Physician voices

12,751 articles · Since 2006

Articles, page 14

Guilt by association in medicine: My mentor fell, not me

July 25, 2026Jul 25, 2026

Every physician carries the imprint of their training. Some of those imprints are gifts: a clinical insight, a way of listening, a habit of precision. Others are burdens we never asked for. We inherit not only the wisdom of our…

Early in my career, I trained under a mentor who, at the time, was widely admired. He was charismatic, …

Women physicians are leaving. Whose problem is it?

Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH

July 24, 2026Jul 24, 2026

Making the decision to leave clinical practice was a leap off a cliff into thin air when I wasn't sure I had a place to land. Who was I, what would I do, if I wasn't a physician? It felt…

Making the decision to leave clinical practice was a leap off a cliff into thin air when I wasn’t sure I had a place to land. Who was I, what would I do, if I wasn’t a physician? It felt like such a loss; I loved being able to do such deeply meaningful work.

This was back in the dark ages of the late 1990s, before “burnout” was a household word. …

Put the patient first: a surgeon’s best lesson

Thomas A. McNally, MD

July 24, 2026Jul 24, 2026

As the anniversary of my father's death approaches, I have been thinking about him as both a father and a surgeon. Those two parts of his life were never entirely separate, at least not for me. My surgical education began…

As the anniversary of my father’s death approaches, I have been thinking about him as both a father and a surgeon. Those two parts of his life were never entirely separate, at least not for me. My surgical education began long before medical school, residency or fellowship, because I grew up watching how he approached his work, how he treated people and how seriously he took the responsibility that came …

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Why flexibility matters more for physician retention

Kenneth Song, MD

July 24, 2026Jul 24, 2026

Physicians are exiting medicine faster than the sector can replace them. We've been facing burnout, workforce shortages, growing administrative burdens, and other mounting pressures. Physicians are 82 percent more likely to burn out than workers in other occupations, and for…

Physicians are exiting medicine faster than the sector can replace them. We’ve been facing burnout, workforce shortages, growing administrative burdens, and other mounting pressures. Physicians are 82 percent more likely to burn out than workers in other occupations, and for many years, traditional practice models have offered few alternatives. As a result, there is a deepening sustainability crisis occurring in medicine.

As a practicing anesthesiologist for more than 30 years, …

Physician unions are surging, and money is not why

Patrick Hudson, MD

July 23, 2026Jul 23, 2026

The email arrived on a Tuesday afternoon. It thanked everyone for their dedication, praised the organization's proud history, and announced that the hospital had been acquired. There would be new leadership, new opportunities, and a town hall meeting the following…

The email arrived on a Tuesday afternoon. It thanked everyone for their dedication, praised the organization’s proud history, and announced that the hospital had been acquired. There would be new leadership, new opportunities, and a town hall meeting the following week. Clinical operations would continue as usual.

There was one thing missing. No one had asked the physicians.

For generations, doctors assumed that if the ownership of a hospital or medical practice …

Stoicism for physicians: a quiet anchor on hard shifts

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

July 23, 2026Jul 23, 2026

Imagine walking into a busy clinic shift. The pages are going off, patients need attention, and the emotional weight of the work feels heavy on your shoulders. In moments like these, the ancient wisdom of Stoicism can serve as a quiet anchor. Philosophers like Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus understood that life brings many challenges. They taught practical ways to respond with clarity, courage, and compassion. Their reflections on action …

Why we need closure, and why we may not

Dr. Loshi Rajen

July 23, 2026Jul 23, 2026

A friend once asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks. Not externally. Internally. I am a highly verbal person inwardly, and while the conversation continued around me, another one had already begun in my head. Earlier that…

Earlier that day I had been cataloging the various grievances I believed had been inflicted upon me by another person I had once counted as a friend. After listening patiently for some time, …

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Why we need closure, and why we may not

Our obsession with youth is making us shallow

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

July 23, 2026Jul 23, 2026

In my thirty years of clinical practice, I have witnessed the landscape of the human face undergo a quiet, profound transformation. It is not happening through biology, but through the scalpel, the needle, and the digital filter. For most of…

For most of human history, an aging face was a history book. It served as a cartography of experience, where lines around the eyes mapped a lifetime of laughter, and furrows in the brow …

You could have been professional, but you chose kindness

Dr. Muhammed Huzaifa

July 22, 2026Jul 22, 2026

I still remember the mist that morning. Not because it was unusual, but because some mornings refuse to be forgotten. I was approaching the end of my second year of surgical residency. The nervousness of my first few months had…

I still remember the mist that morning. Not because it was unusual, but because some mornings refuse to be forgotten.

I was approaching the end of my second year of surgical residency. The nervousness of my first few months had slowly given way to confidence. I could evaluate patients independently, formulate plans, and perform a growing number of procedures. I believed I was learning how to become a surgeon.

What I did …

The physician who refused to follow the crowd

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

I grew up as the son of a dead Air Force officer who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. In Boston in the 1970s, that lineage didn't shield me. It marked me. I walked around with a crewcut, government-issued…

I grew up as the son of a dead Air Force officer who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. In Boston in the 1970s, that lineage didn’t shield me. It marked me. I walked around with a crewcut, government-issued BCG glasses (“birth-control glasses,” as every military kid knew), and a stubborn refusal to follow the crowd. That was enough to get me spat on more than once.

Those moments didn’t …

The physician as patient nobody wanted to listen to

Andrea Hayes, MD

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

I did not expect the red-carpet treatment. My illness came on abruptly, without a prodrome and without the courtesy of localizing symptoms, no cough, dysuria, or obvious source of infection. One weekday morning, after stepping out of a hot shower,…

I did not expect the red-carpet treatment. My illness came on abruptly, without a prodrome and without the courtesy of localizing symptoms, no cough, dysuria, or obvious source of infection.

One weekday morning, after stepping out of a hot shower, I collapsed onto the bathroom tile like a heap of wet seaweed. I attributed it to overwork, dehydration, and the predictable consequences of caring for everyone except myself. By the time …

A doctor in South Sudan on a trillion-dollar Friday

Dr. Buga Charles George Kenyi

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

Recently, a rocket company went public on the Nasdaq, and by the time the bell closed, its founder had become the first person in history worth a trillion dollars. I read about it on a borrowed phone outside the pediatric…

I’m not writing this out of anger. I want to say that clearly. I …

Why scientific dissent is a test of institutional trust

Tiffiny Black, DM, MBA, MPA

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

Recently, controversy emerged at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) annual meeting after several researchers were removed for distributing copies of an editorial concerning proposed federal funding cuts to biomedical research. The incident generated debate across the medical community. Some viewed the removal as an appropriate enforcement of conference policies and codes of conduct. Others questioned whether restricting the distribution of scientific perspectives at a professional meeting risks undermining the very …

What quiet leadership looks like in a broken system

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

I did not encounter Norman Schwarzkopf's leadership doctrine until long after I had already been living it. When I finally read his words about sweat, preparation, and the courage to act despite uncertainty, I felt an immediate jolt of recognition.…

I did not encounter Norman Schwarzkopf’s leadership doctrine until long after I had already been living it. When I finally read his words about sweat, preparation, and the courage to act despite uncertainty, I felt an immediate jolt of recognition. It wasn’t admiration. It was recognition. I realized I had been following the same principles instinctively throughout my medical and institutional life, especially in the moments when leadership and command …

The case for family physicians in emergency medicine

Angela Rodgers, MD & Wray Anthony Gerard, MD

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

Picture a health system where family medicine and emergency medicine physicians work together as true partners within the same emergency department. Both specialties share responsibility for the same patients by providing comprehensive and coordinated care. This is probably how the…

Although this collaborative approach may seem new to some, it has been …

Reclaiming physician career meaning before you retire

Ben Reinking, MD

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

I remember medical school orientation clearly. I was excited, nervous, confident, and full of self-doubt, all of it wrapped up in a kind of nervous energy. I had a clear vision of what my life would look like. I would finish medical school, complete residency, and practice primary care back in my hometown. The white coat they draped over me at the ceremony did not sit comfortably on my shoulders, …

Why doctors need to be in the marketing room

AIR Physician Academy & Pranay Parikh, MD

July 18, 2026Jul 18, 2026

A patient came to me worried she was going to lose twenty-five pounds in the next month. Even on tirzepatide, what would make her think that? She'd only lost five pounds in the first two months. She said the marketing…

A patient came to me worried she was going to lose twenty-five pounds in the next month.

Even on tirzepatide, what would make her think that? She’d only lost five pounds in the first two months.

She said the marketing that brought her in had promised her thirty pounds in three months.

So I explained the truth: the body does not save up its losses and then spend them in a lump sum. …

Why I cried with a colleague I did not even like

Dr. Damane Zehra

July 18, 2026Jul 18, 2026

It has been almost 1.5 months since Dr. A. was assigned to me as one of the two junior doctors working with me. Both of them are first-year residents. Dr. S. is very sweet, hardworking, and eager to learn. Most…

It has been almost 1.5 months since Dr. A. was assigned to me as one of the two junior doctors working with me. Both of them are first-year residents.

Dr. S. is very sweet, hardworking, and eager to learn. Most of the time, she is the one doing all the work. Dr. A. is a first-year resident too, but S., being a fresh graduate, is more junior, and maybe that is …

Is evidence-based medicine quietly failing physicians?

Vaishali Popat, MD, MPH

July 18, 2026Jul 18, 2026

In my second year of residency in 1997, I was introduced to mainstream evidence-based medicine, and I was all in. It felt like the answer to so many problems in medicine. We should not practice based on habit, personality, or hierarchy. We should practice based on data. It felt not only intellectually satisfying, but morally right.

What I did not understand then was how much market forces would shape what counted …

How motherhood made me a better pediatric surgeon

Yemeng Lu-Myers, MD, MPH

July 18, 2026Jul 18, 2026

"Are you like Doc McStuffins?" I look down into a pair of bright, inquisitive blue eyes framed by thick black lashes. My first pediatric patient is sitting on her stretcher in a Care Bear-covered gown, her arms crossed. She is…

“Are you like Doc McStuffins?”

I look down into a pair of bright, inquisitive blue eyes framed by thick black lashes. My first pediatric patient is sitting on her stretcher in a Care Bear-covered gown, her arms crossed. She is clearly auditing my credentials to see if I measure up to her animated hero.

“Kind of?” I offer. Her lips immediately purse into a skeptical pout. I sit on the edge of …

Physician voices

Articles, page 14

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