How to get physician wellness programs funded: a proven path forward

Physician
March 17, 2025

For nearly two decades, I sat in meetings, listened to leadership discussions, and navigated the institutional maze of advocating for funding for physician wellness programs.

I saw the hesitation. The skepticism. The “we don’t have the budget for that” conversations.

And yet, I also saw what worked.

For the past five years, I’ve worked independently, designing high-impact, transformational wellness experiences for physicians. And I’ve helped hospital systems, …

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How self-care makes you a better parent

Conditions
March 17, 2025

An excerpt from Lighthouse Parenting: Raising Your Child With Loving Guidance for a Lifelong Bond published by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Your well-being allows you to be emotionally available for your child. Full stop.

Children demonstrate they care about us from the very early years. How did your preschooler demonstrate their empathy to you? Did they stroke your hair to comfort you? Did they offer you kisses and hugs? (If …

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Addressing systemic challenges behind rising ER wait times [PODCAST]

Podcast
March 16, 2025
YouTube video

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Physician executive Aiden Feng discusses the article, “Rising ER wait times signal larger health system challenges.” In this episode, Aiden examines how increasing ED wait times reflect deeper systemic issues in the …

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From caregivers to collectors: Navigating the new landscape of patient payments

Finance
March 16, 2025

Most provider groups are not optimized to manage patient billing, and it’s breaking the bank. The problem often starts with the EHR systems that they have adopted, which are designed with insurance reimbursement as the priority, not the patient experience in mind.

For decades, providers operated in a world where the vast majority of their revenue came from insurance reimbursements. For most provider groups, patient billing was an afterthought. …

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When health care professionals lose everything

Physician
March 16, 2025

Mid-step on the sky bridge, boarding my flight—the message lands. Raw. Desperate. A life breaking apart in real time:

“I’ve been in health care my entire life. Surgical services. Because I spoke up against wrongdoing, stood up for myself, I’m out of a job and can’t get a job anywhere now. I’m 60 now. I don’t know what to do. I’ve had a hard life, and I buried all …

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How The Far Side reshaped my view of science and medicine [PODCAST]

Podcast
March 15, 2025
YouTube video

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Internal medicine physician Ryan McCarthy discusses the article, “What The Far Side taught me about belonging in science.” In this episode, Ryan reflects on the unexpected inspiration he found in Gary Larson’s …

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10 ways health care leaders sabotage their own success—and how to stop

Policy
March 15, 2025

As a former health care executive, I have witnessed many leaders at all levels sabotage their own success. Most of it was unintentional but rather the result of a failure to learn from those who have gone before. Many in the health care industry are promoted into leadership roles without the benefit of leadership or management training and are then left to their own devices to learn “on the job,” …

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Why purpose—not productivity—defines a physician’s success

Physician
March 15, 2025

During the session, my partner leading the discussion asked, “What is your purpose?” One of the physician owners confidently replied, “To replace hips and knees.” The facilitator then asked everyone in the room, “How many of you see this as your main purpose?” Two more people raised their hands, both of whom were also physician owners of the practice.

We had been invited to work with a local orthopedic …

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From heroes to burnout: How we failed our frontline health workers

Conditions
March 15, 2025

An excerpt from Health Care Nation.

Of all the lessons learned from fighting a pandemic, none was more frightening or important than discovering how dependent the system is on how we treat our doctors, nurses, and frontline caregivers.

They were already in short supply, with burnout on the rise, when the pandemic hit. As multiple waves of COVID-19 variants washed over us, frontline health workers stepped in …

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Hidden infections: Are bats a missing link in the Countess of Chester tragedy?

Conditions
March 15, 2025

As you should know, bats carry Histoplasma capsulatum and shed it in their feces (along with Aspergillus and other fungi, bacteria, and viruses). They evolved to deal with the photophobia and tinnitus it causes by hunting at night using echolocation. Bats are protected in the U.K. to the point that it is illegal to remove or block them from their roost. They even have bay colonies in royal residences—which would …

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Embracing compassion in family medicine [PODCAST]

Podcast
March 14, 2025
YouTube video

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Family physician Dan Muntean discusses the article, “The heart of family medicine: a doctor’s journey of compassion and care.” In this episode, Dan shares his personal journey through 30 years of practice …

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Leading with care: How health care leadership can transform patient and provider well-being

Physician
March 14, 2025

Is caring the missing ingredient in health care leadership?

As physicians and health care professionals, we are called to care for patients, their families, and trainees. Yet, the health care team is often not cared for by leaders. This has resulted in staggering rates of burnout. It has led to many physicians and nurses leaving the field, creating more stress on an already overworked workforce. The question is: How …

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The hidden crisis in health care: How corporate greed is destroying patient care

Conditions
March 14, 2025

I grew up in a medical family, primary care. I’ve worked in the medical field for 40 years, from the front office to the back, lab to radiology. I’ve been a registered nurse for 33 years and a family nurse practitioner for 30 years. I have worked in hospitals, private practices, federally qualified health centers (FQHC), hospice, and corporate health. I am deeply passionate about my calling—caring and advocating for …

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How AI is revolutionizing health care through the lens of Alice in Wonderland

Tech
March 14, 2025

Once upon a time, in the curious land of Wonderland, there lived a physician named Alice. On a curiouser and curiouser day, Alice found herself tumbling down the digital rabbit hole into a fantastical realm called Algorithmia, a land where the wonders of artificial intelligence (AI) shaped the very fabric of life. Guided by the enigmatic Mad Hatter, Alice encountered three peculiar AI Cheshire Cats—Transforma (transformers), Baye (Bayesian methods), and …

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How a customer relationship management tool (CRM) can help physicians regain control and beat burnout

Physician
March 14, 2025

As physicians, we dedicate our lives to helping others. We spend years training to diagnose, treat, and care for patients with a dream of feeling valued and helpful. Then, one day we find ourselves feeling increasingly overwhelmed by administrative work, struggling to keep up with patient communication, and feeling disconnected from the people we set out to serve. The reality is that many of us are caught in a system …

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Why I refuse to hide my emotions in a world afraid of love

Physician
March 14, 2025

I’m only sharing this story today to illustrate something about myself and my perspective on love: being expressive with it.

I am not discussing only romantic love here. I’m talking about the affection we have for so many individuals around us, including our parents, siblings, friends, teachers, coworkers, neighbors, pets, and even strangers.

Sometimes we fall in love with a random person’s actions, something they say, the way …

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Compassionate solutions for food allergies in air travel [PODCAST]

Podcast
March 13, 2025
YouTube video

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Lianne Mandelbaum, a leading advocate for airline safety measures to protect food-allergic passengers, discusses the article, “Navigating the uncertainty of food allergies in air travel: a call for compassion and change.” In …

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The missing link in medical malpractice: a strategy to reduce lawsuits

Physician
March 13, 2025

Despite the heralded To Err Is Human, there is still no effective risk management strategy to prevent medical liability. Past discussions on KevinMD have explored a risk-management strategy that differentiates medical errors from random errors of nature with 95 percent confidence. Like any decision-making method, this strategy has weaknesses that deserve mention.

Weaknesses of the strategy

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The truth about burnout in medicine: a journey of gladiators, night shifts, and humanity

Physician
March 13, 2025

Becoming a doctor is often seen as a noble quest—a path filled with sacrifice, resilience, and the ultimate reward of helping others. We all start the same way: pre-med studies, endless exams, and the grueling four years of medical school. It’s a journey filled with sleepless nights, skipped meals, and cramming obscure diseases into our already overloaded brains. But we keep going, fueled by the dream of finally being called …

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How a law school elective changed my perspective on medicine

Education
March 13, 2025

I was approaching the final rotations of my third year in medical school when it came time to create my fourth-year schedule. I wanted to participate in electives that aligned with my passions for advocacy and addressing health disparities but were also unique. That’s when I stumbled upon a few courses at a nearby law school that explored the intersection of law and medicine.

Though I knew the course was offered …

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