Why congenital CMV should be on every parent and doctor’s radar

Conditions
June 9, 2025

My son was born with a congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection.

Unless you specialize in prenatal care, infectious disease, or pediatric audiology, you’ve probably never heard of it.

That’s the first part of the problem.

And, even if you have heard of it, unless you’re a public health advocate or a parent (or both, like me), you probably don’t know enough about it—at least, not in the ways that matter most to patients.

That’s the …

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What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

Conditions
June 9, 2025

At 9:32 a.m., shortly after Hind and her family left their home in Tel al-Hawa, an Israeli military spokesperson issued an evacuation notice on social media, instructing residents of western Gaza City to head south. At approximately 2:30 p.m., Layan Hamada, Hind’s cousin, made the initial call to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) dispatch after their car was struck by gunfire. At that moment, Layan and Hind were …

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Bridging the rural surgical care gap with rotating health care teams

Education
June 9, 2025

Compared to urban areas, rural communities had a 21 percent higher rate of deaths due to heart disease and a 15 percent higher rate of cancer deaths from 2001 to 2019. The per capita number of general surgeons decreased from 6.4 to 5.2 per 100,000 population (−18 percent) during the same period, further highlighting disparities in rural care.

The recruitment of rural physicians and surgeons remains a challenge. …

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Understanding the ethical injury of moral distress in clinicians [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 8, 2025
YouTube video

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Licensed clinical psychologist and health care ethicist Jenny Shields discusses her article, “DSM-5 doesn’t name it, but moral distress is everywhere in medicine.” Jenny illuminates the pervasive issue of moral distress among …

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Why real growth in psychotherapy takes time, courage, and teamwork

Conditions
June 8, 2025

What is the purpose of psychotherapy? What are the goals?

Psychotherapy is a talking process between a patient and a psychotherapist that involves looking at feelings, behaviors, impulses, and thoughts through a process of self-reflection. The purpose of psychotherapy is to explore life patterns and to learn what works and what gets in the way of feeling successful and fulfilled. The goals are to reach one’s fullest potential. This is done …

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What a dying patient’s handshake taught me about life and love

Conditions
June 8, 2025

I was working in my oncology ward as usual when I received a call from the medical ICU to evaluate a patient. The patient was a young male who had been admitted a few days earlier with severe respiratory distress. His workup raised suspicion of a possible malignancy (cancer). This was the information provided to me by the doctor in the ICU.

When I entered the ICU, I met a young …

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The hidden war on doctors: Understanding administrative violence

Physician
June 8, 2025

Administrative violence in medicine is often understood as harm to patients due to systemic issues; however, administrative violence in medicine is also a process used to inflict harm on physicians, destabilizing the medical field on both systemic and individual levels. While much attention is given to how institutions and governments perpetuate administrative violence, it can also be enacted by individuals toward individual physicians with great harm, particularly by other physicians …

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HHS at rock bottom: Could the current crisis be a blessing for U.S. health? [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 7, 2025
YouTube video

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Psychiatrist, internist, and addiction medicine specialist Muhamad Aly Rifai discusses his article, “When rock bottom is a turning point: Why the turmoil at HHS may be a blessing in disguise.” Muhamad offers …

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How doctors can stop frivolous lawsuits before they start

Physician
June 7, 2025

All medical malpractice lawsuits stem from complications caused by medical interventions. Some complications are random errors of nature, which are unpreventable. Others are systemic medical errors, caused by medical interventions gone astray. Clinically, a medical error and an error of nature are indistinguishable. Herein lies the problem in medical malpractice.

It is not that the inability to differentiate a systemic medical error from a random error of nature is unknown. On …

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An effective treatment using an effective care delivery model: Using telehealth to treat adolescents with obesity with GLP-1 medications

Conditions
June 7, 2025

Will a telehealth model effectively engage adolescents with obesity and their parents to participate in their treatment plan?

Do GLP-1 agonist medications work to improve weight status and reduce or eliminate comorbidities in adolescents?

I’ve worked for over two decades as a community pediatrician to address the childhood and adolescent obesity epidemic. I can say with full certainty, when it comes to adolescents, we aren’t getting anywhere. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the …

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How the 10th Apple Effect is stealing your joy in medicine

Physician
June 7, 2025

“Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness.”
– Chuang Tzu

A hunter once lost his way deep inside the jungle while chasing a deer. He used all his navigation skills, but he did not find any way out of the jungle or food for several days. He started feeling so hungry that he could eat an entire elephant in one go. Disappointed, he lost all hope. And that is exactly when …

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How medical culture hides burnout in plain sight

Conditions
June 7, 2025

I remember the first time I was shamed for asking a question. It was during my OB/GYN clinical rotation in PA school. I asked my attending physician something about a patient, not out of laziness, but because I genuinely needed clarity. But instead of guiding me, he shut me down. “You should be doing your research. You should be telling me about the patient, not the other way around.” I …

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How functional precision oncology is revolutionizing cancer treatment [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 6, 2025
YouTube video

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Physician and clinical researcher Chris Apfel discusses his article, “Functional precision oncology: a game changer in cancer therapy.” Chris explains that functional precision oncology takes a highly personalized approach by testing a …

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Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

Education
June 6, 2025

Medicine demands precision. However, we overlook one of its most critical variables: physician cognitive load. As a medical student, I see both sides: how deeply patients trust their doctors, and how invisible that mental toll often is. Each day, doctors are pressured to make high-stakes decisions while managing patient care and mental strain. As a field, we track vital signs but fail to measure cognitive fatigue.

Burnout is peaking at crisis …

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Why innovation in health care starts with bold thinking

Tech
June 6, 2025

Let’s bust a myth: Health care is not just about rules, protocols, and playing it safe. In fact, real breakthroughs happen when we dare to think differently.

Whether it’s improving patient outcomes, solving staffing gaps, or designing more human-centered workflows, the future of health care demands creative thinking at every level.

And no—you don’t need to be an “artist” to be creative in medicine.

Why creativity is no longer optional

Health care is under …

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Navigating fair market value as an independent or locum tenens physician [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 5, 2025
YouTube video

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Health care attorney Dennis Hursh discusses his article, “What independent and locum tenens doctors need to know about fair market value.” Dennis explains why understanding fair market value (FMV) is crucial for …

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Gaslighting and professional licensing: a call for reform

Physician
June 5, 2025

Gaslighting manifests in many forms. The most common may be political fights involving the extreme positions on any controversial issue (e.g., gun control, abortion, immigration, you name it). One extreme faction claims they have the truth and blames the opposing extreme faction for the problems in our world. We see this every day in news reports. Those who have experienced gaslighting know that political fights involve gaslighting on steroids.

Another common …

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How self-improving AI systems are redefining intelligence and what it means for health care

Tech
June 5, 2025

Artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving, poised to reshape research, health care delivery, and medical decision-making. A new interactive slideshow delves into this shift, highlighting self-improving AI systems like the Darwin Gödel Machine and autonomous AI development.

Here are the key takeaways and their implications for medicine and beyond.

The age of self-improving AI has arrived.

Until recently, AI systems relied heavily on human engineers to design and tune their capabilities. That’s changing. The …

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How blockchain could rescue nursing home patients from deadly miscommunication

Tech
June 5, 2025

Imagine a health care team treating your elderly loved one—without the full picture. This is the reality of the U.S. health care system. Our system is failing nursing home residents, the most vulnerable population, by dragging out an outdated, inefficient data-sharing system. To improve nursing home care, health data must be efficiently shared and organized across hospitals and facilities, ensuring tailored treatments for patients with complex conditions. Unfortunately, existing Read more…

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