KevinMD.com

August 20, 2026Aug 20, 2026

National Immunization Awareness Month got me thinking about vaccines, but probably not in the way you might expect. I have never been anti-vaccine. In fact, vaccines are very personal to me. My father had polio. I spent my entire life…

National Immunization Awareness Month got me thinking about vaccines, but probably not in the way you might expect. I have never been anti-vaccine. In fact, vaccines are very personal to me.

My father had polio. I spent my entire life watching the effects it had on him and thinking about how different his life might have been if the polio vaccine had been available before he contracted the disease. It became …

Health policy

The ADA called the police. That is obeying in advance.

Kim Bergner, MD

August 20, 2026Aug 20, 2026

On June 5, the American Diabetes Association called security and the police on some of its own members. Officers forcibly removed five prominent diabetes researchers from the ADA’s 2026 Scientific Sessions for handing out copies of an editorial in its own flagship journal, Diabetes Care. The editorial warned that federal funding cuts and policy changes were threatening biomedical research, and it called on medical and scientific professionals to …

The Podcast by KevinMD

A wrong diagnosis that almost killed a doctor [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

For years, doctors told this pediatrician her pain was fibromyalgia and depression. It was quietly starving her aorta. Victoria Rundus is a board-certified pediatrician who spent four years being misdiagnosed before an ER physician finally listened to her abdomen and…

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Conditions and diseases

Why doctors won’t prescribe opioids, and who profits

Simon Feng, MD

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 20263

Opioids have acquired a terrible reputation as dangerous drugs, thanks to not one, but two opioid epidemics. America's first opioid epidemic began in the 19th century following the purification of morphine in 1804. Widespread military use during the Civil War,…

Opioids have acquired a terrible reputation as dangerous drugs, thanks to not one, but two opioid epidemics.

America’s first opioid epidemic began in the 19th century following the purification of morphine in 1804. Widespread military use during the Civil War, followed by aggressive postwar civilian marketing, contributed to widespread opioid use. Opioids were available not only from doctors but also as patent medicines, used for everything from menstrual cramps to insomnia, …

Physician voices

Research integrity and accountability lessons from 2026

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

Research misconduct deserves scrutiny. But scrutiny should not become spectacle. The landmark 1980s case of U.S. cardiology researcher John Darsee remains a defining example. Auditors found extensive data fabrication, and federal sanctions reached beyond institutional leadership, forcing science research to confront supervision, authorship, and institutional accountability. The lesson was not simply that one researcher failed. The institution and research system also need safeguards.

Four decades later, the Retraction Watch leaderboard of …

Physician voices

Medical malpractice reform and the lawyers who block it

Howard Smith, MD

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

Senator Dick Durbin describes his career this way: "Before I was elected to Congress, I worked in a courtroom. For years, I defended doctors and hospitals, and for years, I sued them on behalf of people who were victims of…

Senator Dick Durbin describes his career this way: “Before I was elected to Congress, I worked in a courtroom. For years, I defended doctors and hospitals, and for years, I sued them on behalf of people who were victims of medical malpractice.”

Dick Durbin’s own words betray that, first, he was defense counsel, earning a living being retained by malpractice insurance companies. Second, he was plaintiff counsel, earning a living by …

Health technology

Chatbot safety for psychosis is failing patients in 2026

Nicole Drapeau Gillen

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

Sophie Rottenberg's mother described her, before this year, as "a largely problem-free twenty-nine-year-old badass extrovert who fiercely embraced life." No documented psychiatric history. No prior crisis. Just, in her mother's words, "a mix of mood and hormone symptoms" that led…

Sophie Rottenberg’s mother described her, before this year, as “a largely problem-free twenty-nine-year-old badass extrovert who fiercely embraced life.” No documented psychiatric history. No prior crisis. Just, in her mother’s words, “a mix of mood and hormone symptoms” that led her to confide in a ChatGPT persona named Harry instead of her own therapist, her best friend, or her parents. She died by suicide this winter. Sixteen-year-old Adam Raine had …

Conditions and diseases

Interpreting heart rate variability beyond wearable scores

Francisco M. Torres, MD

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

A patient recently sat across from me, phone in hand, scrolling through months of heart rate variability (HRV) data. He wasn't asking me to interpret a lab value or an MRI. In a sense, he was asking me to interpret…

A patient recently sat across from me, phone in hand, scrolling through months of heart rate variability (HRV) data. He wasn’t asking me to interpret a lab value or an MRI. In a sense, he was asking me to interpret himself, filtered through an algorithm he strongly trusted, one that would not be contradicted by medical advice or even his own body.

He’s 58, a recreational cyclist, motivated and well-read. He …

Conditions and diseases

The limits of psychiatric diagnosis require honesty

Laurel A. Coons, PhD

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

Imagine practicing oncology without pathology. No biopsy, no receptor status, no molecular profiling, no circulating tumor DNA, no tissue specimen that can be reexamined later. Instead, the physician asks a series of questions, observes the patient, determines whether enough findings have persisted long enough, and assigns a diagnosis. Modern oncology would consider such a system radically incomplete. Something resembling it remains ordinary practice across much of psychiatry.

This is not a …

Health technology

AI and critical thinking: the cost of borrowed mastery

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

We are currently navigating a fundamental shift in how we engage with the world, one that is accelerating the rise of modern individualism and a particular brand of digital narcissism. There is a growing erosion of the boundary between authentic intelligence, which is the slow, messy, and deeply felt process of understanding, and the appearance of intelligence, which is now just a click away through data synthesis.

We have entered an …

Physician voices

How measuring physician burnout could improve retention

Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

We know that recruiting and replacing a physician costs somewhere in the range of a million dollars per physician, depending on the specialty. We know the effects of physician burnout and attrition directly affect key performance indicators, like patient access, quality metrics, and Net Promoter Scores. They also affect care continuity, organizational culture, and the pool of potential leaders.

And yet, return on investment (ROI) calculations have not persuaded health care …

Drugs and prescribing

Why a supplement supply chain hides behind its label

Alisa Sano, MPH

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

"I bought this premium multivitamin online," Patient A tells you during a routine history-taking at the annual checkup. "It's a prominent Japanese brand. Since people over there have such long life expectancies, this has to be safer and purer than…

“I bought this premium multivitamin online,” Patient A tells you during a routine history-taking at the annual checkup. “It’s a prominent Japanese brand. Since people over there have such long life expectancies, this has to be safer and purer than a domestic brand, right?”

As a health care provider, you would find it easy to agree. Countries universally recognized for longevity and high-quality standards enjoy an organic, built-in reputation for wellness …

Physician voices

Physician presenteeism starts with a dangerous myth

All Levels Leadership

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

An excerpt from Self-Awareness and Trust: Leading Healthcare Teams from the Inside Out. "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." - Widely attributed to Aristotle I had been away from the intensive care unit (ICU) for a couple of…

An excerpt from Self-Awareness and Trust: Leading Healthcare Teams from the Inside Out.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
– Widely attributed to Aristotle

I had been away from the intensive care unit (ICU) for a couple of weeks. When I came back for a scheduled week of service, I put on my black fleece jacket (the same one I had worn hundreds of times before). As I slid my …

Conditions and diseases

The quiet beliefs that lead to a delayed diagnosis

Kainat Hikmat, RN

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

During my time as a registered nurse, I once cared for a woman in her late fifties (with identifying details changed) who had spent nearly a year adapting to symptoms she never thought signaled something serious: body aches, fatigue, frequent nighttime urination, constant thirst, breathlessness, and headaches. Each time the pain flared, she visited a local clinic, received an injection, felt better within hours, and returned to her life. Weeks …

The Podcast by KevinMD

Who should own the AI that doctors built [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

August 18, 2026Aug 18, 2026

A tech founder used one pediatrician's public advice to train her own AI. Sonal Patel decided doctors should own the tools built on their knowledge instead. Patel is a pediatrician and neonatologist who built and controls her own AI for…

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A tech founder used one pediatrician’s public advice to train her own AI. Sonal Patel decided doctors should own the tools built on their knowledge instead. Patel is a pediatrician and neonatologist who built and controls her own AI for the fourth trimester. This episode is based on her article “Physicians must shape AI in medicine, not watch it,” …

Conditions and diseases

Mental health stigma in medicine silences physicians

Tommy Pasternak

August 18, 2026Aug 18, 2026

I grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago as the youngest of three boys. I experienced deep depression and suicidality at nineteen, after a childhood of anxiety that often left me paralyzed and physically sick. I was treated by an amazing psychiatrist and started on Prozac, which flipped me into mania. I had underlying bipolar I disorder, and substance-induced mania is not uncommon with it. My older brother shares …

Conditions and diseases

Why imposter syndrome and burnout share a circuit

Kymberlee O'Brien, PhD, MEd

August 18, 2026Aug 18, 2026

A study in JCO Oncology Practice surveyed 542 oncology professionals across 55 countries on exactly this overlap. The numbers are stark: 56.1 percent met criteria for burnout, 34.1 percent had high impostor phenomenon scores, and 38 percent were identified as maladaptive perfectionists. The lead author, an oncology fellow who began the project after recognizing the pattern in his own career, didn’t mince words about what he found, saying, “The findings …

Conditions and diseases

Finding purpose in patient care after a wartime injury

Joseph Rucker Jr., MD

August 18, 2026Aug 18, 2026

An excerpt from One Pocket. I reported to Walter Reed Army Medical Center on August 25, 1969. The complex was in Bethesda, Maryland, about thirty minutes from the White House. Founded in 1909, it had cared for every president of…

An excerpt from One Pocket.

I reported to Walter Reed Army Medical Center on August 25, 1969. The complex was in Bethesda, Maryland, about thirty minutes from the White House. Founded in 1909, it had cared for every president of the United States, along with members of Congress and the Supreme Court. It had 1,122 hospital beds and treated more than 750,000 patients a year.

I was assigned as a medical …

Conditions and diseases

Multimodal cancer pain management starts with assessment

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

August 18, 2026Aug 18, 2026

As a pain specialist who manages cancer-related pain daily with both interventional and non-interventional approaches, I still encounter a frustrating reality: Too many patients suffer longer than necessary. Recent data show that roughly 44.5 percent of patients with cancer experience pain, and about 30 percent report moderate-to-severe intensity. While prevalence has declined modestly over the past decade, the absolute burden remains high, especially in advanced disease and among survivors living …

Physician finance

Closed-loop referral management needs a defined owner

Karan Kanwar

August 18, 2026Aug 18, 2026

A radiologist flags something on a scan that shouldn't be there. The physician sends a referral to oncology that same day, the kind where a few weeks genuinely matter, not the kind you let sit in a queue. The system…

A radiologist flags something on a scan that shouldn’t be there. The physician sends a referral to oncology that same day, the kind where a few weeks genuinely matter, not the kind you let sit in a queue. The system logs it, and the chart shows it as clean and complete: sent.

Four months later, at a visit for something unrelated (a sore shoulder, nothing serious), the physician asks how the …

Real physician voices, twice a week

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