Physician voices

12,751 articles · Since 2006

Articles, page 7

The history of the medical home includes an Air Force base

September 26, 2026Sep 26, 2026

In the early 1990s, while the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) was formalizing its vision of the "medical home," we were already living it, without a name. At Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, our pediatric team operationalized what…

In the early 1990s, while the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) was formalizing its vision of the “medical home,” we were already living it, without a name. At Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, our pediatric team operationalized what would later be codified: interdisciplinary care, family partnership, coordinated services, and continuity across settings. We didn’t call it a medical home. It was excellent pediatric care, and we simply made …

Why I wrote an emergency medicine novel about 1 night

Matt Barmmer, MD

September 25, 2026Sep 25, 2026

Every patient who has spent time in an emergency department knows it's overcrowded. They've sat in the waiting room for hours. They've watched physicians move fast and nurses move faster. They've heard the department through the curtain: the monitor alarms,…

Every patient who has spent time in an emergency department knows it’s overcrowded. They’ve sat in the waiting room for hours. They’ve watched physicians move fast and nurses move faster. They’ve heard the department through the curtain: the monitor alarms, the overhead pages, the sound of a place where everyone is doing too many things at once.

What they haven’t seen is the board.

The board is how an emergency physician experiences …

AI and clinical judgment: why patients still trust doctors

Jennifer Miles-Thomas, MD, MBA

September 25, 2026Sep 25, 2026

I currently split my time between two worlds. I see patients in clinic and also work on AI and innovation in the health system. Most days, the dichotomy is an asset. Some days, it feels like it is two different…

AI has closed much of the knowledge gap in medicine and did it faster than expected. The chart review, the differential diagnoses, the literature search, it …

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Moral injury in medicine is an odyssey without Ithaca

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

September 25, 2026Sep 25, 2026

For those of us who have spent decades practicing medicine across multiple systems, the daily reality feels less like the noble healing art we trained for and more like a corporate assembly line. We watch as science-based, patient-centered care is nickel-and-dimed by administrators into mere metrics. In our exhaustion, we can easily identify with Odysseus. Like the legendary king wandering the dark seas, we feel a profound sense of alienation, …

AI and assisted dying raise questions of accountability

Deepak Gupta, MD

September 25, 2026Sep 25, 2026

It has already been said, "We will die in the system we create." The statement raises a larger question: What do we mean by death? Death can be spiritual through excommunication, economic through expulsion from work, social through eviction from…

It has already been said, “We will die in the system we create.” The statement raises a larger question: What do we mean by death? Death can be spiritual through excommunication, economic through expulsion from work, social through eviction from a community, psychological through exclusion and loss of sanity, or physical through extinction. Birth and death often result from forces beyond an individual’s control. Yet death can also become intentional. …

Losing your doctor: the grief no health system notices

Timothy Lesaca, MD

September 25, 2026Sep 25, 2026

There is a small, unreasonable part of us that expects our doctors to stay in one place forever. We know better, of course. We know they grow older, become tired, change jobs, and make plans. Yet the person we bring…

There is a small, unreasonable part of us that expects our doctors to stay in one place forever.

We know better, of course. We know they grow older, become tired, change jobs, and make plans. Yet the person we bring our uncertainty to is not supposed to become another uncertainty. We may notice the gray hair without quite imagining the day when someone else opens the door.

Few relationships ask so much …

A national hotline could track bias in physician discipline

Babajide Ogunseinde, MD

September 24, 2026Sep 24, 2026

Becoming a physician is one of the longest professional journeys in America. The path typically requires four years of college, four years of medical school, and three to seven or more years of residency and fellowship training. For surgeons, training…

The investment is financial, professional, and deeply personal. Medical graduates routinely carry substantial educational debt, spend thousands of hours studying, take licensing examinations, …

The 15-minute appointment is not the boundary of care

Alan P. Feren, MD

September 24, 2026Sep 24, 2026

Care does not have to be finished in one encounter. But it must not be allowed to disappear between encounters. When primary care clinicians say they cannot adequately manage their patients' concerns in 15 minutes, I take that seriously. A…

Care does not have to be finished in one encounter. But it must not be allowed to disappear between encounters.

When primary care clinicians say they cannot adequately manage their patients’ concerns in 15 minutes, I take that seriously. A patient may arrive with a new symptom, several chronic conditions, medications prescribed by different clinicians, and questions about what has changed. The clinician faces that complexity alongside chart review, examination, documentation, …

Observation status is a clinical choice, not a billing one

Chinyelu E. Oraedu, MD

September 24, 2026Sep 24, 2026

One night, during cross coverage with residents, I was called to provide clinical oversight for a frail older woman admitted from the emergency department. She had multiple comorbidities and a deteriorating clinical picture, but she had been placed under observation…

When I asked residents why observation was so often selected, the answer was usually some version of this: “It is easier to change the patient to inpatient …

3 reforms to counter wellness influencers in practice

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

September 23, 2026Sep 23, 2026

We spend our days in the quiet reality of clinical practice. We chase elusive diagnoses, weigh the fine distinctions of symptom presentation, and measure our clinical instincts against rigorous decades of peer-reviewed science. We sit across from human beings in moments of vulnerability, applying a lifetime of anatomy, neurobiology, and pharmacology to parse real suffering from pathology.

Yet, step outside the exam room door, and we are met with a deafening …

Choosing a limb lengthening surgeon requires accountability

Hrayr Basmajian, MD

September 23, 2026Sep 23, 2026

Patients considering cosmetic limb lengthening usually begin with one question: How much height can be gained? That question is understandable, but it should not drive the decision. The more important issue is who will remain responsible for the patient's care…

Cosmetic limb lengthening is often presented as a procedure that increases height. Technically, that is the goal, but it …

How to reassure patients: 5 steps beyond normal tests

Devina Maya Wadhwa, MD

September 22, 2026Sep 22, 2026

Physicians reassure people every day: "Your tests are normal." "There is nothing dangerous going on." "This is good news." "You are going to be OK." We usually say these things with good intentions. We want to reduce fear, provide perspective,…

Physicians reassure people every day:

“Your tests are normal.”
“There is nothing dangerous going on.”
“This is good news.”
“You are going to be OK.”

We usually say these things with good intentions. We want to reduce fear, provide perspective, and help patients leave our offices or emergency departments feeling safer than when they arrived. But sometimes reassurance does not reassure.

The patient continues asking questions. They return to the emergency …

Setting boundaries as a physician doesn’t mean caring less

Jerina Gani, MD, MPH

September 21, 2026Sep 21, 2026

For years, I thought good doctors always said yes. Can you squeeze in one more patient? Yes. Can you answer this message before you leave? Of course. Can you finish this chart tonight? Yes. Can you take care of just…

For years, I thought good doctors always said yes.

Can you squeeze in one more patient? Yes. Can you answer this message before you leave? Of course. Can you finish this chart tonight? Yes. Can you take care of just one more thing? Absolutely.

It rarely felt like a major decision. Each request seemed small. A few more minutes. One more patient. One more message. But small yeses have a way of …

How emergency medicine decision making works under pressure

Geoffrey Mount Varner, MD, MPH

September 20, 2026Sep 20, 2026

Ask most physicians outside emergency medicine how they'd handle a patient presenting with three possible diagnoses, incomplete labs, and a deteriorating vital sign trend, and you'll usually get a version of "I'd want more information first." Ask an ER physician…

Ask most physicians outside emergency medicine how they’d handle a patient presenting with three possible diagnoses, incomplete labs, and a deteriorating vital sign trend, and you’ll usually get a version of “I’d want more information first.” Ask an ER physician the same question, and you’ll get an action plan within seconds. That gap isn’t intelligence. It’s training. And I think it’s worth naming exactly what that training builds, because most …

Why I stay in emergency medicine: a dancer at nearly 100

Howie Mell, MD, MPH

September 19, 2026Sep 19, 2026

People ask what being an emergency physician is like, and they expect the blood, the saves, the codes, the worst nights. Those happen, and they matter, but I try not to carry those home. What I try to keep is…

Distrust of science is inviting the Middle Ages back

Tomi Mitchell, MD

September 19, 2026Sep 19, 2026

A few days ago, I saw a fake book cover online that was so ridiculous I laughed out loud. It was beautifully designed: deep red. Ornate gold lettering. The kind of cover that looks as though it belongs in a medieval monastery, chained to a wooden desk while a monk copies its contents by candlelight.

The title? How to Avoid Vaccines & Die Like a Medieval Peasant. The author? Robert F. …

Why the family medical history lives with women caregivers

Dr. Malika Gupta

September 19, 2026Sep 19, 2026

Across the different hospitals and services where I have trained, I have noticed something I did not expect to notice. When we ask who knows the patient's medications, who can explain what happened during the last hospitalization, or who we…

Across the different hospitals and services where I have trained, I have noticed something I did not expect to notice. When we ask who knows the patient’s medications, who can explain what happened during the last hospitalization, or who we should call in an emergency, the answer is very often a woman. A mother. A wife. A sister. A daughter.

A specific memory I have: a seventy-year-old man with diabetes and …

Burnout or job dissatisfaction: 4 causes usually in play

Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH

September 18, 2026Sep 18, 2026

How do I know if I'm burned out or just unhappy at work? On the surface, this is a straightforward question. Job burnout is one thing; professional dissatisfaction is another. We have validated survey questions for each, like the Maslach…

How do I know if I’m burned out or just unhappy at work? On the surface, this is a straightforward question. Job burnout is one thing; professional dissatisfaction is another. We have validated survey questions for each, like the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Physician Worklife Survey, and measures that can differentiate burnout from dissatisfaction, like the Professional Fulfillment Index. But I’ve found that when physicians are no longer thriving …

Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD, on psychiatry and physician prosecution: a KevinMD subscriber spotlight

Subscriber Spotlight by KevinMD

September 18, 2026Sep 18, 2026

Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD is a psychiatrist, internist, and addiction medicine physician, and the founder, chief executive officer, and chief medical officer of Blue Mountain Psychiatry in the Greater Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. He has published 37 essays on KevinMD since…

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Patient satisfaction scores punish the doctors who say no

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

September 18, 2026Sep 18, 2026

In the digital age, we have been conditioned to trust the social proof of a high star rating. We see five stars on a retail site and immediately assume the product is excellent. But as a psychiatrist, I have learned that when it comes to medicine, that logic is fundamentally flawed. In fact, if you encounter a physician with 375 five-star reviews and not a single negative comment on social …

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