Why the opioid crisis and youth mental health demand urgent parity reforms in 2025

Policy
January 16, 2025

At the beginning of 2024, the nation continued to experience the impact of three declared public health emergencies with significant behavioral health implications: COVID-19, Mpox, and the opioid crisis. At the same time, three major national associations continued to highlight what they first described in 2021 as a “youth mental health crisis.” As we enter 2025, emergency declarations for two of these — Mpox and COVID-19 — have …

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Breaking the emotional flatline: Reclaiming empathy in medicine [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 15, 2025
YouTube video

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Join us as we explore the emotional toll of high-stakes health care with physician, speaker, and thought leader Pamela Buchanan. Discover her insights on the “emotional flatline,” a defense mechanism that shields health …

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Insurance denied her a voice, but this doctor wouldn’t back down

Conditions
January 15, 2025

Our nation and the health care industry have been in shock following the assassination of the CEO of one of the largest insurance companies in the U.S. The brazen killing of Brian Thompson and the suspected shooter Luigi Mangione has captured America’s attention. The assassination has focused public outrage toward the health care insurance industry and revealed a lack of empathy for the victim and his family. A recent survey …

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The emotional toll of empathy in emergency medicine

Physician
January 15, 2025

Emergency medicine is a career defined by its urgency, unpredictability, and intense human connection. But for those of us who work in the emergency department, it’s also a career shaped by the weight of the people we’ve cared for—the ones we’ve saved, the ones we’ve lost, and the ones whose stories stay with us long after our shifts end.

When I talk with colleagues about stepping back from clinical responsibilities, one …

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The mission to make health care equitable and accessible for all

Physician
January 15, 2025

In the fall of 2004, everything changed. I became a father for the first time. I had completed four years as a practicing primary care doctor at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California in the Department of Adult Medicine. I had my first op-ed piece published – “How to make your health insurance count as if your life depended on it” – as I was working hard on a book …

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From strawberries to stethoscopes: lessons in humanity from a future oncologist

Physician
January 15, 2025

Every year, medical trainee hopefuls submit the dreaded personal statement. Most follow a familiar formula based on advice from mentors, peers, or online guides: “Don’t stick out,” “Tell a story about a patient,” and so on. While this approach isn’t wrong, it leaves little room for the “personal” aspect—the only part of the ERAS application that truly allows insight into the individual behind the resume. Before submitting mine, I was …

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Rewriting the narrative on stress, burnout, and resilience [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 14, 2025
YouTube video

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Radiologist Robyn Tiger shares her journey from childhood tragedy to a career dedicated to healing and self-discovery. Robyn recounts how the loss of her father to suicide sparked her passion for understanding the …

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How unclaimed bodies are fueling a medical ethics firestorm

Conditions
January 14, 2025

Last September, NBC News aired a one-sided report on the arrangement between a county coroner and a medical school apropos the transfer of unclaimed corpses with reportedly inadequate effort to find family. In addition to a grieving family, an academic bioethicist was interviewed who expressed horror at the transfer procedure. The report did a disservice both to bioethics and to necessary medical training and research.

In a similar incident, a coroner …

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How poor communication is killing patients and burning out doctors

Physician
January 14, 2025

As an emergency room physician with 20 years of experience, I’ve witnessed countless moments where patients come to the ER not because their symptoms demand urgent care, but because they lack understanding about their own medical conditions. These are not isolated incidents—they’re a systemic failure in communication that contributes to patient distress, health care inefficiency, and physician burnout.

This week alone, I had two particularly heart-wrenching encounters:

A 65-year-old man with metastatic …

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Doctors reveal the unspoken toll of shame and sacrifice in medicine

Physician
January 14, 2025

It’s capitalism, it’s greed, it’s the hospitals, it’s all those things, but for me, it’s sadness, it’s loss, it’s crying myself to sleep. Lest I sound ungrateful, I am appreciative of the income and career it has afforded me. I am not the victim but also not the perpetrator. In reality, we are all both at one time or another.

It’s the hushed calls to let me know a dear patient …

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Is perfectionism something to strive for or heal from?

Physician
January 14, 2025

I used to pride myself on being a perfectionist and high achiever, and I held onto those identities tightly. Today, my diplomas are stored in a box at the bottom of a closet. I recycled the majority of my race medals, and reviewing my CV contributes to pain. I have created space from these visual reminders of how hard my past self worked to feel some sense of worthiness in …

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Patient safety in focus: Helping to address risk factors associated with non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia

Podcast
January 13, 2025
YouTube video

This article is sponsored by Stryker Oral Care.

Hospital-acquired pneumonia remains one of the most common—and deadly—infections patients face during hospitalization. Yet, while significant progress has been made in reducing ventilator-associated pneumonia, its lesser-known counterpart, non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (NVHAP), continues to quietly …

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The hidden grief of Black fathers after pregnancy loss

Conditions
January 13, 2025

In the United States, as many as 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage (before the end of the twentieth week of pregnancy) and approximately 1 percent in stillbirth (after the twentieth week, including time of delivery).

Parents who experience pregnancy loss are often left to grieve not only the child they never had the opportunity to know but also the loss of a future they had envisioned. The …

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The heartbreaking truth about advocating for aging parents in today’s health care system

Conditions
January 13, 2025

My parents were born on the same day, six years apart, Depression-era babies. My dad died on Christmas Eve, 2016. Nearly every Christmas season after that, for the next seven years, I hoped Mom would follow him.

Was I wrong to wish that?

Dad played Santa Claus for three decades, donning a suit that had belonged to his mother, along with her bearskin gloves and a set of sleigh bells. Eventually, he …

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I’ve felt the pain of 3 generations of nicotine addiction

Conditions
January 13, 2025

“Almost everyone I know has either quit” – my friend paused, “… or died.” She said the “or died” part with a bit more resignation than horror.

We were having this conversation outside of our busy local pub a few weeks ago. Some of us had stepped outside to get some fresh air, and someone pulled out a package of cigarettes and offered them around.

What was once a common occurrence now …

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How a network of changemakers is revolutionizing health care [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 12, 2025
YouTube video

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

Join us for an inspiring conversation on transforming health care with Kim Downey, a physician advocate and physical therapist; Dawn Ellison, an emergency physician; and Denise Wiseman, a health care executive. Together, they …

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Geographic disparities in advanced cancer care: a call for innovation

Conditions
January 12, 2025

Imagine two patients are diagnosed with liver cancer on the same day. Both have similar tumors and overall health. The only difference? Their zip codes. While we’d like to believe that all patients in the United States receive standardized care regardless of location, the reality is far more complex. Where a patient lives—and more specifically, which health care system they can access—may fundamentally alter their treatment options and outcomes.

This disparity …

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The rise of at-home hormone tests: a double-edged sword for patients

Conditions
January 12, 2025

At-home hormone testing kits have surged in popularity, offering individuals unprecedented access to tools they believe will help them understand their bodies. Marketed as convenient, empowering solutions to monitor fertility and general hormone health, these tests may seem like a valuable resource at first glance. However, the reality is far more complex. In many cases, these kits create confusion, unnecessary stress, and even lead to harmful interventions.

While the promise of …

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Health care predictions 2025: What’s next for AI, access, and home care

Physician
January 12, 2025

I’ve taken a little writing break as I turned off news to preserve my mental health after the election. As 2024 limps to a close, I look forward to a fresh start in 2025 with a few of my own crystal ball predictions of what’s to come in American health care.

Accessing primary care will continue to be a challenge, not just in rural communities but in big cities too. Telehealth …

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Why dermatology deserves respect: a medical student’s perspective

Education
January 12, 2025

As a medical student pursuing dermatology, I was disheartened at the recent Wall Street Journal article’s misrepresentation of dermatology. Describing the field as a superficial, cosmetically focused pseudo-science is a disservice to both dermatologists and the patients they treat; representations such as this one erase the true scope of dermatologic care. Based on the patients I’ve seen so far, dermatology and its physicians deserve more respect.

Dermatologists perform cosmetic procedures …

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