Physician voices

12,751 articles · Since 2006

Articles, page 9

Obesity stigma treats a medical problem as a moral failing

September 9, 2026Sep 9, 2026

I think of "Tim" often. He was a coworker, dedicated to his job as a staff member and doing his best on behalf of our medical students, staff, and faculty. He was smart, funny, insightful, and always helpful. Having no…

I think of “Tim” often. He was a coworker, dedicated to his job as a staff member and doing his best on behalf of our medical students, staff, and faculty. He was smart, funny, insightful, and always helpful. Having no local family, he retired early and was happily settling into retirement in the community. We did not hear from him for a while. Then the bad news arrived. He had …

Hiring medical office staff who actually follow through

Neil Baum, MD

September 9, 2026Sep 9, 2026

There are two types of employees: the go-getters and the gunnas. The go-getters are those who have a clear vision of setting out to do something, giving it their all, and accomplishing it. They don’t need to be monitored. They are the first to arrive for a meeting or at work and the last to leave at the end of the day. They are self-starters and serve as role models …

Leaving clinical medicine when doing right became a battle

Prianca Naik, MD

September 8, 2026Sep 8, 2026

Make the world a better place strobed through my mind as I trudged anxiously to my organic chemistry final exam after an all-night study session and a few NoDoz capsules. Unprepared and scared, I hoped for the best, as I took yet another exam on material which failed to come easily. Spanish Lit, Writing, and even Calculus clicked in my brain readily, but I had decided to mimic my mother’s …

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How to stop asking for permission and decide for yourself

Lauren Fine, MD

September 7, 2026Sep 7, 2026

When I was deciding whether to leave full-time clinical medicine, I asked my most trusted colleagues what they thought. Most of them did not understand why I would leave something I had worked so hard to build. Others suggested I not make a change so early in my career. My family did not understand the new job either, not even my husband. In the end I did it anyway.

After asking …

How does a rehabilitation physician actually think?

Gabrielle Nguyen, MD

September 7, 2026Sep 7, 2026

It's not a simple question, and one that many physicians outside our specialty still find surprisingly difficult to define. Have you ever called a rehab consult and struggled to understand why you need one? Many have. The truth is, physiatrists…

It’s not a simple question, and one that many physicians outside our specialty still find surprisingly difficult to define. Have you ever called a rehab consult and struggled to understand why you need one? Many have. The truth is, physiatrists often think differently. Every specialty develops its own lens through which it views disease. A surgeon asks whether a problem can be repaired. A neurologist localizes it. An oncologist determines …

How to tell which abnormal test results actually matter

Bobby Dubois, MD, PhD

September 5, 2026Sep 5, 2026

You open your health portal before bed, mostly out of habit, and there it is: a number in red. Or your doctor mentions, almost in passing, that your cholesterol has crept up and your blood sugar is “borderline.” Nothing hurts. You feel the same as last week. But something has shifted, and you know it. You’ve become a person with a problem.

I want to make the case that a red …

Physician burnout and the question science cannot answer

Ananta Subedi, MD, MPH

September 5, 2026Sep 5, 2026

I left Nepal to train in a country I barely knew, carrying the kind of ambition that doesn't leave room for doubt. Internal medicine residency, then a rheumatology fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). I pictured a career…

I left Nepal to train in a country I barely knew, carrying the kind of ambition that doesn’t leave room for doubt. Internal medicine residency, then a rheumatology fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). I pictured a career built in clinical research, publishing, discovering. That was the plan, and for years I didn’t question it.

The turning point

Then our daughter was born, and everything about that plan stopped making …

Why medicine needs a national physician license now

Vaishali Popat, MD, MPH

September 4, 2026Sep 4, 20262

After more than three decades of practicing medicine in Maryland, I recently applied for medical licensure in Washington, D.C. I expected the process to be similar to neighboring Virginia, which offers an efficient pathway to licensure by endorsement or reciprocity for experienced physicians in good standing. Instead, I discovered that where I went to medical school more than thirty years ago (not my decades of practice, triple board certification, U.S. …

Healing a divided nation begins in a psychiatrist’s office

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

September 4, 2026Sep 4, 2026

In the months since the United States marked its 250th anniversary, I find myself sitting in a unique vantage point. As a psychiatrist, my office acts as a microcosm of the American experience. Behind closed doors, the broad and often raucous headlines of our national discourse distill into the visceral, unfiltered reality of individual human experience. From this front-row seat, I witness our collective anxieties, our daily pains, and our …

Pre-med regret and the comedian who chose medicine anyway

Sapana Adhikari, MD

September 4, 2026Sep 4, 2026

"Don't tell my parents," Saru whispered as she leaned into my ear as if she was going to tell me her most precious secret. "But what I really want to do is be a stand-up comedian." It was the usual…

“Don’t tell my parents,” Saru whispered as she leaned into my ear as if she was going to tell me her most precious secret. “But what I really want to do is be a stand-up comedian.”

It was the usual scene at a Nepali party. Women were dressed in the latest fashionable saris. Men, at different levels of intoxication, were huddled around laughing at a story. Loud Nepali music blared while …

A national medical license would cut administrative burden

Deepak Gupta, MD

September 3, 2026Sep 3, 2026

Lawyers have to know the laws of the state where they practice. Physicians largely do not. Medical norms, ethics, and morals are close to universal, which means physician practice could in principle be governed by universal law. There are exceptions.…

The broader pattern is stranger than the exceptions. Neither lawyers nor physicians should have to acclimatize to institutional norms …

Clinical trial navigation is a clinical access problem

Adit Singhal, MD

September 3, 2026Sep 3, 2026

Clinical trial enrollment in rare cancers remains stubbornly low. In T-cell lymphomas, a heterogeneous group of over a dozen distinct subtypes affecting roughly 9,000 new patients annually in the United States, fewer than 7 percent of eligible patients participate in clinical trials. This statistic has persisted for decades despite growing recognition of the problem by professional societies, advocacy organizations, and regulatory agencies.

The conventional explanation focuses on awareness. Patients don’t know …

When policy erased my post-operative pain control

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

September 3, 2026Sep 3, 2026

The day I met my own system from the wrong side of the bed I've spent a career on the clinician side of the bed: explaining procedures, reassuring families, and signing orders that were supposed to make pain tolerable and…

The day I met my own system from the wrong side of the bed

I’ve spent a career on the clinician side of the bed: explaining procedures, reassuring families, and signing orders that were supposed to make pain tolerable and recovery humane. Then I had shoulder surgery in Florida.

I went in with a regional block, a plan, and the quiet confidence of someone with a high pain tolerance. Physical therapists have …

A frivolous malpractice lawsuit still raises your premium

Howard Smith, MD

September 3, 2026Sep 3, 2026

There are commercials on TV by prominent plaintiff personal injury law firms advertising for clients. One promotes "If we don't win, you don't pay." Another promotes the notion that anyone who owns a phone already has a lawyer. Still others…

There are commercials on TV by prominent plaintiff personal injury law firms advertising for clients. One promotes “If we don’t win, you don’t pay.” Another promotes the notion that anyone who owns a phone already has a lawyer. Still others promote the types of injuries that can be monetized, but never mention medical malpractice.

All imply that a contingency fee totally forgives clients of all legal transaction costs. All imply a …

Why primary care burnout is really a patient-care problem

Jerina Gani, MD, MPH

September 2, 2026Sep 2, 2026

For years, I gave my patients advice that I was not following myself. Reduce your stress. Protect your sleep. Listen to your body. Set healthier boundaries. Then I would finish a full day of back-to-back appointments and stay late answering inbox messages, reviewing charts, completing forms, and responding to insurance demands. I would go home physically tired but mentally still at work, replaying the day and thinking about everything waiting …

A cold cost $945. The cost of primary care is broken.

Susan Newman, MD

September 2, 2026Sep 2, 20262

Imagine with me, it's January and you are sitting at work. Your muscles start to ache, and you have a strong desire to lay your head down on the desk for a quick rest. Maybe you overdid it shoveling snow…

Imagine with me, it’s January and you are sitting at work. Your muscles start to ache, and you have a strong desire to lay your head down on the desk for a quick rest. Maybe you overdid it shoveling snow a couple of days ago. Maybe you slept wrong.

Over the next 24 hours, you feel worse. You develop a headache. Your eyes burn. Your nose drips like a faucet one …

How a failed driving test shook my confidence in medicine

Dr. Loshi Rajen

August 31, 2026Aug 31, 2026

I had been driving for fourteen years before I moved to the United Kingdom two years ago. Back home in Malaysia, driving had become almost instinctive. It was something I rarely thought about. But moving countries meant starting over. To…

Twice I took the practical driving test. Twice I failed. I could spend hours dissecting the examiner’s decisions, …

The grief health care workers carry after maternal death

Fatemah Qasem, MD

August 31, 2026Aug 31, 2026

She was a young mother. We had never met her before. She arrived gasping for air. Within moments, the room was full. Everyone came together with one purpose, to save her. Then her heart stopped. CPR began immediately. The obstetric…

She was a young mother.

We had never met her before. She arrived gasping for air. Within moments, the room was full. Everyone came together with one purpose, to save her. Then her heart stopped.

CPR began immediately. The obstetric team delivered the baby while compressions continued. Thirty minutes passed. No pulse. We kept going. Every voice in the room was thinking out loud. What are the reversible causes? Keep going. Don’t …

The physician disposability nobody wants to name

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

August 30, 2026Aug 30, 2026

I am writing this from the slow, disciplined landscape of recovery (one repaired shoulder, one sling, and one unrepairable truth): Medicine did not suddenly become fragile when AI arrived. It did not suddenly become threatened when APRNs and NPs expanded…

Medicine became fragile when institutions discovered they could dispose of physicians and still call it progress.

I know this because …

The hidden payment gap crushing independent physicians

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

August 30, 2026Aug 30, 2026

The health care system is supposed to put the patient first. Physicians evaluate, diagnose, treat, and manage risk. Hospitals, insurers, administrators, and regulators exist to support that clinical relationship and not to displace it. Yet the current structure of American…

Yet the current structure of American medicine produces the opposite outcome. Patients face longer waits and higher barriers. Independent physicians confront declining real reimbursement and mounting administrative demands. Practices are acquired by health systems. Physicians spend more …

Physician voices

Articles, page 9

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