As a pediatrician and public health advocate, I’ve spent my career serving families whose lives often depend on a strong safety net. Medicaid is that safety net. It provides care for over 70 million Americans — including children, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities.
Right now, federal policymakers are considering dramatic Medicaid cuts that would threaten coverage for millions. This is not just a policy debate. It will spark a …
In a time when anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is proliferating across the United States, targeting everything from gender-affirming care to inclusive science education, many physicians are facing a new ethical frontier. More than ever, the duty to protect patient health extends beyond the clinic walls. When policy threatens the well-being of entire communities, an inclusive and affirming exam room is no longer enough. It is time for doctors to speak up and …
It is standard practice to start opinion pieces with a powerful anecdote that “hooks” the reader and lures them in, winning their attention by appealing to their humanity. However, this highlights the exact issue posed by the recent revocation of immigration rights in the U.S.; we do not know the stories that most need to be told right now. Instead, we have to tell of the patients who did not …
Over 80 percent of people are discontented with their medical insurance, whether provided by the government, their employer, or a commercial company. Common complaints are cost, increasing prices, and limited or rejected coverage. Regardless of the insurance’s source, we, the citizens, pay the bill through higher co-payments, deductibles, or premiums. Thus, their future payments increase when people request increased coverage for specific treatments, tests, or conditions.
However, individual desires are not …
Another day, more slides pass under my lens. Each represents a patient, a family, friends, uncertainty—maybe the beginning of a journey they are soon to realize, maybe it is the end of a journey. Each is unique.
These are turbulent times we live in. Deep divides separate our country. However, under the microscope there are no politics, no labels or preconceptions. The rainbow of colors the cells illuminate shines bright for …
Why has faith in government health agencies never been lower? Because conflicts of interest (COIs) have never been higher.
At the FDA, concerns about drugmakers “buying” drug approvals go back to passage of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) in 1992. Since then, the many doctors with research and speaker grants, drug stocks, and past employment with drugmakers heighten concerns. Worse, many major drug trials that claim to show …
On the 20th of January 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that initiated a freeze on foreign aid, including the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This abrupt suspension of funding has triggered a global health crisis, undermining decades of progress in combating HIV/AIDS and endangering millions of lives across the globe.
PEPFAR and its global success
Launched in 2003 under …
During Trump’s first address to Congress, he continued to promise economic reform. In the wake of the administration’s brazen attempts to cut costs, we have watched in awe as combat veterans are fired from the VA, lifelong civil servants are left jobless, all while hearing the continuous insistence that the government must become more “efficient,” even in the face of Read more…
I grew up in Pickens, South Carolina—a small, poor Appalachian town burdened by health struggles.
In school, I saw food insecurity long before I had the vocabulary for it. Classmates ate honey buns and chips for breakfast, and lunch trays held processed food, pre-packaged meat, and syrupy fruit. For many, it was their only meal of the day.
Years later, while shadowing physicians in nursing homes and hospitals, I began to hear …
Driving through South Dakota after visiting the Badlands, I entered the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. As a medical student at GCSOM in Scranton, PA, I rarely see Native American communities. I was shocked by the poverty and neglect. How had I never heard of Pine Ridge?
Pine Ridge Reservation was established as a prison camp before a deadly massacre.
Pine Ridge Reservation was established in 1889 as Camp 334 for …
Verdicts in excess of $10 million, or even $25 million, are no longer rare occurrences in medical malpractice litigation. Though most of these awards are handed down by empathetic juries concerned for an injured plaintiff, 40 percent of the award or more may go to pay attorney fees and other investors in the lawsuit. Third-party litigation funding (TPLF), …
Poisoned puppies, rats on cocaine, transgender mice: these might sound like the beginning of a bizarre joke, but they’re at the center of growing political attacks on medical and scientific research. Senator Ted Cruz calls it the “woke nonsense” of the Biden administration’s “far-left ideology,” and Donald Trump has amplified the message, using a primetime congressional address to claim researchers are attempting to turn mice transgender. In a House committee …
Every time I turn on the television, there’s another commercial for a new drug treating a condition I’ve never even heard of.
It’s constant. And honestly, it’s exhausting.
I can’t help but wonder: What happened to real care?
I remember a time, 35, maybe 40 years ago, when doctors knew your name. They looked you in the eye. They read your chart. They listened to what you had to say before deciding. They …
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An excerpt from Dr. Koop: The Many Lives of the Surgeon General.
“I was the salesman for pediatric surgery. I have the knack of talking to an audience and convincing [them] about what I’m saying is true.”
– CEK
The early 1950s witnessed an extraordinary burst of professional activity on the part of the young surgeon, still in his 30s, as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) …
The recent focus on the Canada-U.S. border has led to frequent confusion between human smuggling and human trafficking. Smuggling involves people moving across international borders. In most cases, irregular migrants who are smuggled into the country consent to assistance. Human trafficking, on the other hand, involves the exploitation of people for sex or labor through coercion, regardless of geographic movement.
Continued conflation of these terms will undoubtedly harm anti-human trafficking efforts …
The term “core competency” was coined by management experts C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel in their influential 1990 article titled “The core competence of the corporation,” published in the Harvard Business Review. Prahalad and Hamel defined core competencies as the unique capabilities or advantages that a company possesses, which are critical to its ability to achieve competitive advantage and long-term success. These competencies are not just about the skills or …
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A familiar ding echoes from blue scrub pants. My conditioned frontal cortex reflexively shoots my hand to the back pocket. Fingers encircle a black smartphone. A ricochet of notification vibration still tickles my right buttock. Several semi-autonomous thumb swipes ensue. The joy of Microsoft Outlook’s blue glow reveals a new email—one of nearly a hundred emails jostling for self-importance that day. But this one is different. The ominous phrase “Effective …
An excerpt from Dr. Koop: The Many Lives of the Surgeon General.
“I have learned that, when an idea’s time has come—and it is on your watch—you must seize the moment.”
– CEK, Glasgow speech
It would take C. Everett Koop, M.D., Sc.D., just an hour—one very well-prepared hour—to overturn nine months of obloquy and ridicule. In the process, he re-ordered the public face of …
Blockbuster was once a dominant force in the video entertainment industry, with thousands of stores and near-total market control. However, when digital streaming services emerged, Blockbuster was slow to respond, dismissing Netflix as a passing trend. By the time it recognized the shift in consumer preferences, it was too late – the company collapsed, unable to compete in the new era of on-demand entertainment.
Health care, particularly primary …
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In past decades, physicians practiced medicine. The majority were dedicated to patient well-being. They were paternalistic and decided what was in their patients’ best interests, and patients generally trusted their judgments. In the 1970s, ethicists concluded that patients and clinicians should make treatment decisions jointly. This position has been championed since then, despite multiple surveys demonstrating that more than 50 percent of patients prefer their physicians to be the decision-makers. …
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