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Physician burnout definition: Why it is blocked energy, not just exhaustion

Physician

March 10, 2026

Most physicians experience burnout as exhaustion. We say, “I have nothing left.” The assumption is simple: We are depleted, and what we need is rest. But after decades in medicine, and years of listening carefully to burned-out clinicians, I wonder if that assumption is wrong.

What if burnout is not a lack of energy at all? What if it is energy that has nowhere to go?

Physicians enter medicine with extraordinary life …

Pharmaceutical advertising ethics: Why TV drug ads mislead patients

M. Bennet Broner, PhD

Conditions

March 10, 2026

Previously, I wrote about the patient’s responsibility to gain knowledge about their condition and treatments, and how this is not always easy to do. This is increasingly important, however, as clinicians have decreased time with patients for reasons often beyond their control.

This need for knowledge applies not only to medical visits, but also to advertisements for nostrums (e.g., Neuriva) and for legitimate drugs. Both create enticing visions on TV and …

Why implementation is not the same as readiness in health care

Tiffiny Black, DM, MPA, MBA

Conditions

March 10, 2026

Health care leaders often declare change a success long before the people inside the system feel steady again.

New technologies go live. Policies are implemented. Metrics stabilize. From an operational standpoint, the work appears complete. Yet beneath the surface, distress lingers, silence deepens, and trust erodes.

This paradox is becoming increasingly familiar to clinicians: Change is labeled “successful,” but the human experience tells a different story.

The problem is not resistance.
It is not …

AI redefines the physician’s role by reducing cognitive overload [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 9, 2026

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Family physician and health care entrepreneur Tod Stillson discusses his article “AI in medicine: Why it won’t replace doctors but will redefine them.” Tod argues that the binary debate between AI as …

Physician neutrality: a beacon of ethics in a divided world

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

Physician

March 9, 2026

I watched with horror, grief, and tears in my eyes as the events of the last week unfolded. We witnessed a catastrophic massacre of Iranians seeking nothing more than the basic freedom to exist outside an oppressive system. As conflicts ignite in various corners of the world, it feels as though the fabric of our global society is tearing at the seams.

Yet, amidst the darkness, there was a silver lining: …

Pharmaceutical advertising dangers: Why drug ads hurt patients

George Issa, MD

Physician

March 9, 2026

One of the absolute worst ideas anyone in the government ever had was letting pharmaceutical companies advertise directly to the public. A public with roughly zero medical knowledge. A public that believes any weird twinge, sneeze, or momentary fatigue is a death sentence. We need that miracle pill, now! For our constipation, insomnia, erectile dysfunction, mysterious rashes, or the inevitable blood clot that we just know is coming.

These ads don’t …

How to handle clinical disagreement with patients

Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD

Physician

March 9, 2026

One of the hardest moments in medicine is not making a diagnosis. It is not writing the prescription. It is sitting across from a patient who wants something you do not believe is right for them and knowing that whatever you say next will either build trust or break it. That moment comes every day in modern practice. A patient wants an antibiotic for a virus. A patient wants a …

The economic shift from fee-for-service to direct primary care

Dana Y. Lujan, MBA

Policy

March 9, 2026

According to the Primary Care Collaborative, primary care accounts for roughly 5 percent of health care spending, yet it influences nearly 90 percent of downstream costs. That statistic is not a compliment. It is a diagnosis. And for a profession that has spent decades accepting influence as a substitute for economic ownership, it is long past time to read it that way. For decades, physicians …

The quiet paradox of physician mental health and medication

Timothy Lesaca, MD

Physician

March 9, 2026

Physicians are trained, above all, to project steadiness. Long before we feel it, we learn to perform it. The lesson begins early in training. The pager goes off, a room fills with urgency, and the expectation is unspoken but unmistakable: Remain calm. Do not let uncertainty show. Do not let fear show. Patients need confidence. Teams need direction. Over time, the composure stops feeling like a performance. It becomes a …

Why medicine ignores its Cassandras: a case study in health disparities

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Conditions

March 9, 2026

Cassandra saw the future. No one believed her. Medicine has its Cassandras too, clinicians who name the failures before anyone else. Their warnings are dismissed, their foresight ignored, until the damage is undeniable.

This essay is built on an AI comparison. It set my 1998 Nisonger grant beside my 2025 testimony. The themes are identical: health disparities, economic justice, ethics, listening to families. I named them then. I name them now. …

A celebrity patient and the core of patient confidentiality

Francisco M. Torres, MD

Physician

March 9, 2026

During my second year of private practice, I was still close enough to academics to miss morning conferences, but far enough along to appreciate a predictable lunch break. It was then that I had an encounter that taught me why the core ethics of medicine must remain steady, even when the patient is someone the world recognizes. It happened on a Thursday, a day when the clinic usually looked like …

The sensing gap: Why medical AI misses critical diagnoses

John C. Ferguson, MD

Conditions

March 9, 2026

The patient walked into the ER obtunded, breathing deep and fast, blood sugar over 400. Classic diabetic ketoacidosis. She had been symptomatic for three days.

Three days earlier, she had asked ChatGPT about her symptoms: excessive thirst, frequent urination, fatigue. The AI told her it was “probably related to dehydration and stress” and recommended increasing fluid intake and rest. It suggested calling her doctor “if symptoms don’t improve in a few …

Essential personnel safety: the hypocrisy of hospital snow policies

Debbie Moore-Black, RN

Conditions

March 9, 2026

Oh, how I remember this well: The wicked snowstorm that paralyzed many cities, year after year. I was driving my van to work as it slid on black ice and directed me down a hill towards a large church. I had no control and could only pray that I didn’t hit that large telephone pole. When my van finally came to a stop, I realized I had missed the telephone …

Hospitals must establish safety guardrails before deploying AI [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 8, 2026

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Physician and health care consultant Harvey Castro discusses his article “ChatGPT Health in hospitals: 5 essential safety protocols.” Harvey outlines the immense potential of large language models to reduce administrative burdens while …

The Mamba Mentality of an immigrant physician’s journey

Joshua Salabei, MD, PhD

Physician

March 8, 2026

There is a kind of discipline that develops quietly over time, shaped not by certainty, but by persistence. I often think of it as the Mamba Mentality: a commitment to steady improvement, resilience, and focus on the process rather than the outcome.

For many immigrants, this mindset is not aspirational. It is necessary.

My own journey reflects this reality.

Before coming to the United States in 2007, I spent one year in the …

Why hospitals shouldn’t own physician practices: 6 key reasons

David Wild, MD

Physician

March 8, 2026

Over the past two decades, hospital systems have increasingly acquired physician practices, arguing that integration improves care coordination, lowers costs, and stabilizes struggling practices. In reality, this consolidation has often produced the opposite effect: higher costs, reduced physician autonomy, diminished innovation, and care that is less responsive to patients’ needs. While hospitals and physicians must collaborate closely, ownership is not collaboration, and hospital systems should not be in the business …

Why does sex work seem like a more viable path than medicine in 2026?

Corina Fratila, MD

Physician

March 8, 2026

I’d rather be a sex worker than practice medicine in this broken system (and I’m 53, menopausal, and retired from my hot years).

Let me be clear: This is not a whimsical “maybe I will pivot into OnlyFans” moment. I am 53 years old. I am menopausal. My libido is in witness protection. The bloom is not just off the rose, the whole damn bush was yanked out and replaced with …

Finding balance in political turmoil: a poem on resilience

Michele Luckenbaugh

Conditions

March 8, 2026

The world has slipped out of rhythm,
like a clock knocked from the wall
that still insists on ticking,
though the hours no longer agree.

Nothing aligns with the way it lived
in my body a year ago.
Then, there was a sense of ballast.
Morning came without dread
clinging to its edges.
I could rise,
place my feet on the floor,
and believe, perhaps naively,
that the ground would hold.

I believed the voices we chose would,
at minimum, remember us.
That disagreement was …

Names as social texts: Navigating cultural identity in medicine

Esiri Gbenedio

Education

March 8, 2026

I cannot recall the first time my name was mispronounced; that is the point. It happened so often that no single moment stands out. The sounds were altered to make them easier. In first grade, a boy loudly said my name sounded like “cereal.” I disliked it but did not tell a teacher. Early on, I learned how others would value attributes like skin color, regardless of my permission.

When adults …

Unregulated botanical products pose hidden risks in convenience stores [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 7, 2026

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Psychiatrist, internist, and addiction medicine specialist Muhamad Aly Rifai discusses his article “Unregulated botanical products: the hidden risks of convenience store supplements.” Muhamad explores the dangerous misconception that “natural” equals safe, revealing …

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