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Why doctors struggle with health care system delays

Physician

February 27, 2026

As a pain physician, I spend my career advocating for patients who struggle to access appropriate pain management. I write often on hurdles like restrictive opioid policy, excessive regulatory scrutiny, prior authorization, and administrative burdens that detract from patient care. Yet nothing prepared me for the visceral reality of being the patient on the other side of the system.

From physician advocate to patient in the system

My recent experience, unrelated to …

Orthorexia nervosa turns healthy habits into a harmful obsession [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

February 26, 2026

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

Internal medicine physician Sally Daganzo discusses her article “The hidden epidemic of orthorexia nervosa.” Sally explains how the pursuit of a perfect diet can spiral into a debilitating obsession where food rules …

Outsourcing patient contact: a solution for multilingual health care

Deepak Gupta, MD

Conditions

February 26, 2026

The fissuring of health care, along the lines of “The Fissured Workplace: Why Work Became So Bad for So Many and What Can Be Done to Improve It” by David Weil (2014), may not be entirely negative after all. Outsourcing patient contact services, perioperative or otherwise, to centralized, multilingual third-party entities with nationwide reach may be the need of the hour in an ever-evolving multilingual society seeking health care. In …

Physician mental health and suicide prevention: stories of survival

Michael F. Myers, MD

Physician

February 26, 2026

An excerpt from Physicians With Lived Experience: How Their Stories Offer Clinical Guidance (APA Publishing, 2025).

Foreword by Jennifer Breen Feist

Foreword by Jennifer Breen Feist, who lost her beloved sister, Dr. Lorna Breen, to suicide on April 26, 2020. After describing the initial shock and unwanted global publicity of her death, she wrote this:

As the emails, letters, and phone calls continued to pour in, my husband …

The enduring value of the physical exam in modern medicine

Francisco M. Torres, MD

Physician

February 26, 2026

I recall the moment I fully grasped the critical importance of the physical exam and how easily it can be overlooked, often with serious consequences.

Early in my fellowship, an elderly patient was referred to our team with an apparently straightforward case of sciatica. His MRI revealed a disc herniation at L5/S1 with foraminal narrowing, prompting discussion about whether an epidural injection or surgery would be more beneficial. I was tasked …

From Singapore to Canada: a blueprint for primary care transformation

Ivy Oandasan, MD

Policy

February 26, 2026

Recently, Dr. Tara Kiran made headlines when her robust national OurCare survey revealed 5.9 million Canadians still lack a primary care provider, the point-of-entry health professional, like a family doctor or nurse practitioner, who provides routine care.

Those who do have a primary care provider often wait weeks for an appointment, then get rushed through in minutes. Emergency departments overflow with patients who have nowhere else to go.

The federal government …

Health care price transparency: Why patients are bypassing insurance

Sally Daganzo, MD

Physician

February 26, 2026

I recently went to Quest Diagnostics for a TB test and a couple of basic labs my doctor ordered. At check-in, I recalled my insurance had changed in the new year and I did not have the updated information readily available. I did not have time to reschedule nor sort it out so figured I could pay cash and reconcile it later. That seemed reasonable, if inconvenient.

When I asked what …

Opt-in vs. opt-out: How defaults shape organ donation rates

Anvit Divekar

Conditions

February 26, 2026

A few weeks ago, I went to the DMV to renew my driver’s license. At the very end of the process, after the routine questions and fine print, a single prompt appeared with a small checkbox next to it: Do you want to register as an organ donor?

I selected “yes,” but then I paused. Not because I was conflicted, but because I realized how easily I could have done nothing. …

Post-holiday heart health: How to reset your cardiovascular habits

Steven Lamm, MD

Conditions

February 26, 2026

The holidays are good for the soul, but often hard on the heart. Weeks of indulgent meals, disrupted sleep, increased alcohol intake, stress, and inconsistent routines can quietly strain cardiovascular health, especially for men. As the calendar turns and routines resume, the post-holiday period presents a valuable opportunity to reset habits, reflect on seasonal excesses, and refocus on heart health before temporary behaviors become lasting risks. Understanding how seasonal habits …

Navigating the hype and hope of psychedelic medicine [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

February 25, 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 “Psychedelic-assisted therapy: science, safety, and regulation.” Muhamad explores the complex landscape of psychedelic medicine, balancing the growing public interest with …

Informed refusal vs. denied care: a dental case study

Aaron S. Rosenberg

Conditions

February 25, 2026

I went in for a routine dental cleaning. It was never provided.

I’ve spent my career on multiple sides of health care, independent practice, hospital-owned systems, and health insurance, which has made me acutely aware of how incentives and operational norms can quietly shape care. Still, what happened during this visit surprised me.

After I was brought back to the exam room, I was told bitewing X-rays would be taken before the …

Informed consent for premeds: Is a medical career worth it?

Michael Minh Le, MD

Education

February 25, 2026

Decades ago, becoming a doctor felt like the obvious choice. People asked, “Why wouldn’t you?”

Today, the question has flipped: “Why would you ever do that?”

I’m a doctor. I graduated from UCLA, and I’m now an anesthesiology resident at Mount Sinai. I also help thousands of premeds get into medical school every year. And when I see doctors leaving medicine or premeds walking away before they even apply, I don’t think …

The ticking clock: How time constraints in medicine hurt patient care

Timothy Lesaca, MD

Physician

February 25, 2026

We are taught to watch for conflicts of interest in the form of pharmaceutical pens and consulting checks, yet we often overlook the most pervasive corruption of all: the ticking of the clock.

We traditionally describe medical conflicts of interest in corporate terms: free dinners, speaking fees, and consulting arrangements. These temptations are real, and they deserve the scrutiny and rules we apply to them. But they are external distractions. The …

Insulin resistance is not a disease: a metabolic reframe

Kevin Whitt

Conditions

February 25, 2026

Type 2 diabetes and metabolic disease are now so common that they are treated as an expected part of modern life rather than as a systemic failure. Roughly 90 percent of American adults are now prediabetic or diabetic, and most are unaware of it. This progression quietly opens the door to heart disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, cancer, neurodegeneration, and other chronic illnesses that are then managed downstream.

We are not …

Understanding Moore’s Law and the exponential growth of technology

Richard A. Lawhern, PhD

Conditions

February 25, 2026

When I was a teenager, practical computers did not yet exist. In 1966, my first exposure to a computer in engineering school was a room-sized mainframe whose fast memory consisted of a foot-tall rotating magnetic disc that could store 8,000 “bytes” (each byte containing eight “bits,” which allow for 256 possible values representing alphabetic letters or numbers).

At the time, we could forget about storing the full text of the King …

From glucose to vascular health: the future of diabetes care

Palma Shaw, MD

Conditions

February 25, 2026

Historically, diabetes management focused on blood glucose control and preventing severe complications such as neuropathy and amputation. Over the past two decades, this limited view has proven insufficient for long-term health. Many now emphasize risk factor management, lifestyle changes, and early screening instead of crisis response.

The vascular health risk of a diabetes surge

Diabetes is an epidemic: In the last decade alone, the number of adults living with the disease globally …

“The only thing that will change will be our name”: a private equity cautionary tale

Anonymous

Physician

February 25, 2026

“The only thing that will change will be our name.”

These were the words shared by a senior partner when our staff was informed that the partnership had decided to sell the practice to a private equity firm. Unfortunately, as the story unfolded, that was also the moment that my future changed.

I was an associate when those now infamous words were uttered. While I was wary of this transition, it was …

Community cooperatives offer a solution to the affordable health care crisis [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

February 24, 2026

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

Physician, author, and health care reform advocate David K. Cundiff discusses his article “Accountable care cooperatives: a 2026 vision for U.S. health care.” David analyzes the severe funding crisis affecting American families …

The vascular surgeon shortage: Why amputations are rising

Daniel Torrent, MD

Conditions

February 24, 2026

Steven couldn’t remember when he first noticed the spot on his toe, only that it began as a blister a few weeks earlier. He finally saw his doctor, but only when the entire toe had turned black. His doctor referred him to me, but he missed the appointment because the drive was 90 minutes, and he couldn’t take the day off work.

Two weeks later, half of his foot was dead, …

The shadow ledger: Uncovering the financial cost of nursing turnover

Kristen Cline, BSN, RN

Conditions

February 24, 2026

When I told ProPublica that it was too expensive to protect us, I was naming what every number in this piece confirms. The system made a calculation about what our lives were worth, and it got the math catastrophically wrong.

I have been a nurse for almost 20 years, working in emergency departments, intensive care units, and eventually the back of a helicopter as a flight nurse. I have watched the …

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