KevinMD.com

September 16, 2026Sep 16, 2026

Numbers do not have to be fabricated to mislead. They can be technically accurate and still create a false story when "detected" becomes "caused," "involved" becomes "alone," and a preliminary suspicion becomes a headline. This dynamic played out following a…

Numbers do not have to be fabricated to mislead. They can be technically accurate and still create a false story when “detected” becomes “caused,” “involved” becomes “alone,” and a preliminary suspicion becomes a headline.

This dynamic played out following a May 2026 emergency in Mountainair, New Mexico. Three people died in a home where investigators found fentanyl, para-fluorofentanyl, and methamphetamine, while eighteen first responders later reported symptoms such as nausea, …

Health technology

Patient-centered device design is not bedside manner

Adeena Anwar Khan

September 16, 2026Sep 16, 2026

This year I interned at Dr. Ziauddin Hospital during my biomedical engineering studies. Much of what I learned there was not to be found in books. At the moment it was standing next to a machine, doing its job perfectly,…

Medical devices are manufactured to perform accurately. They have to be quick, believable to the physician that reads the number, fail-safe, and …

The Podcast by KevinMD

Genetic test results, social media advice, and an irreversible choice [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 20262

Your genetic test results now arrive on your phone before anyone is available to explain them. So the questions go to an online mom group, or to ChatGPT, and strangers answer first. Stephanie Waggel, physician and founder of Improve Medical…

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Conditions and diseases

AI in dementia care could give doctors time to listen

American Brain Foundation

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 2026

The questions a doctor asks a patient and their family are particularly important for a diagnosis in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, but the demand for care is rapidly outpacing the supply of clinicians, and the time to truly listen…

The questions a doctor asks a patient and their family are particularly important for a diagnosis in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, but the demand for care is rapidly outpacing the supply of clinicians, and the time to truly listen keeps shrinking. My colleagues and I have been testing a possible way to protect that conversation: a voice-based artificial intelligence “agent” that interviews patients before they ever see a clinician, …

Physician voices

Physician burnout often begins with self-abandonment

Christine Kempton, MD

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 2026

The room was still dark, my cat curled next to me, when I looked at the clock: 4:18 a.m. It was well before my alarm was set to go off, but I knew I wasn't going to fall back asleep.…

The room was still dark, my cat curled next to me, when I looked at the clock: 4:18 a.m. It was well before my alarm was set to go off, but I knew I wasn’t going to fall back asleep. Reluctantly, I grabbed my phone, put on my slippers, and shuffled downstairs to the coffee maker. While the coffee brewed, I skimmed my email and read the news headlines. Coffee …

Conditions and diseases

Barriers to yoga practice, and how to lower them

Duc Chung, MD & Kaivalya Kasturi & Karim Amireh, MD & Samuel Doty, MD

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 2026

Musculoskeletal and mental-health conditions are among the most consequential and costly health challenges in the United States. Musculoskeletal conditions affect more than one-third of U.S. adults and account for more than $300 billion in medical spending, while mental illness is estimated to cost the broader U.S. economy approximately $282 billion annually. Although many of these conditions are chronic and cannot be addressed through a single universally effective intervention, …

Drugs and prescribing

The nociplastic pain question new pain therapies avoid

Amir Friedman, MD

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 2026

Systematic review data puts the prevalence of central sensitization features among knee osteoarthritis patients at approximately 36 percent by validated instrument. More than one in three patients carrying an orthopedic diagnosis you trust, presenting with pain that structural intervention may…

In my last piece, I argued that glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) pharmacology and neurotechnology …

Physician voices

Can physicians and organized labor stand together?

Sameen Farooq, MD

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 2026

Our cultural ethos has revolved around the paragons of "hard work" and so much so that now our health leaders are suggesting that "healthy" Americans work longer to delay retirement to stimulate the economy. In the words of Dr. Oz,…

Our cultural ethos has revolved around the paragons of “hard work” and so much so that now our health leaders are suggesting that “healthy” Americans work longer to delay retirement to stimulate the economy. In the words of Dr. Oz, “If Americans could stay healthy enough to work just one additional year or start working earlier in their lives, it would increase the GDP of our nation by trillions …

Conditions and diseases

5 nutrition questions for every weight-loss drug follow-up

Standard Process

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 2026

Picture a common follow-up visit: Six weeks into glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) treatment, a patient has lost weight and their glucose measures have improved. They describe the nausea as “manageable.” Then you ask what they ate yesterday: coffee until noon, a few bites at lunch, half a dinner, and less water than usual because everything feels too filling. They’ve also stopped walking because they feel weak.

The medication may be working as …

Health technology

Rethinking the clinical utility of diagnostic tests

Martin Bello, PhD

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 2026

Introduction Approximately fifty years ago, while attending a social gathering at a suburban hospital with my first wife, I found myself speaking with an attending physician. During our conversation he made a remark that has remained with me throughout my…

Introduction

Approximately fifty years ago, while attending a social gathering at a suburban hospital with my first wife, I found myself speaking with an attending physician. During our conversation he made a remark that has remained with me throughout my professional life.

“Medicine is not science; it is an art.”

At the time, I accepted the statement without much reflection. Certainly medicine requires compassion, judgment, communication, and an appreciation for the complexity of …

Physician voices

Fragmented care made my family her care coordinator

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 2026

I recently read Kara Wada's September 7, 2026, KevinMD essay asking a simple but profound question: Who holds the telescope? Her article resonated with me immediately because I know the answer. When my wife Kathy was dying, nobody did. Kathy…

I recently read Kara Wada’s September 7, 2026, KevinMD essay asking a simple but profound question: Who holds the telescope? Her article resonated with me immediately because I know the answer.

When my wife Kathy was dying, nobody did.

Kathy was not the victim of one catastrophic mistake. There was no single dramatic error that changed the course of her illness. What I witnessed instead was something more common and, in many …

Conditions and diseases

Women’s health in primary care needs continuity, not visits

Michael Baker, MBA

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 2026

My wife and my daughter both have endometriosis. I have spent nearly thirty years working in community health, much of that time leading a federally qualified health center. I know how health care works. I know how referrals work. I…

My wife and my daughter both have endometriosis.

I have spent nearly thirty years working in community health, much of that time leading a federally qualified health center. I know how health care works. I know how referrals work. I know how to ask questions, find resources, and push when something does not make sense. None of that shortened the road for the two women I love.

I watched appointments end with …

Health technology

Half of mental health apps vanish within 3 years

Nicole Drapeau Gillen

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 2026

Every caregiver of someone with a serious mental illness knows the moment: You're searching an app store at 2 a.m., looking for something, anything, that might help your loved one track symptoms, stay on a medication schedule, or just feel…

Every caregiver of someone with a serious mental illness knows the moment: You’re searching an app store at 2 a.m., looking for something, anything, that might help your loved one track symptoms, stay on a medication schedule, or just feel less alone between crises. You download it. You show them how to use it, gently, because trust is already fragile. And if you’re lucky, it becomes part of the routine …

Conditions and diseases

Breaking bad news: my wife’s brain tumor diagnosis

Neil J. Farber, MD

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 2026

An excerpt from Treating a Broken System: A Physician's Cure For the Healthcare Crisis. Let me take you back to the Philadelphia suburbs in March 1997. My wife, Terry, and I had been married for almost twenty-one years, and we…

An excerpt from Treating a Broken System: A Physician’s Cure For the Healthcare Crisis.

Let me take you back to the Philadelphia suburbs in March 1997. My wife, Terry, and I had been married for almost twenty-one years, and we had three children, all teenagers. Terry had not yet completed her bachelor’s degree when we were married in May 1976. She went on to accomplish that when the kids were …

The Podcast by KevinMD

A cure for aggressive lymphoma exists, and most patients never get it [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

September 14, 2026Sep 14, 2026

A treatment exists that can cure aggressive lymphoma after chemotherapy has failed. Only about two in ten eligible patients receive it. Manali Kamdar is clinical director of lymphoma services at the University of Colorado Anschutz, and Paolo Strati is an…

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Physician voices

A military pediatrician inside the nuclear readiness system

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

September 14, 2026Sep 14, 2026

Every physician accumulates evaluations during a career. Most are read once and forgotten. Decades later, while reviewing my Air Force officer evaluation reports from Minot Air Force Base, I discovered something unexpected: a record not merely of performance, but of…

The reports documented emergency transports, developmental screening initiatives, community partnerships, staff expansion, and coordinated care systems. What struck …

Physician voices

3 choices that protect physicians in the attention economy

Vijay Rajput, MD

September 14, 2026Sep 14, 2026

Medicine has developed a new mental health illness of the "attention economy." The term was introduced by psychologist and Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon, who argued that an abundance of information creates a scarcity of attention, making human attention an…

Medicine has developed a new mental health illness of the “attention economy.” The term was introduced by psychologist and Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon, who argued that an abundance of information creates a scarcity of attention, making human attention an increasingly valuable resource. Physicians always depended on attention to the patient, trainee, colleagues, and the required attention to quiet work of becoming wiser. Yet professional life increasingly unfolds within an …

Physician voices

Medical ethics principles do not decide hard cases

Timothy Lesaca, MD

September 14, 2026Sep 14, 2026

"I know the treatment probably won't work," a patient nearing the end of life tells the doctor. "I want to try anyway." The patient understands the risks but still hopes for a little more time. The physician wants to honor…

“I know the treatment probably won’t work,” a patient nearing the end of life tells the doctor. “I want to try anyway.” The patient understands the risks but still hopes for a little more time. The physician wants to honor that hope while worrying that side effects could make the patient’s remaining days more painful. If the treatment requires resources in short supply, other patients’ needs make an already difficult …

Conditions and diseases

How physician resilience is built in a busy pain clinic

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

September 14, 2026Sep 14, 2026

Walk into any busy pain clinic and the weight lands before you sit down. The pages never stop. The waiting room is packed with people who have already been through too many doctors. Chronic suffering hangs in the air. And…

Beneath it sits a quieter, more relentless set of pressures. Insurance companies keep cutting rates. Staff feel the squeeze of financial hardship and rightly expect …

Conditions and diseases

Palliative care in the ICU: what the metrics never count

Raya E. Kheirbek, MD, MPH

September 14, 2026Sep 14, 2026

"I called palliative care because I needed to free up the bed. Otherwise, I could have taken care of this dying patient myself." The ICU attending said it standing at the nurses' station, thumbing through a chart on a rolling…

“I called palliative care because I needed to free up the bed. Otherwise, I could have taken care of this dying patient myself.”

The ICU attending said it standing at the nurses’ station, thumbing through a chart on a rolling laptop cart, already moving toward the next name on his list before I could answer. Down the hall, monitors kept their steady rhythm. Somewhere behind him, a family was gathered around …

Real physician voices, twice a week

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