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Improving tobacco treatment in clinical practice

Conditions

March 14, 2026

Modern medicine can transplant organs, cure hepatitis C, and deploy artificial intelligence to read radiology scans. Yet one of the most effective life-saving interventions in clinical medicine, treatment for tobacco dependence, is still delivered inconsistently. More than 28 million Americans continue to smoke cigarettes. Evidence-based treatments are widely available, inexpensive, and highly cost-effective. But across health systems, physicians rarely deliver them in a systematic way. By every measure, physicians are …

The mouth as a gateway: Why oral health matters for physicians

David Wadler, DDS and Neil Baum, MD

Conditions

March 14, 2026

One of us (NB) has been reasonably conscientious about his health for the past 50 years. He sees his PCP twice a year and has tried to set an example for his patients by focusing on diet and exercise. I have done well, except I need a little work on stress reduction and sleep hygiene. Curiously, in 50 years and more than 100 office visits to health care providers, no …

EGFR vs. ALK: How molecular profiling defines lung cancer treatment

Dr. Sunny Garg

Conditions

March 14, 2026

In today’s clinical oncology practice, the saying “no two cancers are alike” is more relevant than ever. I recently treated two patients with very similar advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who were both critically ill. However, molecular profiling revealed distinct genetic drivers for each case, leading to very different, highly customized treatment plans.

Patient presentation and initial assessment

Both patients, in their late 60s and never-smokers, presented with weight loss, worsening …

The lost art of connection: Why medicine needs to slow down

Dean Robosa, MD

Physician

March 14, 2026

I called my old professor the other day to ask a very specific question about the Geriatric Depression Scale and expressed to him a big frustration on my end on how we are no longer able to perform such complex assessments among our patients, especially in primary care. During residency, we are taught to take thorough histories and perform physical exams by the book, but in reality, it is very …

Why “just relaxing” fails when your nervous system is stuck in survival mode [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 13, 2026

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

Occupational medicine physician and life coach Claudine Holt discusses her article “Nervous system dysregulation vs. stress: Why ‘just relaxing’ doesn’t work.” Claudine challenges the common advice to treat burnout with self-care like …

The health care economic crisis: Why the system is failing in 2026

Harry Severance, MD

Physician

March 13, 2026

For years, the U.S. has felt the impact of ever-rising health care costs while facing decreasing access, affordability, and worsening clinical outcomes, as compared to other countries. Multiple disruptive forces increasingly plague our health care system, our workforce and workplaces, health care facilities, health care consumers, …

Clinical communication skills: the power of structured language

Alan P. Feren, MD

Physician

March 13, 2026

Consider a common scenario. A 65-year-old patient presents with intermittent chest discomfort present for several days and no prior history of heart disease, including among family members. The physical exam is unrevealing. An EKG and cardiac enzymes are negative. The clinician explains, “I do not see anything concerning. Given your age and symptoms, this is likely reflux. Let us have you wait three hours after eating before retiring for the …

The health care credentialing gap: Why top-down hiring fails

Jasmin Chui

Conditions

March 13, 2026

For many years the health care industry has operated under the “prestige” hiring model. We have been led to believe that to solve the crisis of patient safety and quality, we basically need more of the “top-tier” talent and specialists for MDs, more PhD-level nurses, and highly credentialed execs.

But we are now in the first quarter of 2026 and the data tells a different story. In spite of record spending …

Ketamine therapy for chronic pain and substance misuse

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Meds

March 13, 2026

Health care works best when it solves real problems in real lives. That is why recent research on ketamine therapy for chronic pain deserves attention. The peer-reviewed study looked at 20 adults living with chronic pain who also struggled with substance misuse. The results suggest that carefully designed pain treatment may help more than pain alone. It may also improve mood and support recovery from substance misuse. In a …

How a broken hospital-to-home transition harms older adults

Gerald Kuo

Conditions

March 13, 2026

Families worry about stock market crashes. Retirees check their portfolios, track dividends, and follow market headlines. But in aging societies, the event that truly destroys a household’s stability rarely happens on Wall Street. It happens in the bathroom. An older adult falls.

I have seen this sequence unfold many times. The patient survives the hospital stay. The fracture is treated, medications are adjusted, and discharge instructions are printed. Clinicians feel relieved …

Kratom vs. 7-OH: Understanding the potency gap and risks

Emma Fenske and Bradley M. Buchheit

Meds

March 13, 2026

The clink of ice in the glass had been an evening “wind down” routine ever since the pandemic. It had served as a way to drown remnants of stress that bubbled up throughout the course of the day. This “routine” developed over weeks, but eventually evolved into dependence, addiction even, he worried. I need to do something about this before I lose it all, he thought one morning upon waking …

Navigating postoperative complications and post-surgical depression

Francisco M. Torres, MD

Conditions

March 13, 2026

Six months ago, I encountered a challenge I never expected: a robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy. Even now, writing about it feels surreal. Cancer rearranges life without warning, and surgery, regardless of how “minimally invasive” brochures describe it, alters you in ways only understood through experience.

The post-op instructions said that, within hours of surgery, I needed to stay active. That sounded simple enough beforehand. But no one asked about my fitness …

Repeating history: the ethics of the new Guinea-Bissau hepatitis B study

Meghan Johnston, MPH

Policy

March 13, 2026

In the late 1990s, a U.S.-funded study randomized HIV-positive pregnant women in Bangkok, Thailand, to either a placebo group or a group treated with a short course of AZT. At the time, AZT was the standard of care in the U.S., and researchers knew the medication protocol worked at reducing mother-to-child HIV transmission by nearly 70 percent. The study looked at whether a shortened protocol could meaningfully reduce …

Understanding the types of PTSD and how to treat them

Faust Ruggiero

Conditions

March 13, 2026

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, characterized by intrusive memories (flashbacks, nightmares), avoidance of reminders, negative mood changes (fear, anger, detachment), and heightened arousal (easily startled, irritability). The diagnosis of PTSD requires symptoms lasting over a month causing significant distress or impairment, and not due to substances or other conditions.

The five types of post-traumatic stress disorder

There are …

Heat therapy activates proteins that repair cells and protect the heart [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 12, 2026

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

Hematologist-oncologist Khushali Jhaveri discusses her article “What the research really says about infrared saunas.” Khushali shares her personal journey from skepticism to advocacy after experiencing the profound physiological shifts of infrared heat …

The 9 laws of health care quality: Why metrics miss the point

Constantine Ioannou, MD

Physician

March 12, 2026

I have spent years watching the development of quality programs. What began as a way to ensure patient safety has gradually given way to an independent group of individuals whose job it is to interpret regulations and monitor those interpretations. In the process, the clinical richness of medicine has been lost. Judgment, narrative, and context matter less than forms and metrics. The work has shifted away from the bedside and …

The evolutionary intelligence of human milk: HMOs and lactose

Rao M. Uppu, PhD

Conditions

March 12, 2026

Human milk contains more than nutrients; it carries a quiet, evolutionary intelligence expressed through chemistry. It is not conscious thought, but the slow wisdom of evolution written into molecules that nourish, protect, and guide.

Among its most remarkable ingredients are the human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). These complex sugars, present at around 0.5 to 1.5 g/dL, are not there to feed the infant directly.

They move through the stomach and small intestine largely …

The hidden risks of AI-generated progress notes in psychotherapy

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Tech

March 12, 2026

Imagine a patient who spends most of a therapy session talking about a single memory. He describes sitting in his car after visiting his mother in a nursing home, unable to start the engine. He sits there for nearly 20 minutes, staring at the steering wheel and wondering when the roles had reversed, when he had become the parent and she the child. Nothing dramatic happens in the session. No …

How AI in dentistry is changing your next checkup

Sowjanya Gunukula, DDS

Tech

March 12, 2026

You probably weren’t thinking about AI the last time you sat in the dental chair. You were wondering whether that shadow on the X-ray meant a cavity, and whether it would hurt. But AI was quite possibly already at work behind the scenes, and it’s about to play a much bigger role in your next visit. As a general dentist, I’ve watched the conversation about AI in medicine grow louder …

Grief and healing: Learning to live with absence

Michele Luckenbaugh

Conditions

March 12, 2026

Life begins, and life ends.
We know this
the way we know the sun will rise,
as a fact, not a feeling.

Those we cherish
and those who cherished us
leave without rehearsal,
no warning bell
to soften the blow.
As if the heart
could ever be trained for absence.

They were threaded into the ordinary,
morning light, evening quiet,
the familiar rhythm of breath and belonging.

We assumed their nearness was permanent,
the way we assume tomorrow.

There were shared breaths of laughter,
tears that needed …