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.

Blackballing in medicine: a physician’s story

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

December 8, 2025

Medicine remembers data but forgets voices. I learned this between 1999 and 2003, when I was quietly fired and branded as someone who had “burned too many bridges.” That label was projection, not a critique of my science. My work within the national research network remains foundational to current clinical guidelines, and my training-grant application ranked near the top of all those submitted. Yet the whisper of “bridge-burning” became the …

Modern eugenics: the quiet return of a dangerous ideology

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Physician

December 8, 2025

I’m not paranoid. And I don’t believe in conspiracy theories. But as a physician who has spent decades watching the pendulum of medical ethics swing back and forth, I can’t ignore the pattern emerging across public health and politics today. Some of what I’m seeing looks uncomfortably familiar. It looks like eugenics, not the caricature of white coats and calipers, but the quieter, policy-driven, values-encoded version that shaped America a …

The problem with perfectionism in health care

Amna Shabbir, MD

Physician

December 8, 2025

We work in an impossibly depleted health care system and under impossibly high expectations of perfection from society. We hold our peers, our team members, our trainees, and most of all, ourselves to rigid, lofty ideals of flawlessness. By glorifying perfectionism in medicine, we have effectively dehumanized ourselves.

The oath we take is “Do No Harm.” It is not “Try your best to do no harm.” Is it appropriate to expect …

The inconsistent academic peer review process

V. Sushma Chamarthi, MD

Physician

December 7, 2025

I check the submission website again. And again. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I find myself refreshing the page, hoping for a small update (a new status, a change in wording, a sign that my manuscript has moved from “under review” to “decision in process”).

For early-career researchers, this waiting game is familiar. We pour months, sometimes years, of effort into designing a study, collecting data, writing, revising, and …

Physician end-of-year reflection: Growing through challenges

Stephanie Wellington, MD

Physician

December 7, 2025

Busy physicians seldom pause long enough to feel the weight or the wisdom of the year behind them.

We know the end of the year is approaching not because we’ve reflected, but because holiday coverage discussions have begun. Someone needs to work Thanksgiving. Someone has to take Christmas. Someone will miss the department party again.

You look at the schedule and realize: This year, it’s you.

And in that moment, something inside you …

How online parent communities extend care

Jorge Rodriguez, MD

Physician

December 7, 2025

As a pediatric gastroenterologist with more than 10 years of face-to-face clinical experience, I can recall countless stories of parents who felt lost at sea, adrift between vague diagnoses, inconclusive tests, and unanswered questions. Medicine has its boundaries; doctors can only work within what is known. And while artificial intelligence now helps us digest vast amounts of medical data, nothing can replace the curiosity and determination of parents who take …

The U.S. gastroenterologist shortage explained

Brian Hudes, MD

Physician

December 7, 2025

The story of gastroenterology in 2025 is no longer about productivity or reimbursement; it’s about manpower. Hospitals and practices across the U.S. are struggling to recruit, retain, or even temporarily staff the specialists who manage digestive diseases, perform colon cancer screening, and handle emergency procedures like ERCP. What we’re facing isn’t simply a staffing issue; it’s a structural shortage decades in the making.

The shrinking pipeline of gastroenterologists

In the mid-1990s, roughly …

Finding your why after career burnout

Jillian Rigert, MD, DMD

Physician

December 7, 2025

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche

When I lost meaning in and for my life while questioning my career path as a surgical resident, I lost motivation to eat and isolated in guilt and shame. Looking back, I had given up the very things that I now realize give life meaning in the pursuit of my career: relationships (including friendship and community …

Read more…

Finding your why after career burnout

How pro hockey prepared me for residency challenges

Brett Ponich, MD

Physician

December 6, 2025

My journey to medicine was a little bit different than most. Prior to beginning my academic career, I had the fortune of being a second-round NHL draft pick and enjoyed a career as a professional hockey player.

When I went through my CaRMS interviews, I was often asked about my previous experience and how that would help me in residency. I would give the typical answer: “Teamwork makes the dream work,” …

A pediatrician’s medical service in war and peace

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

December 6, 2025

I was the expectant team leader at Minot, the one designated to survive “a little longer than the others” if nuclear war came. My role was not glamorous. It was a reminder that even in medicine, some of us were expendable. Years later, I was nearly sent to the First Gulf War, and I watched colleagues deployed to Afghanistan, developmental pediatricians pressed into service far from the children they were …

Rural health care access: Japan vs. U.S.

Vikram Madireddy, MD, Hana Asami, and Taiga Nakayama

Physician

December 6, 2025

In Japan’s far north, Hokkaido stretches across mountains, forests, and endless snow. For months each year, the landscape turns white, and travel slows to a crawl. This vast and beautiful region (known for dairy farms, fishing towns, and open space) is also one of the most sparsely populated parts of the country.

For people living here, health care access depends not only on medicine, but on geography, infrastructure, and weather. It’s …

The devaluation of physicians in health care

Allan Dobzyniak, MD

Physician

December 5, 2025

It is remarkable that treatises, white papers, editorials, and articles on the cost of health care are consistent with ignoring the essence of care, and they are lacking in physician commentary. Insurance is not health care, and there can be no health care without doctors. Simply stated, in the end after all the intermediaries have claimed their pound of flesh for myriad services that most often provide little to no …

A doctor’s ritual: Reading obituaries

Emma Jones, MD

Physician

December 5, 2025

I live across the street from a funeral home. Each day as I see the cars begin to line up and the people in dark clothes gather to say goodbye, I can’t help but wonder about the stories inside. Who were they coming to honor? What kind of life had just ended? So, most mornings, before I check my email or the hospital census, I read the obituaries.

As a child, …

Read more…

A doctor’s ritual: Reading obituaries

The physician’s change cycle: Why doctors stay stuck

Shannon M. Foster, MD

Physician

December 4, 2025

In medicine, we are trained to act decisively in moments of crisis. We respond to hemorrhage, cardiac arrest, and trauma with clarity and speed. Yet when the crisis is internal (when the dysfunction lies within our teams, our leadership structures, or ourselves) many of us hesitate. We tolerate misalignment because it is familiar. We fear change more than we fear staying stuck.

This fear is not benign. It erodes morale, fractures …

How stigma in psychiatry affects patients

Devina Maya Wadhwa, MD

Physician

December 3, 2025

As a psychiatrist, I often find myself confronting not only the symptoms of mental illness but also the deep scars left by stigma. Even in 2025, despite advances in neuroscience and a growing cultural focus on mental health, stigma remains one of the greatest barriers to healing. It manifests in silence, shame, and misunderstanding, and it affects patients, families, and even those of us within the psychiatric profession. Addressing stigma …

Physician emotional fatigue: When burnout becomes a blind spot

Tomi Mitchell, MD

Physician

December 3, 2025

There was a time when I thought burnout was easy to recognize, that it came with flashing red lights and emotional breakdowns. I imagined it as the dramatic kind of collapse you see in movies: a physician walking out mid-shift, tears in their eyes, leaving their stethoscope behind.

In those days, I didn’t really think about burnout. I believed burnout happened to other people, the ones who hadn’t mastered time management …

Why doctors struggle with setting boundaries

Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH

Physician

December 2, 2025

“If you tell me how you get your feeling of importance, I’ll tell you what you are. That determines your character. That is the most significant thing about you.”
– Dale Carnegie, How to Make Friends and Influence People

We all want to feel seen, recognized, and appreciated. That’s human nature. But where do you get your feeling of importance? What aspects of yourself are essential to who you are and how …

Why tennis is like medicine for doctors

Fara Bellows, MD

Physician

December 2, 2025

I wield my instrument with confidence and precision. It slices through the air as an extension of my dominant hand. My feet shift slightly; I anticipate needing to reposition my body for the next step. I execute the move flawlessly. No, I’m not in the midst of performing a medical procedure: I’m on the tennis court. My husband had been encouraging me to take up tennis for a while, but …

Read more…

Why tennis is like medicine for doctors

The erosion of evidence-based medicine: a doctor’s warning

Corinne Sundar Rao, MD

Physician

December 1, 2025

Something unsettling is happening in medicine, and many of us feel it even if we haven’t said it out loud: evidence-based medicine is slowly being eroded, not just by outsiders, but from within our own profession.

Patients today are searching more than ever before for quick fixes, and physicians are increasingly stepping into the marketplace to meet that demand. Hormone pellets. “Longevity protocols.” Peptides that sound scientific but have no real …

Rethinking opioid prescribing policies

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Physician

December 1, 2025

As a pain management specialist, my intent is not to promote unchecked opioid prescribing or overlook the serious risks these medications pose. Instead, I advocate for viewing the full picture in patient care. Physicians, trained in medicine and its side effects, must be empowered to use their knowledge and direct observations, including subtle cues like body language and patient interactions during brief visits, to make tailored decisions. Documentation in charts …

Read more…

Rethinking opioid prescribing policies

Physician

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts