Physician

Physicians writing on KevinMD about the life of the profession: the work itself, the exhaustion, what women physicians are paid and asked to carry, the losses the profession has been slow to name, and who decides how physicians work. Five maintained records draw on this archive: Physician burnout: what physicians say, in their own words, Primary care: what physicians say, in their own words, Women in medicine: what women physicians say, in their own words,, Physician suicide: what physicians say, in their own words, and Physicians and administrators: what physicians say about who runs medicine, in their own words.

AI bias in healthcare: When algorithms erase Black professionals

Seleipiri Akobo, MD, MPH, MBA

Physician

March 23, 2026

I was trying to be cool, so I recently joined a social media challenge with a simple prompt: “Create a caricature of me and my job based on everything you know about me.”

As a hospitalist, physician executive, and burnout architect, my digital footprint is deep. I talk about systemic health care reform, the psychology of exhaustion, and the structural “blueprints” needed to …

Compassion fatigue in medicine: Why the brain numbs trauma

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

Physician

March 22, 2026

In the sterile quiet of an exam room, a physician faces a patient recounting a history of profound trauma. To a layperson, the story is bone-chilling. To the seasoned clinician, it can occasionally and guiltily feel like data. We call it burnout or compassion fatigue, but biologically, it is something more fundamental. The human brain has a finite capacity for empathy.

Our neural circuitry evolved for small tribes, not for a …

The danger of detachment: How medical training reveals character

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

March 22, 2026

In 2016, Lauren Gambill wrote on KevinMD about being told, “She is not yours to grieve,” after a patient’s death. The message was clear: Grief was weakness, and physicians were expected to suppress it. Nearly a decade later, Arthur Lazarus argued that medical training does not change personality; it reveals scaffolding. He cited a “Blue Bloods” episode where Danny Reagan dismissed a racist watch leader and former cop with the …

The clash between defensive medicine and value-based health care

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

March 22, 2026

Defensive medicine grows where fear rules. Value-based health care grows where judgment, trust, and outcomes matter. That is the clash now facing many doctors. On paper, health systems say they want high-value care, better outcomes, lower waste, and patient-centered decisions. In real life, many doctors practice in an environment shaped by needless complaints, crushing legal defense costs, underfunded services, regulator overreach, and instant reputational damage through online and social media. …

7 practical tips to improve the patient experience in your clinic

Neil Baum, MD

Physician

March 22, 2026

A physician who had a side gig as a pig farmer wanted to breed his three female pigs with the boars on a neighboring farm. He loaded them into the back of his pickup truck and took them to visit several boars at the nearby farm. While the pigs were getting acquainted, the farmer of the female pigs asked the second farmer, “How will I know if my pigs are …

Why physicians get stuck in productive and numbing cycles

Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH

Physician

March 21, 2026

I had a mini epiphany recently. I realized there are three basic categories of time:

Productive: many work tasks (but not all), completing a task at home, achieving a specific personal or professional goal.
Non-productive and enriching: sleep, physical activity, being fully present with friends and family, learning something new.
Non-productive, non-enriching, and pleasurable: Netflix bingeing, drinking another glass of wine, zoning out, going down a social media rabbit hole, …
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Why physicians get stuck in productive and numbing cycles

A resident’s first surgery: When the patient teaches the doctor

Kaylan Baban, MD, MPH

Physician

March 21, 2026

“Dr. Baban? Dr. Baban?”

His slurred voice rasps across the room, weak but insistent, cutting through chiming monitors, buzzing fluorescent lights, and the screeching pager slung next to the empty gnaw in my stomach. I freeze where I stand, one hand scratching out post-operative orders on the last emergency surgery of the day, the other midway to the nursing station phone, grasping the silenced pager. My eyes sweep over the recovery …

What world leaders can learn from diverse medical teams

Zoran Naumovski, MD

Physician

March 21, 2026

I do not watch the news anymore. I do not listen to it on the radio. I do not even read about it online. But every once in a while, I will catch myself reading an article on Google News on my iPad. I, too, fall prey to clickbait on occasion. But, for the most part, I avoid the news: local, regional, state, national, and even international. It is too …

The controversy over Maintenance of Certification for grandfathered physicians

Bernard Leo Remakus, MD

Physician

March 21, 2026

I received a lifetime certification from the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) in 1983. Since then, I have not participated in any of the Board’s “Maintenance of Certification” (MOC) programs.

I have taken the continuation of my medical education seriously, and have performed more than the number of hours required for my state licensure, professional liability insurability, and AMA continuing education recognition awards. Additionally, I have taught medical students and …

Why patient-centered care transforms chronic pain management

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Physician

March 20, 2026

The real magic in chronic pain care isn’t just the pills or the procedures, but it’s the connection between doctor and patient. When a physician shows genuine empathy and truly listens, patients feel seen, trust deepens, and outcomes improve in ways that often outshine standard treatments. Take this striking study: Among more than 1,400 people with chronic low back pain, those cared for by highly empathic doctors ended up with …

How to manage a difficult patient and survive a high-conflict encounter

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

March 20, 2026

Every difficult patient is not dangerous. But every high-conflict encounter carries risk. Doctors like to think clinical skill will protect them: It will not. In modern practice, a physician can make a sound decision, communicate it poorly, and still walk into a complaint, a licensing problem, a lawsuit, or public reputational damage. That risk becomes even sharper in the care of chronic pain, substance misuse, insurance-driven visits, and patients whose …

The secret sauce of leadership trust in health care teams

All Levels Leadership

Physician

March 20, 2026

One of the true joys of leadership lies in building and leading an effective team. The sense of a shared vision and of all parts of the team striving in a coordinated fashion toward it is exhilarating. In contrast, we have all experienced what it is like when a team is struggling, with no common vision or shared effort. You might be wondering, “What is it that separates effective teams …

Why residents unionize: systemic reform, not entitlement

Paz De la Torre, MD

Physician

March 19, 2026

I read a recent JAMA Viewpoint on medical trainee unions not just with disappointment, but with a deep sense of recognition. It presents a narrow and skewed interpretation of unionization, framing it not as a response to systemic dysfunction but as a threat to medical education and hospital finances.

We do not unionize for marginal gains or lighter schedules. We are responding to an embedded educational hierarchy that excludes us …

Moving beyond the false binary of medicine as a calling

Christie Mulholland, MD

Physician

March 19, 2026

There is a resident doctor on TikTok named Julia who is also a raver. She posts about her training, and her weekends, dancing, festivals, après ski, living a full and visibly joyful life outside the hospital. The comments on her videos are glowing. “I would love to have a doctor like you.” “You seem like a real person.” A lot of patients are not looking for a self-sacrificing doctor who …

When side effects are actually a cry for help with medication costs

Shuchita Gupta, MD

Physician

March 19, 2026

“Doc, I cannot sleep well at night since I started taking the blood thinner (apixaban/Eliquis).”

“Hmm, that is not a typical side effect of the blood thinner. Have you considered any other changes to your routine that could be affecting how you sleep at night?”

“Doc, I also have joint pains and diarrhea since I started the blood thinner. Can I stop it?”

(The patient has had joint pains and diarrhea pre-dating the …

How punitive board tactics are harming pain management physicians

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Physician

March 18, 2026

A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Westlaw, LexisNexis) and gray literature were searched from January 2010 to November 2025 using terms related to medical board discipline, pain management, and overreach. Eligibility included studies, legal cases, and reports on disciplinary actions, due process violations, or consequences for physicians/patients.

Findings of 1,847 records, 42 were included (28 journal articles, eight legal cases, six reports). Key abusive …

Why immersive travel may be a powerful tool for behavior change

Stacey Funt, MD

Physician

March 18, 2026

In lifestyle medicine, we know the script: eat better, move more, manage stress, sleep well, connect with others. Many of us know what to do. But knowledge alone does not create transformation. What does? Identity. That quiet internal voice that tells us who we are and what we are capable of. Research by Daphna Oyserman and colleagues shows that identity drives behavior …

Why the Oregon National Primate Research Center is shutting down

Marge Peppercorn, MD

Physician

March 18, 2026

Update from Oregon Health & Science University:

Oregon Health & Science University clarifies that no decisions have been made about the Oregon National Primate Center at OHSU.

In February, the OHSU Board of Directors authorized the university president to enter discussions with the National Institutes of Health about the possibility of transitioning the ONPRC to a primate sanctuary.

The board passed a resolution to begin a six-month timeframe for the parties to develop …

Why physicians must lead payment tariff negotiations

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

March 18, 2026

Many physicians see fee schedules, payment rates, billing codes, and pension negotiations as administrative work best left to a few elected representatives, policy experts, or government staff. However, these physician payment tariff negotiations shape how care is delivered, how practices remain viable, how new services are recognized, and how the profession sustains itself over time. They involve fee codes, billing rules, payment rates, service descriptions, pensions, compensation models, and allocation …

The hidden math behind physician hiring costs and recruitment

Timothy Lesaca, MD

Physician

March 18, 2026

Most physicians know what they earn. Far fewer know what it costs to hire them or replace them. A colleague once told me in frustration, “It takes me two years to get my money back on a new hire.” I understood the frustration, but not the math. I thought of hiring the way many physicians do: salary, benefits, maybe a signing bonus. It seemed straightforward. It is not. Hiring a …

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