AI and critical thinking: Use it or lose it

Health Technology
July 10, 2026

Technologies differ not merely in their complexity, but in the breadth of what they enable humans to do. As their capabilities expand, so too does their influence on how we perceive and interact with the world. A stick is a simple technology with relatively few uses. Compare it to the saddle, which allowed humans to harness the power of the horse, communicate with it, direct it, and ultimately reshape transportation …

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AI and critical thinking: Use it or lose it

What clinical research nurses do that no one sees

Conditions and Diseases
July 10, 2026

A clinical trial may be remembered for a breakthrough treatment, a new therapy, or a headline-making discovery. But its true story begins with people. Behind every promising result is a patient placing their trust in the unknown, and a clinical research nurse or study coordinator standing beside them every step of the way.

When people think about clinical trials, they often think about physicians, sponsors, study results, and scientific discoveries. What …

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What clinical research nurses do that no one sees

Why medicine makes doctors feel they are never enough [PODCAST]

Podcast
July 9, 2026
YouTube video

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

Clinicians are pushed to do more with less, until many quietly conclude they are not enough. J. C. Sue, a family medicine physician and adjunct faculty member, returns to unpack where that belief …

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Why medicine makes doctors feel they are never enough [PODCAST]

Why I left health care after almost 20 years

Conditions and Diseases
July 9, 2026

When people ask me why I left health care, I tell them it was for personal reasons. I tell them that it was to support my daughter and her family. That was one reason, but there are others.

Back when I was a RN I shadowed a CRNA at the hospital where I worked. I spent the day with other CRNAs and students and I had the opportunity to observe and …

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Why I left health care after almost 20 years

The invisible labor of caregiving keeps systems intact

Conditions and Diseases
July 9, 2026

Health care systems do not function on institutional design alone; they function on the invisible labor of the people moving through them.

There’s a kind of education you don’t choose. It begins, in my case, when my son is eight months old and continues for nearly two decades. At some point, it stops feeling like managing medical care and starts feeling like learning a second language, except the language is institutional, …

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The invisible labor of caregiving keeps systems intact

AI is filling a gap doctors have no time for

Conditions and Diseases
July 9, 2026

On a Friday afternoon, my cardiologist sent me a message through the patient portal. It read, in full: “You do have coronary atherosclerosis resulting in moderate narrowing but no major narrowing of the arteries. I unfortunately do not have a clear sense of total plaque burden based on this study. Look forward to discussing in more detail next visit.”

My next appointment was four months away.

I am 55 years old. I …

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AI is filling a gap doctors have no time for

What epigenetics reveals about inherited trauma

Physician
July 9, 2026

I still remember the quiet thrill of first learning about epigenetics as an emerging field. For a long time, medical science treated the genetic code as a fixed blueprint, an unyielding, unchangeable text. Epigenetics changed that narrative. It revealed that while the underlying script of our DNA remains the same, environmental experiences act like annotations in the margins, dictating which chapters are read and which are silenced.

Finally, we had a …

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What epigenetics reveals about inherited trauma

Why patient access breaks before staffing does

Conditions and Diseases
July 9, 2026

Waiting rooms reveal more than we often acknowledge.

The clock can feel louder than the conversation, and patients quietly rehearse their symptoms after weeks of waiting, hoping they will not forget something important. Clinicians enter exam rooms carrying not just the backlog of delays but the accumulated strain of navigating a system that rarely moves in step with the care they are trying to deliver.

These moments are not rare; they are …

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Why patient access breaks before staffing does

Mechanism of injury is the key to proving causation

Conditions and Diseases
July 9, 2026

As a physician trained in musculoskeletal care and neurologic deficits, and as a qualified medical evaluator (QME) and independent medical examiner (IME) dealing with personal injury accident cases and work-related incident cases, and also as an expert witness, we are dealing with establishing causation of the accident or incident to the impairment that is being claimed. This is done using biomechanics to relate the mechanism of injury to the treatment …

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Mechanism of injury is the key to proving causation

Home-based cardiac care needs clinical-grade proof

Physician
July 9, 2026

For over 60 years, the hospital has been the epicenter of cardiac care. It made sense: The technology and equipment required to test, treat, and manage patients could only be found within the walls of a clinic, due to both cost and logistical complexity. For decades, the “gold standard” was tethered to the zip code of the nearest medical center.

The disruption of this model over the last five-plus years has …

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Home-based cardiac care needs clinical-grade proof

What an ER doctor fears about in-flight emergencies

Physician
July 9, 2026

I have been an emergency medicine physician for many years. Trauma, cardiac arrests, strokes, lacerations. I’ve seen them all. But sometimes I wonder how I would do in an actual emergency. I mean, I can run a trauma or cardiac arrest code without much problem on my own turf. Get them into the resuscitation room where I have a full team and multiple resources at my disposal. Everyone knows their …

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What an ER doctor fears about in-flight emergencies

How addiction stigma in health care costs lives

Conditions and Diseases
July 9, 2026

When Taylor’s father asked a doctor for help, he did everything right: He made the appointment, showed up, and told the truth. “I need help,” he said. “I think I’m struggling with addiction.” But the doctor just looked at him and shrugged: “Well, what do you want me to do about that?”

The truth is, as a medical community, we dismiss substance use disorder and the people who live with it …

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How addiction stigma in health care costs lives

Physician recertification is a revenue model, not quality

Physician
July 9, 2026

I spent my career in developmental-behavioral pediatrics building programs, training physicians, and caring for children and families who needed clarity, steadiness, and advocacy. I stayed current because my patients deserved it, not because a board demanded proof. Long before I retired, I made a deliberate decision: I opted out of recertification in both general pediatrics and neurodevelopmental disabilities.

I stepped away for a simple reason. I no longer practiced in those …

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Physician recertification is a revenue model, not quality

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How to practice civility in medicine

Physician
July 9, 2026

“Labour to keep alive in your heart that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.”
– Rule 110 from Rules of Civility, copied by George Washington as a teenager

The most consequential gesture in a clinic visit is sometimes the smallest one: a hand resting on the door handle. The visit seems over. The plan has been explained, the orders are in, and the day is already running late. Then, as you …

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How to practice civility in medicine

Why renaming PCOS to PMOS changes how we treat it

Conditions and Diseases
July 9, 2026

When I read that experts had officially renamed PCOS to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, my first reaction was not surprise. It was relief. After years of practicing medicine and six years of treating my own PCOS, someone had finally written down what my body had been trying to tell me the whole time.

Six years ago I was building my own practice from the ground up while quietly falling apart inside. …

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Why renaming PCOS to PMOS changes how we treat it

Why patient engagement platforms must reduce staff burden [PODCAST]

Podcast
July 8, 2026
YouTube video

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

Orthopedic surgeon Kevin J. Campbell discusses the article “Understanding Generation 2 patient engagement platforms.” Kevin discusses the article through a practical distinction between first-generation patient engagement tools that increase access but also …

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Why patient engagement platforms must reduce staff burden [PODCAST]

What telemedicine gets right that in-person care gets wrong

Health Technology
July 8, 2026

A patient called at 7:45 on a Tuesday morning. She was a nurse, working nights. She had confirmed flu, her employer needed documentation within 24 hours, and the nearest GP clinic had a three-week wait for a routine appointment. Getting seen that day would have meant taking a taxi to an urgent care waiting room, feverish, and sitting next to people who didn’t need to be exposed to influenza.

She got …

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What telemedicine gets right that in-person care gets wrong

AI fabricated references threaten medical evidence

Medical Education
July 8, 2026

Generative AI systems can create references to papers that do not exist and make them look real. In medicine, a fabricated or poorly verified reference is not simply a bibliographic error. It weakens the chain of evidence on which reviews, guidelines, teaching, and clinical judgment may depend.

A recent article by Topaz and colleagues in The Lancet highlights an important and growing threat to scientific integrity: the increasing appearance of …

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AI fabricated references threaten medical evidence

GLP-1 coverage cuts hit disabled patients hardest

Medications
July 8, 2026

As a physician, telling my patients “no” never gets easier. In some cases, I have good reason, such as declining to increase opioids because of the risk of side effects. In other cases, I can only gently tell patients, “The health care system doesn’t want to pay.” In the coming months, I will be saying “no” a lot more often. As of July 1, MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, Read more…

GLP-1 coverage cuts hit disabled patients hardest

The difficult patient is really a difficult encounter

Physician
July 8, 2026

There are some patients whose names change the atmosphere of a day before they have even entered the room.

You see the name on your schedule and feel it immediately. It may be a glance at the clock, a slight tightening in your chest, or the quiet hope that the visit might somehow be shorter than you remember. Every clinician knows this feeling, although few of us admit it openly.

The patient …

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The difficult patient is really a difficult encounter

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