A Muslim American physician on what an MD cannot shield

Physician
August 11, 2026

As a physician, for the longest time, I thought my MD title, this profession, would be a shield in a world full of so many challenges. I was and am wrong.

Growing up as an immigrant in the United States, I became more acutely aware of my differences after September 2001. Due to my background, skin tone, complexion, name, religion, everything about me stood out. During this formative period, I …

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A Muslim American physician on what an MD cannot shield

Physician credentialing delays should carry a consequence

Physician
August 11, 2026

Physicians are taught to accommodate. A clinic runs behind. We stay late. A colleague calls out. We cover. Credentialing takes longer than expected. We send another document. An administrator needs another week. We wait.

Much of this is appropriate. Health care is complicated, and functioning organizations depend on people extending one another reasonable grace. But there is a point at which accommodation stops being professionalism and starts becoming an incentive.

I was …

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Physician credentialing delays should carry a consequence

3 realms every drug development leader must bridge

Medications
August 11, 2026

Pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) has never lacked scientific ambition. The more challenging issue is transforming good science into programs that operate efficiently, address the right questions, and ultimately enhance patient care. This necessitates a different type of R&D leader.

Traditional research leadership often emphasizes depth in a scientific discipline. While that expertise is crucial, modern drug development is no longer a series of isolated scientific tasks; it is a comprehensive …

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3 realms every drug development leader must bridge

Why pediatric practice succession models are changing

Health Policy
August 11, 2026

The historical model of local pediatric practice was straightforward: A physician built a practice, cared for generations of families, and eventually passed ownership to younger physicians as retirement approached. That model sustained local pediatrics for decades. Today, however, the foundation that supported it has shifted. For many practices, the traditional path to succession is no longer viable, forcing physicians to consider new ways to preserve the practices they’ve spent their …

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Why pediatric practice succession models are changing

A second opinion abroad should clarify, not just differ

Conditions and Diseases
August 11, 2026

The messages usually arrive with the same tension: “My doctor recommends surgery. A hospital overseas says it may have another option. Which answer should I trust?”

Patients who contact us for second opinions abroad are rarely looking for a medical argument to win. Most are trying to make a difficult decision without regretting it later. They want to know whether the diagnosis is complete, whether the proposed treatment is necessary, and …

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A second opinion abroad should clarify, not just differ

What my dog taught me about physician well-being

Physician
August 11, 2026

I have a confession.

For years, I thought my dog was being difficult. She won’t eat unless I’m nearby. Not in the same house. Nearby.

She’ll wait while I answer emails, put away groceries, or finish one more task. If I’m moving from room to room, she watches me instead of eating. Only when I finally stop does she lower her head to her bowl.

I’ve joked that she’s stubborn. Lately, I’ve started …

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What my dog taught me about physician well-being

BPC-157 is promising but unproven, a surgeon warns

Medications
August 11, 2026

Decades in the operating room have taught me that the brain is akin to a spiderweb: fragile, interconnected pathways. When trauma or disease hits neural tissue, our toughest battle is protecting blood flow, controlling swelling, and keeping cells alive under extreme stress. That’s probably why researchers are captivated by BPC-157, or Body Protection Compound 157.

This synthetic 15-amino-acid peptide mimics a tough protective protein found naturally in human gastric juice. Unlike …

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BPC-157 is promising but unproven, a surgeon warns

When patients ask for a knee surgery brand they don’t understand [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 10, 2026
YouTube video

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

A patient asked for her knee surgery by its brand name. She used the term perfectly. She just had no idea what it actually meant. Orthopedic surgeon Cory Calendine, who does nearly 700 to 800 hip and knee replacements a year, returns …

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When patients ask for a knee surgery brand they don’t understand [PODCAST]

Before you paste your labs into ChatGPT, read this

Health Technology
August 10, 2026

A third of American adults asked an AI chatbot a health question in the past year, according to KFF polling from March. Among those users, 41 percent uploaded personal medical information to do it. If that’s you, I’d like to share a few pitfalls and pointers. I’m a practicing gastroenterologist who also works in health tech.

Let’s start with the pitfalls. There are two that most people haven’t been told …

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Before you paste your labs into ChatGPT, read this

A clinical research portfolio is a set of strategic bets

Physician
August 10, 2026

Clinical research is typically managed one protocol at a time, with each study having its own budget, timeline, team, recruitment target, and publication plan. While this structure is essential, it can obscure a larger truth. Research organizations do not merely manage projects; they manage portfolios of strategic bets.

Every trial utilizes limited resources. Investigator time, research staff, patient access, data infrastructure, funding, laboratory capacity, and organizational attention cannot be allocated everywhere …

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A clinical research portfolio is a set of strategic bets

Venture capital for physicians: what you actually signed

Physician Finance
August 10, 2026

A cardiologist I have known for years called me with a fund document open on his screen and one question: Is this a good one? He had read all of it. He still could not tell me what he would owe, when he would owe it, or when any of it might come back. He is superb at what he does. Nobody had taught him this, because nobody teaches us …

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Venture capital for physicians: what you actually signed

The link between light and blood sugar control

Conditions and Diseases
August 10, 2026

A patient sat across from me not long ago and said, “I feel like I’m doing everything right, and still failing.” She had lost weight. She was taking her medications exactly as prescribed. She had reworked her diet along the lines we’d discussed. Yet her glucose readings remained stubbornly elevated.

I’ve heard some version of that sentence throughout my career as a physician and clinical researcher studying metabolism and diabetes. This …

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The link between light and blood sugar control

The credentialing gap is a cash problem, not a delay

Physician Finance
August 10, 2026

Most new practices treat their projected open date as the point revenue starts. It is not. It is the point expenses start, in full, while revenue is still weeks or months away. Somewhere close to two in three new practices open their doors before they are enrolled with most of the commercial payers they plan to bill, which means the gap between opening and getting paid is not a rare …

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The credentialing gap is a cash problem, not a delay

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Screen time is the wrong question for gaming disorder

Conditions and Diseases
August 10, 2026

Imagine two patients, both of whom report roughly five hours a day of video gaming. The first spends that time building, laying out cities, automating supply chains, and solving puzzles with no stakes beyond his own satisfaction. The second spends it inside a mobile game that sells randomized item pulls for real money, chasing a prize he has already paid for twice and still doesn’t own. Without those details, the …

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Screen time is the wrong question for gaming disorder

The question to ask before adopting AI mental health triage

Conditions and Diseases
August 10, 2026

Every argument for AI mental health chatbots eventually arrives at the same line: It’s better than no care at all. Sometimes that’s true. But a quieter, more consequential question is starting to surface behind it, one that has less to do with what AI can do for patients, and more to do with what it does to the system patients depend on.

A recent Forbes Technology Council analysis raised exactly …

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The question to ask before adopting AI mental health triage

Clinical research leadership begins with people

Conditions and Diseases
August 10, 2026

When people think about leadership in clinical research, they often think about timelines, enrollment goals, budgets, and deliverables. I think about people.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that leadership isn’t defined by a job title or where someone sits on an organizational chart. Whether someone leads a team at a sponsor, a pharmaceutical or biotech company, a contract research organization (CRO), or a research site, the purpose remains the …

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Clinical research leadership begins with people

Medicaid discrimination starts with a misread rule

Conditions and Diseases
August 9, 2026

More than a decade ago, at a national pediatrics meeting, I was introduced to the Screening Tool for Autism in Toddlers-Primary Care (STAT-MD). I completed certification immediately and bought my own kit. I didn’t know it then, but that tool would become the clearest lens through which I would understand why some diagnostic systems thrive, and why others collapse under the weight of their own misunderstanding of CMS rules.

Before STAT-MD, …

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Medicaid discrimination starts with a misread rule

The autism spectrum diagnosis may be too broad a label

Conditions and Diseases
August 9, 2026

“I think I might be autistic.” “I hate eye contact.” “I get overwhelmed by loud noises.” “I’m really good at masking it.” Autism has become one of the most widely self-diagnosed conditions on social media, and for understandable reasons: Nearly everyone recognizes something of themselves in the traits now described online as autistic, disliking small talk, needing routine, having an intense interest, feeling drained after a party. None of that, …

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The autism spectrum diagnosis may be too broad a label

Clinical documentation is the only story that lasts

Conditions and Diseases
August 9, 2026

We often think of documentation as the task we complete before the end of a shift, something left until the last minute. A requirement, a legal safeguard, an interruption.

Some lessons are learned through education. Others are learned when routine parts of our practice are suddenly viewed through an entirely different lens. Those lessons have a way of changing not only what we do. They change how we think. It changed …

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Clinical documentation is the only story that lasts

Medical travel coordination is a patient-safety job

Conditions and Diseases
August 9, 2026

Booking a hospital appointment is usually the easy part of medical travel. The difficult work begins when the patient asks what the appointment is supposed to accomplish, who has reviewed the records, and what happens if the answer is “Treatment is not appropriate.” Those questions determine whether a patient is making an informed decision or simply moving between health systems with a suitcase full of hope and an incomplete medical …

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Medical travel coordination is a patient-safety job

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