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

Conditions

November 19, 2025

As a psychiatrist, I’m often asked by family or friends to “help,” to intervene in the mental struggles of a loved one, a friend, or even a distant acquaintance. It usually begins with kindness and concern: “Could you just talk to them?” or “Maybe you can prescribe something, you’d know what’s best.” What follows is always a difficult conversation, because I have to explain something that sounds incomprehensible to most …

Aging parents and Thanksgiving: a gentle check-in

Barbara Sparacino, MD

Conditions

November 19, 2025

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love the cooking, the noise, the parade, the extra side dishes no one really has room for. Every year I tell my parents I want to “go bigger”: more food, more people, more traditions. And every year, my mother looks at me with a mix of love and exasperation and says some version of, “Can we please do a little less this year? My …

Trauma in high-functioning adults

Ronke Lawal

Conditions

November 19, 2025

A few days ago, I was speaking with a high-achieving, articulate, brilliant friend, someone always up and doing, super-expressive. During our conversation, I noticed her stumbling over her words, which was quite unusual, and her fidgety hands. She was narrating a traumatic incident that had occurred to her and how it tore her apart and made her simply give up on everything, in her words, “she was done.” Throughout the …

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Trauma in high-functioning adults

Female athlete urine leakage: A urologist explains

Martina Ambardjieva, MD

Conditions

November 18, 2025

Female athletes have redefined strength and endurance, but one common issue still hides in silence: urine leakage during training or competition.

It’s more common than most realize. In certain sports like gymnastics, trampolining, and CrossFit, the rates are particularly high. Still, many women keep silent, assuming it’s a normal side effect of being active or that nothing can be done.

As a urologist, I often meet women who are in top physical …

Funding autism treatments that actually work

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Conditions

November 18, 2025

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) has become the default therapy for autism in the U.S., not because it’s the most effective, but because it’s the most entrenched. Mandated by insurers, funded by Medicaid, and marketed as “medically necessary,” ABA now consumes hundreds of millions of dollars annually. But here’s the truth: ABA is unproven, ethically fraught, and fiscally unsustainable.

As a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and lead investigator for the NIH-funded RUPP trials, I …

Why patients delay seeking care

Rida Ghani

Conditions

November 17, 2025

Every clinic has moments that stick with you. They aren’t always dramatic, but they show why some people end up suffering longer than they should. During my time working as a medical office assistant, I observed a recurring pattern that spanned across various age groups, backgrounds, and diagnoses. Patients didn’t delay care because they were careless. They delayed because the system had quietly taught them to.

One afternoon, a middle-aged woman …

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Why patients delay seeking care

The burnout crisis in long-term care

Carole A. Estabrooks, PhD, RN and Janice M. Keefe, PhD

Conditions

November 17, 2025

Canada’s primary health care crisis has garnered news headlines and political attention, but an equally alarming crisis is ongoing in long-term care (LTC). More than five years after COVID-19’s deadly sweep through LTC homes, exposing long-standing deficiencies in funding, infrastructure, infection control, staffing and working conditions, many problems remain, driving a critical staffing shortage, burning out workers and impacting resident care. With the need for LTC …

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The burnout crisis in long-term care

A story of gaps in cancer care

Arno Loessner, PhD

Conditions

November 17, 2025

Since a diagnosis of colon and rectal cancer in 1993, I have had a number of serious complications and a recurrence. Some, if not most of what occurred could have been avoided. My experience points to some gaps in my health care that providers and patients might want to consider.

I was given the option to choose a cancer treatment and made the wrong choice. As a busy university administrator, I …

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A story of gaps in cancer care

The night of an impalement injury surgery

Xiang Xie

Conditions

November 16, 2025

On July 6, 2025, in Nanjing, China, a construction worker plunged onto a steel rod that pierced him from pelvis to chest. That night, doctors fought millimeter by millimeter through a five-hour battle against death.

The call at midnight

The phone’s shriek tore through the heavy summer silence just after midnight.

Professor Ji Zhenling, president of Nanjing Jiangbei Hospital, surfaced from sleep, the warmth of his pillowcase still pressed against his cheek. His …

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