Physician burnout: a crisis of conscience, calling, and collective responsibility

Physician
August 3, 2025

Introduction

The medical profession is grappling with a crisis of profound proportions. Burnout now affects nearly half of all practicing physicians. This is not merely dissatisfaction—it is emotional and moral exhaustion that undermines both physician wellbeing and patient safety. At its core, burnout signals a loss of connection to purpose, to colleagues, and to the healing relationship that defines medical practice.

Burnout manifests as emotional depletion, depersonalization of patients, and a diminished …

Read more…

How inspiration shapes the stories of our lives [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 2, 2025
YouTube video

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

Adjunct professor of psychiatry Arthur Lazarus discusses his article, “How inspiration and family stories shape our most meaningful moments,” which presents a moving fictional story excerpted from his book. The narrative centers …

Read more…

When the pediatrician is the parent: a personal reckoning with childhood obesity

Conditions
August 2, 2025

I would never have thought I would be the one writing this piece.

I am a board-certified pediatrician and internist with a background in nutrition, well-versed in integrative medicine. Our family eats its fair share of kale, blueberries, and salmon. We hardly ever have a significant supply of junk food in the house. Fast food is a rarity, and she never even tasted juice in toddlerhood. And still, my child’s BMI …

Read more…

How listening makes you a better doctor before your first prescription

Education
August 2, 2025

Before I ever introduced myself as a future doctor, I was a listener.

Not because someone told me that listening was important in medicine, but because, as a first-year student, I quickly realized I had no answers—but I did have ears. And heart. And a quiet seat at the edge of patient stories and preceptor reflections.

In the early days of medical school, everything felt unfamiliar. The terms, the pace, the sense …

Read more…

I knew choosing DPC would exacerbate primary care physician shortages, and I chose it anyway. Here’s why.

Physician
August 2, 2025

When I made the decision to leave the traditional, insurance-based system and start a direct primary care (DPC) practice, I didn’t do so under any illusions. I knew what the critics would say. In fact, I’d already heard it.

  • You’re making it harder for patients to find a primary care doctor.
  • You’re reducing access for the underserved.
  • You’re selling out.

I’ve read the blog posts, like the one recently published on …

Read more…

It’s OK to want a different life in medicine [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 1, 2025
YouTube video

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

Pediatrician and certified coach Jessie Mahoney discusses her article, “From burnout to balance: a neurosurgeon’s bold career redesign.” She shares the powerful story of a female neurosurgeon who, on the verge of …

Read more…

Why treating obesity like a medical condition saves lives

Conditions
August 1, 2025

Cardiovascular disease continues to be the #1 killer of Americans, both men and women.

Obesity and being overweight increase the risk of cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes, but beyond these are independent risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease.

Unlike hypertension, which has been called the “silent killer” as its presence is too often unknown to people who have high blood pressure, Americans are rarely unaware …

Read more…

From errors to resilience: a smarter approach to patient safety

Physician
August 1, 2025

Historically, health care has approached safety with a Safety-I lens, emphasizing the prevention of errors and investigating failures. While this method remains significant, contemporary health care’s complex, dynamic, and interdependent nature necessitates proactive and adaptive safety strategies. The emerging Safety-II and Safety-III frameworks provide novel perspectives on safety by prioritizing resilience, real-time adaptation, and learning from success, rather than from failure.

Safety-II shifts the focus from what goes wrong …

Read more…

The unseen emotional toll of being a physician

Conditions
August 1, 2025

Many of the physicians who come to my therapy practice share a quiet, painful fear. They’re already excellent clinicians. They know the medicine, stay up to date on the literature, and often find deep meaning in their work. But they’re worn down by the emotional toll of sitting with suffering day after day. They start to wonder: Why is this hitting me so hard when everyone else seems fine? Am …

Read more…

The most overlooked revenue strategy in primary care: trust

Physician
August 1, 2025

We’re often told that the key to financial success in medicine is volume—more patients, more visits, more hustle. But after two decades in primary care, I’ve learned something different:
The most powerful asset in your practice isn’t speed. It’s trust.

And trust starts with one of the most human (and most overlooked) elements of medicine: the doctor-patient relationship.

Why relationships matter more than ever

Primary care isn’t just about diagnoses or prescriptions. It’s about …

Read more…

Why medical boards are facing growing backlash for abusing power

Physician
August 1, 2025

In principle, the judicial system is founded on fairness, requiring that guilt or innocence be established based on evidence.

All parties including judges, defendants, and plaintiffs should be engaged in a rigorous process of fact presentation and scrutiny.

However, in stark contrast, political systems often prioritize rule manipulation and fact distortion, seeking validation over truth. This critical distinction between politics and jurisprudence becomes dangerously blurred when examining the conduct of medical boards …

Read more…

35 years in the ER and the search for an honest life [PODCAST]

Podcast
July 31, 2025
YouTube video

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

Independent emergency physician Kenneth Ro discusses his article, “From survival to sovereignty: What 35 years in the ER taught me about identity, mortality, and redemption.” He shares his deeply personal journey, from …

Read more…

The hidden battle of weight loss: Why dieting alone isn’t enough

Conditions
July 31, 2025

Among Americans and Europeans, overweight and obesity are endemic. Excess weight is also a primary or contributing cause and a significant risk factor for many chronic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, several cancers, liver and kidney diseases, respiratory and musculoskeletal disorders, and mental health problems.

That being said, one can read any amount of advice we can make time for, concerning dieting or exercise. But a harsh reality persists: Fat …

Read more…

ADVERTISEMENT

Why terminal cancer patients still receive aggressive treatment

Physician
July 31, 2025

Recently, researchers examined whether there had been any changes in the way terminal cancer patients died from 2014 to 2019, given the increased information available on hospice, palliative care, and advanced end-of-life planning (EOLP). They asked whether those who were terminal continued aggressive treatment until their demise. The authors anticipated a decrease in this, but found that the frequency of cancer patients who continued aggressive therapy had not declined. The …

Read more…

How doctors can build emotional strength through writing

Physician
July 31, 2025

As I travel the country giving talks to various groups of health care professionals about resilience-building and physician burnout, I sometimes come up against some resistance to the idea. The argument goes something like this: If our emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of a sense of personal accomplishment (i.e. burnout) is largely caused by work overload, administrative burdens, and the moral distress of trying to practice medicine humanistically amidst insurance …

Read more…

When medicine surrenders to ideology

Physician
July 30, 2025

I am a physician-scientist, a title earned through decades of toil in laboratories and hospital wards, where the twin pursuits of truth and healing once reigned supreme. Yet, at the flagship academic hospital of this self-proclaimed “sanctuary state,” I conceal my credentials—not out of humility, but from a grim desire to witness the system unadorned, as it reveals itself to the ordinary patient. What I have beheld is a travesty: …

Read more…

How just culture can reduce burnout and boost health care staff retention

Physician
July 30, 2025

Health care systems acknowledge that how they respond to mistakes significantly impacts their workforce’s morale, retention, and overall productivity. The consequences of a punitive culture are costly in terms of financial and operational costs, as it discourages reporting, promotes burnout or fatigue, and aggravates staff turnover. Conversely, implementing a just culture promotes psychological safety, continuous learning, and fairness, which enables health care staff to remain engaged and resilient throughout their …

Read more…

Why embracing imperfection makes you truly unforgettable

Physician
July 30, 2025

I love comedy clubs. Always have. My wife calls them my happy place and she’s not wrong. Although I haven’t had the opportunity to attend one recently, I often find myself immersed in stand-up clips from the likes of Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, and a constellation of other comedic virtuosos. Back in the pressure-cooker days of my residency training in New York City, those clubs were my sanctuary. …

Read more…

Affordable postpartum hemorrhage solutions every OB/GYN should know

Conditions
July 29, 2025

Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) remains one of the most common causes of maternal death globally. In many cases, it’s not a matter of lacking knowledge—it’s about lacking access to the tools we need.

In well-resourced U.S. hospitals, the JADA® System has in many ways been a paradigm change by using vacuum-induced uterine tamponade—a technique that creates gentle intrauterine suction to trigger uterine contraction and bleeding control. However, for the vast majority of …

Read more…

Why kratom addiction is the next public health crisis

Meds
July 29, 2025

In recent years, kratom, a botanical herb indigenous to Southeast Asia, has surged in popularity across the United States.

Marketed aggressively online and sold openly in vape shops, convenience stores, and specialty herbal outlets, kratom is often portrayed as a natural remedy, an herbal escape from chronic pain, anxiety, and opioid withdrawal. But beneath the alluring veneer of wellness and relief lies a dangerous, largely unregulated substance capable of causing severe …

Read more…

579
pages