KevinMD.com

April 3, 2026Apr 3, 2026

If you have nagging pain deep in your lower back or one buttock that never seems to settle, you are not alone. Many people chase answers through discs, nerves, or muscles, yet the real source turns out to be the sacroiliac (SI) joint. This connection between the base of your spine and your pelvis is built for stability with just a hint of motion. When it becomes irritated or unstable, …

Conditions and diseases

Why clinicians fail at writing expert reports

Tracy Liberatore, Esq, PA

April 3, 2026Apr 3, 20262

I want to tell you something attorneys already know but will never say to your face. When your expert report lands in their inbox and they read it, I mean really read it, they know within the first two paragraphs whether they are calling you again. Not after the case. Right then. And if the answer is no, they do not tell you. They do not give feedback. They do …

Conditions and diseases

Leucovorin for autism: Why physicians must protect hope from hype

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

April 3, 2026Apr 3, 2026

In September 2025, The Atlantic reported on a frenzy surrounding leucovorin, a folate derivative long used in oncology and rheumatology. Families desperate for answers were suddenly told it might be a miracle therapy for autism. Waitlists stretched years, clinics were overwhelmed, and hope surged. The problem was not just scientific, it was political. When President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed leucovorin, they amplified …

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Medical education

Driving medical education reform through intellectual honesty

Kathleen Muldoon, PhD

April 3, 2026Apr 3, 2026

We are nearing the end of the academic year, and I recently found myself standing in front of a room of first-year medical students offering what I called "observations." Not punishments. Not a lecture. Observations. And an invitation. Because what…

We are nearing the end of the academic year, and I recently found myself standing in front of a room of first-year medical students offering what I called “observations.” Not punishments. Not a lecture. Observations. And an invitation. Because what I had been seeing was concerning: academic dishonesty, inappropriate use of artificial intelligence (AI), emotional volatility, and a level of disengagement that felt at odds with a curriculum intentionally designed …

Physician voices

How IDIOT syndrome threatens value-based health care

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

April 3, 2026Apr 3, 2026

The internet has made patients more informed. It has also made some patients more misled. A small but growing body of medical commentary has used the provocative label "internet-derived information obstruction treatment (IDIOT)" syndrome to describe what happens when people…

The internet has made patients more informed. It has also made some patients more misled. A small but growing body of medical commentary has used the provocative label “internet-derived information obstruction treatment (IDIOT)” syndrome to describe what happens when people trust online medical content so blindly that they delay care, stop treatment, self-medicate, or resist sound clinical judgment. The term appears in published reviews and commentaries, but it is not …

Health technology

The real problem with AI in medicine and drug development

Jarelis Cabrera

April 3, 2026Apr 3, 2026

Artificial intelligence is rapidly acquiring a reputation as an unreliable, even dangerous, force in medicine and drug development. Hallucinations, opaque decision-making, and high-profile failures have fueled resistance to its adoption across health care systems. But this backlash reflects not an…

The dominant mistake is conceptual. We are treating AI as a replacement for human reasoning rather than …

The Podcast by KevinMD

True metabolic healing requires more than just prescribing expensive peptides [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

April 2, 2026Apr 2, 2026

Internal medicine and functional medicine physician Shiv K. Goel discusses the article "Why lifestyle matters more than BPC-157 and semaglutide." Shiv explains how the modern longevity boom has trained patients to seek out quick fixes like peptides and weight loss…

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Internal medicine and functional medicine physician Shiv K. Goel discusses the article “Why lifestyle matters more than BPC-157 and semaglutide.” Shiv explains how the modern longevity boom has trained patients to seek out quick fixes like peptides and weight loss injections while ignoring foundational habits. He shares a compelling patient …

Physician voices

Why leaving hospital medicine for private practice was worth the risk

Shiv K. Goel, MD

April 2, 2026Apr 2, 2026

The day I handed in my credentials as medical director, I sat in my car in the parking lot for a long time. I had held that role at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital in San Antonio for years. I had built protocols, chaired committees, mentored residents, and managed crises at hours when the rest of the city slept. I was, by every conventional metric, succeeding. And yet there was …

Physician voices

Why physician neutrality in the face of harm is a choice

Timothy Lesaca, MD

April 2, 2026Apr 2, 2026

These moments of hesitation keep happening to me. I recognize the harm. I can name it clearly. I have seen its effects over and over again with my patients. And yet, when the conversation turns to its cause, I hesitate. Not because I do not understand. Because I am supposed to stay neutral. Medicine has long held neutrality as a professional virtue. We are taught to rise above politics, to …

Conditions and diseases

The hidden link between chronic stress and oral health

Deanna J. Gilmore, RDH

April 2, 2026Apr 2, 2026

In health care, we are trained to measure what we can quantify. We check blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, and weight. We monitor lab trends and adjust medications. We look for numbers that confirm risk. What we do not routinely measure is whether a patient is living in a constant state of stress, even though the signs are often right in front of us.

In dentistry, those signs are hard to miss.

Over …

Physician voices

How night shift medicine exposes the reality of physician stress

Chinyelu E. Oraedu, MD

April 2, 2026Apr 2, 2026

At 2 a.m., the hospital is quieter but the stakes are not. A single page can alter the trajectory of a patient's life. A subtle clinical shift can mark the difference between stability and decline. At night, there is less…

At 2 a.m., the hospital is quieter but the stakes are not. A single page can alter the trajectory of a patient’s life. A subtle clinical shift can mark the difference between stability and decline. At night, there is less margin for error, fewer immediate resources, and no room for hesitation. Not long ago, I was called to evaluate a patient who “just did not look right.” The vital signs …

Conditions and diseases

GLP-1 agonists and weight loss: Treating the disease, not the number

Richard M. Fleming, MD, PhD, JD

April 2, 2026Apr 2, 2026

Modern medicine loves numbers. LDL. A1c. BMI. Tumor diameter. Pounds lost. They are easy to measure, easy to track, and easy to celebrate. But none of them are the disease itself. As GLP-1 prescribing accelerates and insurers increasingly define success…

Modern medicine loves numbers. LDL. A1c. BMI. Tumor diameter. Pounds lost. They are easy to measure, easy to track, and easy to celebrate. But none of them are the disease itself.

As GLP-1 prescribing accelerates and insurers increasingly define success by weight reduction, we are repeating a familiar mistake: Elevating a surrogate marker to the status of a biological endpoint.

BMI was never designed to diagnose disease in individuals. Adolphe Quetelet created …

Physician voices

How clinical reassurance impacts patient communication

Alan P. Feren, MD

April 2, 2026Apr 2, 2026

In clinical practice, reassurance is both necessary and responsible. When a clinician says "nothing concerning," it is rarely casual. It reflects a judgment: no immediate danger, no clear evidence of serious disease, no indication for urgent intervention. It is often…

In clinical practice, reassurance is both necessary and responsible. When a clinician says “nothing concerning,” it is rarely casual. It reflects a judgment: no immediate danger, no clear evidence of serious disease, no indication for urgent intervention. It is often the appropriate conclusion at that moment in time. But what happens to that statement after the visit ends is less often considered. Because outside the clinical context in which it …

Physician voices

The physician leadership transition: Moving beyond the exam room

Maia Carter, MD, MPH

April 2, 2026Apr 2, 2026

An excerpt from The Leadership Prescription: How High-Performing Clinicians Become Visionary Leaders. There I was in my habitual rhythm, seeing patients back-to-back and enjoying it. After all, seeing the patients was the fun part; the administrative burden that accompanied it…

An excerpt from The Leadership Prescription: How High-Performing Clinicians Become Visionary Leaders.

There I was in my habitual rhythm, seeing patients back-to-back and enjoying it. After all, seeing the patients was the fun part; the administrative burden that accompanied it was nauseating and heralded the real risk of burnout. The administrators regarded me as someone who could easily create rapport with the patients. I was the kind of physician who …

Physician voices

Balancing civil rights and trauma in an antisemitism investigation

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

April 2, 2026Apr 2, 2026

In the wake of the October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, allegations of antisemitism surged on American campuses, including at the University of Pennsylvania. In response, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) launched a Title VII investigation and subpoenaed Penn for the names and contact information of faculty and staff affiliated with Jewish organizations and Jewish Studies programs. Penn resisted. Faculty groups intervened. The phrase that reverberated through court filings …

Physician voices

Lifestyle medicine support: Bridging the gap in patient care

Landen Green, DO

April 2, 2026Apr 2, 2026

As physicians, we rarely disagree about first principles. Nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress, and behavioral patterns sit at the foundation of nearly every chronic disease conversation. We counsel patients on these topics every day, sometimes passionately, sometimes hurriedly, often within…

Yet an uncomfortable gap persists between what we know drives long-term outcomes and what we are realistically able to deliver in routine …

Physician voices

The art of medicine and clinical reasoning: a lesson at the bedside

Fazlur Rahman, MD

April 2, 2026Apr 2, 2026

An excerpt from The Temple Road: A Doctor’s Journey by permission of Texas Tech University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Throughout my years in…

Throughout my years in medical training, I had heard the maxim, “Medicine is an art.” And yet this notion seemed abstract to me; after all, I had been steeped in science.

Then I came under the …

The Podcast by KevinMD

Reclaiming human dignity as the foundation of medical practice [PODCAST]

American College of Physicians & The Podcast by KevinMD

April 1, 2026Apr 1, 2026

Former Treasurer of the American College of Physicians Janet A. Jokela discusses the article "The service of humanity: Recommitting to physicians’ ethical duties." Janet reflects on her visit to the Ronald Reagan Museum where she found profound connections between the…

Listen on Apple Podcasts · Spotify

Listen and followApple Podcasts Spotify YouTubeMore apps · Browse all episodes

Former Treasurer of the American College of Physicians Janet A. Jokela discusses the article “The service of humanity: Recommitting to physicians’ ethical duties.” Janet reflects on her visit to the Ronald Reagan Museum where she found profound connections between the former president’s views on diversity and the medical profession’s ethical …

Conditions and diseases

The pediatric home health system is failing children with cancer

Alexis Chen Boulter, MD

April 1, 2026Apr 1, 2026

A little boy shuffles down the hallway in his yellow hospital-issued socks, completing yet another lap around the unit. You would never guess that he has leukemia, a blur of dark hair and restless energy. In many ways, he is the healthiest child on the pediatric oncology floor. Today marks his twentieth consecutive day in the hospital. Yet he does not have to be here to receive the drug he …

Conditions and diseases

How your clinical notes impact military veterans’ disability benefits

Robin Hoon, RN

April 1, 2026Apr 1, 2026

Your patient stops showing up for follow-ups. They are rationing medications you prescribed. They cannot afford the specialist you referred them to. You assume it is financial stress or insurance issues, but it could simply be due to what is…

Your patient stops showing up for follow-ups. They are rationing medications you prescribed. They cannot afford the specialist you referred them to.

You assume it is financial stress or insurance issues, but it could simply be due to what is missing from your chart notes, a pattern that is especially common among military veterans navigating disability benefits.

After more than 20 years in clinical practice serving patients with disabilities, including many military …

Real physician voices, twice a week

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