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Hantavirus cruise ship outbreak exposes CDC missteps

Conditions

May 17, 2026

The recent outbreak of hantavirus infection on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius raises several questions and concerns. Dutch ornithologist Leo Schilperoord was the first person to die of hantavirus infection on the ship on April 11, 2026. He and his wife, Mirjam, 69, had recently visited northern Patagonia in Argentina, 1,500 miles north and before boarding the ship at a southern Argentine port. So far there have been eight …

Time pressure in medicine narrows how we see

Ann Lebeck, MD

Physician

May 17, 2026

Medicine values speed, but patients often reveal themselves slowly.

We are expected to identify the problem, name it, code it, treat it, and move on. That process may be necessary in a pressured system, but it can also mistake a label for understanding.

A diagnosis can be useful. It can guide treatment, open access, and reassure patients. But it can also become a premature ending to a story that still needs to …

How physician therapy sparked a medical career transition

Shahrzad Rafiee, MD

Physician

May 17, 2026

I come from a generation that does not believe in therapy. Not because we do not believe it is effective, but because we believe we can handle things on our own. If things are hard, we push through. If we need help, we figure it out independently. By the time I became a physician, self-reliance was not just a value, it was my tried-and-true survival strategy. I remember years ago, …

Patient involvement transforms modern clinical research

Niharika Singh

Conditions

May 17, 2026

In medicine, patients are often seen as recipients of care rather than contributors to it. But their lived experiences bring something data alone cannot: context, meaning, and truth. Early in my exposure to clinical research, I understood it primarily through a quantitative lens. Outcomes were measured in numbers: complication rates, recovery times, and statistical significance. These metrics are essential, but they do not always capture what matters most to patients. …

Evidence-based medicine needs real-world data to evolve

Saurabh Gombar, MD

Tech

May 17, 2026

Clinicians are trained to practice evidence-based medicine, yet the realities of care often reveal its limits. In many situations, the literature does not offer clear guidance for the patient in front of us. A large share of clinical decisions are made without high-quality evidence. This is not a failure of clinical judgment. It reflects a gap in how evidence is generated and delivered.

The traditional path from study design to publication …

24-hour urine collection flaws expose clinical bias

Ali Kashkouli, MD

Conditions

May 16, 2026

There are few rituals in medicine as aspirational as the 24-hour urine collection. On paper we see an elegant examination. A direct measurement of renal function, grounded in physiology and liberated from the assumptions that plague our estimating equations. In practice, however, what we see is a plastic jug and a set of instructions that compete poorly with daily life. What we are left with is a quiet understanding, shared …

How a Broadway comedy saved an internal medicine doctor

Ryan McCarthy, MD

Physician

May 16, 2026

“As a witness to so much sadness and pain, how do you keep from getting depressed?” As an internal medicine doctor, I have heard versions of this question for decades. And, despite a myriad of changes in my career, my answer has never wavered. And while there are many comedians and funny things, one particular evening more than any other reveals how …

The administrative burden crushing California medicine

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Physician

May 16, 2026

Think of the entire health care system as a chess game where the goal is to achieve a healthier population by checkmating against the “darker side,” which represents disease, poor outcomes, inefficiency, and the human suffering of untreated or delayed chronic conditions like pain.

The patient should be the king: The most important piece. Everything revolves around protecting and empowering them. Without the king (patients), the game does not …
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The administrative burden crushing California medicine

Hospital room contamination is a prescribing problem

Franklyn R. Gergits, DO, MBA

Physician

May 16, 2026

Adam was twenty-four years old. He was a passenger in a car that struck a guardrail on the interstate. The airbag hit him in the face. He lost consciousness for a few seconds and was alert and walking by the time paramedics arrived.

The emergency doctor did everything right. CT scan, labs, neuro checks. The scan was uncertain enough (possible early changes after a head impact with witnessed loss of consciousness) …

Opportunistic screening finds coronary artery disease

Frederic W. Grannis, Jr., MD

Conditions

May 16, 2026

In New Orleans, shoppers often request “lagniappe,” pronounced lan-yap, to express their desire for something extra, the baker’s dozen, a 13th donut. Added benefit was a major topic of interest for the 500 participants in the combined International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (IELCAP), International Early Lung Cancer and Respiratory Tract (IELCART), and AGILE 3 conferences held March 19 to 21, 2026, in Gdansk, Poland. Although this topic ranged freely …

SALT deduction for physicians: the $500,000 magic number

Syed Nishat, BFA

Finance

May 16, 2026

There were many tax code changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) when it was signed into law in 2025. Many of these changes affected taxpayers at different income levels, and with so many changes, it can be a challenge to know which items can best benefit physicians and their families. One of the provisions in OBBBA was an update to the SALT deduction, a change that can …

Substance use screening is vital for adolescent health

Stephen M. Sandelich, MD

Conditions

May 16, 2026

Last year, I saw a teenager in the emergency department (ED). He was 15, and his mother brought him in after finding a vape in his backpack. She wanted him screened for substance use, but he wanted no part of it.

I asked him a few questions anyway. He gave short answers and stared at the ceiling while his mother watched from the doorway. No one in the room felt comfortable. …

AI clinical judgment is what AI chatbots still lack

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Tech

May 16, 2026

In Utah, a state-sanctioned experiment recently allowed an artificial intelligence platform to renew prescriptions without physician involvement. The company describes itself as an AI-powered bridge to care. Critics describe it as a regulatory loophole with a chatbot masquerading as an unlicensed physician.

As a psychiatrist and physician executive who has written about AI governance, I was curious. So, I decided to try it myself, not as a policy analyst, …

5 health-destroying myths perpetuated by marketing

Martha Rosenberg

Conditions

May 16, 2026

Scent beads and laundry additives are innocuous

If you are online or on broadcast you cannot miss it: personal care corporations telling you that you stink. Even if you are using deodorant on “those places,” your body smells all over, say a disturbing number of ads, and the odor “transfers” all over your house. Just saying.

The manic ads for dryer sheets, detergents, fabric softeners, and scent “love stories” do not mention …

Why your patient’s biggest barrier isn’t pain. It’s walking through the door. [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

May 15, 2026

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

What keeps millions of people from sitting in a dentist’s chair, even when modern technology has made procedures more comfortable than ever? Kaushal Shah is a general dentist and dental director managing multiple …

Emotional over-functioning drives the competence trap

J.H. Lynn

Conditions

May 15, 2026

There is a danger in being good at holding everything together. People start to believe you do not need holding. Competence becomes camouflage. Reliability becomes a cage. And one day you wake up realizing you have become the infrastructure of a life that no one is helping you carry. For those who thought they could carry everything alone, I have realized there comes a time when a “foreclosure notice” may …

Physician depression doesn’t always look like depression

Kenneth Scott Burnham, DO

Physician

May 15, 2026

An excerpt from Lifeline: What To Do After A Mental Health Crisis.

I have spent over two decades in emergency medicine. I know what a mental health crisis looks like. I know the clinical signs, the language, the interventions. I have initiated more psychiatric holds than I can count, written discharge summaries for people leaving my ER with a handful of pamphlets and a follow-up appointment I quietly hoped they …

Physician retirement is a myth for the ripening doctor

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

Physician

May 15, 2026

“Are you retired yet?”

The question caught me off guard. It was not the query itself, I have reached my mid-60s, after all, but the underlying assumption it carried. Having practiced for over three decades, I found myself momentarily silenced by a word that feels entirely foreign to my current internal state.

As a psychiatrist, I have spent a lifetime listening to the narratives of others. Now, I find my own narrative …

When GLP-1 doesn’t work, look at chronic stress

Carrie Friedman, NP

Conditions

May 15, 2026

A 59-year-old woman sat tearfully in my office today. She had spent seven weeks on tirzepatide with virtually no weight loss. “How is this possible?” she asked. “I’m eating like a saint.”

She had struggled with obesity and weight-related frustration for years. Recently divorced, grieving a death in the family, caring for a mentally ill adult daughter, working full time, sleeping poorly, and living with severe anxiety, she described her stress …

How a diversionary legal strategy harms medical malpractice

Howard Smith, MD

Physician

May 15, 2026

A set of medical malpractice cases can be presented as examples of a legal strategy that may undermine a fair trial. In Case A v. Medical Center A, a 16-year-old girl conceives in and lives in a developing country until 17 weeks of gestation and receives no prenatal care until 20 weeks of gestation, when she arrives in the United States. At that time, she is found to have chlamydia.

Other …

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