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Conditions and diseases

Leadership without a title starts with people

Some of the most influential leaders I have met over the past 20 years of my career in clinical research never sought the spotlight. They didn't lead through authority or titles. They led through knowledge, integrity, humility, and the ability…

Some of the most influential leaders I have met over the past 20 years of my career in clinical research never sought the spotlight. They didn’t lead through authority or titles. They led through knowledge, integrity, humility, and the ability to bring out the best in the people around them.

Early in my career, while working on a hematology-oncology unit, I had the privilege of watching a nurse who embodied these …

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Leadership without a title starts with people

Physician finance

Financial freedom for physicians starts with purpose

What if pursuing wealth and pursuing purpose aren't competing goals, but two essential components of a fulfilling career and life? When I speak to fellow physicians about their financial lives, the conversation usually focuses on either: The strategies and tactics…

What if pursuing wealth and pursuing purpose aren’t competing goals, but two essential components of a fulfilling career and life? When I speak to fellow physicians about their financial lives, the conversation usually focuses on either:

  • The strategies and tactics of building wealth
  • The purpose to which we would devote our lives if money weren’t a factor

It is rare that I have a conversation that encompasses both. And it’s not …

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Financial freedom for physicians starts with purpose

Health policy

Firearm injury prevention can’t stop at the exam room

We health care providers are teachers. Teaching is rooted in the very definition of our profession: The word doctor derives from the Latin docere, meaning "to teach." Every day, we counsel patients about smoking, nutrition, vaccines, substance use, and injury…

We health care providers are teachers. Teaching is rooted in the very definition of our profession: The word doctor derives from the Latin docere, meaning “to teach.” Every day, we counsel patients about smoking, nutrition, vaccines, substance use, and injury prevention because we know that education influences health behaviors, improves decision-making, and ultimately saves lives. Firearm injury prevention belongs in those conversations as an important part of comprehensive care.

Clinicians who …

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Firearm injury prevention can’t stop at the exam room

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Conditions and diseases

Postpartum psychosis misdiagnosis can delay urgent care

Modern health care is problematic for patients suffering from psychiatric emergencies. But for women suffering from postpartum psychosis, the combination of misinformation and fragmented care is distinctly dangerous. Without biomarkers, the sensitivity of psychiatric diagnoses relies on detailed evaluations, serial…

Modern health care is problematic for patients suffering from psychiatric emergencies. But for women suffering from postpartum psychosis, the combination of misinformation and fragmented care is distinctly dangerous.

Without biomarkers, the sensitivity of psychiatric diagnoses relies on detailed evaluations, serial visits, and collateral information. If systems of care are not designed around this rubric, the diagnostic tool will not work. Moreover, the variable interpretation of laws governing confidentiality and autonomy can …

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Postpartum psychosis misdiagnosis can delay urgent care

Conditions and diseases

Why the burnout diagnosis keeps slipping through the net

Humankind has forever sought a peculiar comfort in naming. Anything our senses can perceive or our minds can conjure has been subject to a unique identifier. The mantle of an experience is heavy, but naming it makes it easier to…

Humankind has forever sought a peculiar comfort in naming. Anything our senses can perceive or our minds can conjure has been subject to a unique identifier. The mantle of an experience is heavy, but naming it makes it easier to bear. Perhaps there is comfort in knowing that the rocks weighing us down are the same rocks the person next to us imagines. But ever so often, reality imprints on …

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Why the burnout diagnosis keeps slipping through the net

The Podcast by KevinMD

When your labs are normal but you still feel sick [PODCAST]

Your blood pressure is fine. Your cholesterol looks great. So why do you still feel exhausted, wired, and unwell? Internal medicine and functional medicine physician Shiv K. Goel returns to explain what standard lab panels miss when chronic stress quietly…

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Your blood pressure is fine. Your cholesterol looks great. So why do you still feel exhausted, wired, and unwell? Internal medicine and functional medicine physician Shiv K. Goel returns to explain what standard lab panels miss when chronic stress quietly reshapes the body. This episode is based on his article “Normal labs miss what most patients are living through,” …

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When your labs are normal but you still feel sick [PODCAST]

Conditions and diseases

Patent before publication without limiting open science

"Academia produces knowledge brilliantly. It distributes it appallingly," Professor Dorina Buda wrote recently on LinkedIn. The statement made me pause because it brought back two experiences from nearly a decade apart. Both involved the same molecule, peroxynitrite, a peroxy isomer…

“Academia produces knowledge brilliantly. It distributes it appallingly,” Professor Dorina Buda wrote recently on LinkedIn.

The statement made me pause because it brought back two experiences from nearly a decade apart. Both involved the same molecule, peroxynitrite, a peroxy isomer of nitrate. The first occurred when I knew virtually nothing about patents. The second came after I had worked as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office …

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Patent before publication without limiting open science

Health policy

Emergency alerts should never sit behind a login

When catastrophic floods struck Texas on July 4, 2025, killing 78 people, questions quickly emerged about the timing and accessibility of public emergency warnings. In the hours before the disaster, some alerts were delayed amid staffing shortages and funding cuts.…

When catastrophic floods struck Texas on July 4, 2025, killing 78 people, questions quickly emerged about the timing and accessibility of public emergency warnings. In the hours before the disaster, some alerts were delayed amid staffing shortages and funding cuts. Others were posted on private social media platforms, which can often only be viewed with an account. In a crisis where every minute matters, even the smallest obstacles to …

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Emergency alerts should never sit behind a login

Physician voices

Physician peer review must balance safety and fairness

Medicine is one of the few professions in which a colleague may understand exactly how difficult the journey has been and simultaneously possess enormous influence over whether another physician is permitted to continue that journey. Becoming a physician requires years…

Medicine is one of the few professions in which a colleague may understand exactly how difficult the journey has been and simultaneously possess enormous influence over whether another physician is permitted to continue that journey.

Becoming a physician requires years of education, medical school, residency, examinations, credentialing, sacrifice, and continual professional development. For surgeons, the pathway often includes additional fellowship training and years spent developing technical judgment that cannot be acquired …

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Physician peer review must balance safety and fairness

Health technology

AI-assisted writing can extend a writer’s creative life

The debate over artificial intelligence (AI) and writing seems destined to have no definitive conclusion. New York Times columnist Bret Stephens has pleaded with readers not to write with AI, arguing that writing is inseparable from thinking and that outsourcing…

The debate over artificial intelligence (AI) and writing seems destined to have no definitive conclusion.

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens has pleaded with readers not to write with AI, arguing that writing is inseparable from thinking and that outsourcing the former eventually weakens the latter. Others make a more accommodating case: Use AI as a copy editor, researcher, critic, or sparring partner, but do not let it replace the …

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AI-assisted writing can extend a writer’s creative life

Drugs and prescribing

Testosterone therapy for men requires precision care

Testosterone is one of the most discussed and misunderstood tools in modern men's health. On one hand, it is portrayed as a remedy for aging. On the other, its legitimate clinical value is frequently downplayed. The evidence suggests a more…

Testosterone is one of the most discussed and misunderstood tools in modern men’s health. On one hand, it is portrayed as a remedy for aging. On the other, its legitimate clinical value is frequently downplayed. The evidence suggests a more nuanced view: Testosterone replacement can be life-changing for appropriately diagnosed hypogonadism, while many broader benefits remain evolving or indirect.

The well-known benefits are in hormonal and sexual health. For men with …

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Testosterone therapy for men requires precision care

Physician voices

The radiologist shortage behind your scan delays

Waiting seven days or more to get a report of your recent CT scan? Welcome to today's new normal. Until a couple of years ago, the digital transformation of radiology dramatically shortened turnaround times of report delivery. The last-century process…

Waiting seven days or more to get a report of your recent CT scan? Welcome to today’s new normal. Until a couple of years ago, the digital transformation of radiology dramatically shortened turnaround times of report delivery. The last-century process of audio dictation, manual transcription, editing, and signing final reports was replaced by direct voice recognition software. Radiologists became the transcribers and editors. Turnaround of reports from study time shortened …

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The radiologist shortage behind your scan delays

Conditions and diseases

How the benefits of active sitting change desk work

"That which is used develops; that which is not used wastes away." Hippocrates wrote that around 450 B.C., and it turns out he understood office ergonomics better than we do. Dozens of companies sell "ergonomic" office chairs, and they are…

“That which is used develops; that which is not used wastes away.” Hippocrates wrote that around 450 B.C., and it turns out he understood office ergonomics better than we do.

Dozens of companies sell “ergonomic” office chairs, and they are all built around the same idea: a backrest, usually armrests, and always lumbar support. If this design solved the problem of sitting, why do 80 percent of Americans eventually develop …

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How the benefits of active sitting change desk work

Drugs and prescribing

BPC-157 safety remains uncertain without human evidence

This patient had done everything right. Six months earlier, he had come into my office barely able to lift his arm above shoulder height, the result of a rotator cuff injury that had quietly worsened over a year of ignoring…

This patient had done everything right. Six months earlier, he had come into my office barely able to lift his arm above shoulder height, the result of a rotator cuff injury that had quietly worsened over a year of ignoring it. We treated it with the art of clinical approach: an image-guided intra-articular injection to calm the inflammation, followed by a disciplined course of physical therapy. He showed up for …

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BPC-157 safety remains uncertain without human evidence

Health technology

Why AI governance in health care falls on clinicians in 2026

Another state just added itself to the list of places with its own AI health care law. Another compliance memo just landed on somebody's desk. It's easy to file this under bureaucratic noise, something legal will sort out. It isn't.…

Another state just added itself to the list of places with its own AI health care law. Another compliance memo just landed on somebody’s desk. It’s easy to file this under bureaucratic noise, something legal will sort out. It isn’t. A physician documents why she overrode an ambient scribe’s note. A nurse practitioner checks a disclosure banner before a generative AI-drafted message goes out to a patient. A physician assistant …

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Why AI governance in health care falls on clinicians in 2026

Drugs and prescribing

Why medical cannabis for seniors is surging

Seniors are increasingly turning to cannabis to find relief from the suffering and medical indignities of aging. I see this every day in my primary care clinic. Whether it is the grinding discomfort of chronic pain, the anxiety associated with…

Seniors are increasingly turning to cannabis to find relief from the suffering and medical indignities of aging. I see this every day in my primary care clinic. Whether it is the grinding discomfort of chronic pain, the anxiety associated with losing friends and abilities, or the soul-crushing misery of insomnia, older adults are discovering that medical marijuana can often do what many of our standard prescriptions cannot. They are finding …

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Why medical cannabis for seniors is surging

The Podcast by KevinMD

Medical students aren’t cheating on their essays: They’re afraid [PODCAST]

A medical student offered a professor $1,000 to write their residency essay, and the reason why was not laziness. In this episode, Kathleen Muldoon, a certified coach and medical education professor, shares what she learned when she sat that student…

Listen on Spotify · Apple Podcasts

Listen and followApple PodcastsSpotifyYouTubeMore apps · Browse all episodes

A medical student offered a professor $1,000 to write their residency essay, and the reason why was not laziness. In this episode, Kathleen Muldoon, a certified coach and medical education professor, shares what she learned when she sat that student down for an honest conversation. You will hear why so many students freeze on the personal statement, why the fear …

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Medical students aren’t cheating on their essays: They’re afraid [PODCAST]

Conditions and diseases

Collaborative care must reshape psychiatry training

The landscape of psychiatric care has shifted beneath our feet, yet residency training still clings to an older map. Programs continue to imagine a world where the psychiatrist alone sits with each patient, weighs the options, and steers the course…

The landscape of psychiatric care has shifted beneath our feet, yet residency training still clings to an older map. Programs continue to imagine a world where the psychiatrist alone sits with each patient, weighs the options, and steers the course of treatment. That tradition endures, but it is no longer the only current running through the field. Across the country, in clinics and hospitals both large and small, a new …

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Collaborative care must reshape psychiatry training

Physician finance

The physician compensation check almost nobody does

Every physician on a production contract gets a compensation report. It arrives on schedule, formatted and official, with your wRVU total sitting in a box near the bottom. And almost every one of us treats that number the same way:…

Every physician on a production contract gets a compensation report. It arrives on schedule, formatted and official, with your wRVU total sitting in a box near the bottom. And almost every one of us treats that number the same way: We glance at it, feel vaguely that it seems low, and file it away.

Here is the uncomfortable question I would ask every production-paid clinician. If that number were wrong, …

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The physician compensation check almost nobody does

Health policy

The mass shooting aftermath health care workers rarely name

As mass shootings become more and more common around the country, communities are having to face the aftermath of these horrific events at an ever-increasing rate. Hospital-based health care workers are often faced with treating patients in what is known…

As mass shootings become more and more common around the country, communities are having to face the aftermath of these horrific events at an ever-increasing rate. Hospital-based health care workers are often faced with treating patients in what is known as a mass casualty event, which we train for, but hope to never see. In the last eight years, I have worked in two separate communities and witnessed mass shooting …

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The mass shooting aftermath health care workers rarely name

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