Breast implant illness: It’s not all in your head

Conditions
August 13, 2022

“It’s just part of getting older.”

“Welcome to being a woman.”

“I hear this all the time from women. You just need to learn to deal with it.”

“Here’s a pill. See you in six months.”

“I have run all the labs I can think of. They are all normal. There’s nothing wrong. I’m sure it’s just stress.”

“It’s probably in your head.”

“There’s nothing I can do for you.”

Every doctor visit was the same. Each …

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Breast implant illness: It’s not all in your head

My high school was harder than my first year of medical school

Education
August 13, 2022

I am a second-year medical student at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas. In 2018, I graduated from Westwood High School in Austin, Texas. My experience at Westwood was harder than my first year of medical school at UTMB. I wrote this piece to provide some context to students like myself who struggled or are struggling with public school in Texas.

When I was 17 years old, …

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My high school was harder than my first year of medical school

What a lifetime of gaslighting by other doctors feels like [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 12, 2022

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“Ehlers-Danlos syndrome patients take an average of 10 years to be diagnosed.

In that time, the pain from microtrauma and joint instability can become unbearable. “Just exercising more” can backfire, causing injury and disability and creating a cycle of added …

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What a lifetime of gaslighting by other doctors feels like [PODCAST]

Misaligned expectations lead to conflict, burnout, and disillusioned physician leaders

Physician
August 12, 2022

Would you expect the chef at a restaurant to be told that they are not only required to prepare the food in the kitchen but also deliver it to each of the tables and manage the billing? What about sorting out the restaurant’s finances or understanding the number of patrons that need to flow through per night to optimize income? If this sounds unreasonable, how did we end up asking …

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Misaligned expectations lead to conflict, burnout, and disillusioned physician leaders

When can physicians start spending money?

Finance
August 12, 2022

You may never have created a budget. Not everyone does. For many of us in medicine, our saving so completely dwarfs our spending that we’ve never needed to use a budget. We just wing it. Why do some physicians spend so little?

Spending money is hard for many people, including physicians. After years of frugality in education and training, then funneling money into investments, planning for the future, building life for …

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When can physicians start spending money?

A caregiver’s love story [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 11, 2022
YouTube video

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“Dying and introspection happening at the same time were a dual reality that I found impossible to ignore when Bill was not doing well. As Bill’s poor prognosis and impending death began to reflect on our life, …

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A caregiver’s love story [PODCAST]

5 things I would never do as an allergy and immune system expert

Conditions
August 11, 2022

Jumping on the recent TikTok trend of medical professionals sharing the things they would never do given their knowledge and expertise, I am sharing the five things I would never do as a board-certified allergist-immunologist.

1. I would never rely on a Primatene mist inhaler to treat my asthma or breathing symptoms alone. Primatene mist is a controversial over-the-counter epinephrine inhaler that can be used for mild intermittent asthma. This inhaler …

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5 things I would never do as an allergy and immune system expert

Breaking the vicious cycle of medical malpractice lawsuits

Physician
August 11, 2022

Lawsuits are conventional in medical practice.

An unhappy patient hires a malpractice attorney, who hires a medical expert, who interprets the standards of care and generalizes a departure from the standards of care and proximate cause. The preponderance of evidence is 50% certainty plus an ill-defined scintilla, which needs to be only 0.01% to be good enough.

The lawyer sues the doctor, who notifies the malpractice carrier, hires a defense counsel, and …

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Breaking the vicious cycle of medical malpractice lawsuits

Learn to round on yourself

Physician
August 11, 2022

I always think of the beginning of July as the New Year in medicine. It’s when medical students become interns, interns become residents, and residents become newly minted attendings. With each change is an increase in responsibility.

I remember paying even more attention to the history and physical each time I crossed that threshold. With an increased sense of purpose and responsibility. This was true in the office and during admissions …

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Learn to round on yourself

Comparing charity evaluation websites: What do those ratings mean?

Physician
August 10, 2022

The majority of people who donate money don’t research or compare charitable organizations. Only 1 in 3 research before giving, according to one of the biggest charity ratings websites, Charity Navigator. Giving 2.0 author Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen says only about three percent compare charitable organizations.

These numbers were both surprising and not surprising to me. I have done most of my donating with no more than a cursory …

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Comparing charity evaluation websites: What do those ratings mean?

Why you should add advance directives to your college freshman’s college checklist

Conditions
August 10, 2022

Suppose you’re getting ready to send your young adult off to college for the first time. In that case, you’ve likely been spending the summer getting college dorm and apartment essentials lined up: bedding, storage cubes, first aid kit, extension cords, dry erase board and other room necessities. But have you thought about what could happen should they get ensnarled in a health crisis away from home?

It’s a hard …

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Why you should add advance directives to your college freshman’s college checklist

Melting the iron triangle: Prioritizing health equity in dynamic, innovative health care landscapes

Policy
August 9, 2022

As a master of health administration (MHA) student completing my administrative residency in the health technology industry, I chose to dedicate my capstone project to a topic positioned at the intersection of what I had learned in graduate school and what I had learned during my residency. While administrative residencies are typically in a hospital or consulting setting, I matched with a primary-care-focused electronic health record company as the organization’s …

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Melting the iron triangle: Prioritizing health equity in dynamic, innovative health care landscapes

Why doctors are getting their asses kicked by technology [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 8, 2022

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

“Physicians have terrible technology, but they refuse to recognize high-tech as a medical specialty. They must integrate technology as they do laboratory science.

Physicians are certainly suffering from poorly-designed electronic medical records (EHR), but they are also guilty of wilful …

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Why doctors are getting their asses kicked by technology [PODCAST]

The great resignation can be stopped. Here’s how.

Policy
August 8, 2022

The 2022 Top States for Business designation has higher stakes than ever, as companies compete for top talent while balancing inflation, supply chain issues, and other ongoing pandemic side effects. However, the solution to employee recruitment and retention is not an expensive corporate relocation; it is time for a corporate wake-up call. American companies must stop or re-examine existing efforts to engage with their employees and instead meaningfully adjust …

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The great resignation can be stopped. Here’s how.

Certainty is a fading flame in a failing body

Physician
August 8, 2022

“You should prepare for the future. Your son will never be independent.”

I do not recall hearing those words at their source, but I was only eight when they were relayed to me by my parents. At the time my diagnosis, now characterized as juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, was poorly understood and often confused with more virulent disabling neurological conditions. Despite this fact, I have used the doctor’s prediction as fuel for …

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Certainty is a fading flame in a failing body

Monkeypox and the prolonged COVID pandemic could seal the fate of the health care system

Physician
August 8, 2022

I understand it’s been over two years since the World Health Organization announced the coronavirus pandemic, and we are tired.

I speak for the thousands of health care workers and frontline workers: We are exhausted, we feel taken for granted, and for many of us, we are leaving the industry. In some cases, we went from health care heroes being villanized as if we somehow benefited from the pandemic. So many …

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Monkeypox and the prolonged COVID pandemic could seal the fate of the health care system

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