4 fibromyalgia myths the current evidence doesn’t support

Conditions and Diseases
September 17, 2026

Fibromyalgia is a chronic nociplastic pain syndrome characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, non-restorative sleep, and cognitive difficulties (often called “fibro fog”), frequently accompanied by other symptoms such as mood changes or overlapping conditions like irritable bowel syndrome. It arises primarily from altered central nervous system pain processing rather than peripheral tissue damage or inflammation.

Myth: Fibromyalgia is “all in the head” or purely psychological

Fact: While psychological factors and stress can …

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4 fibromyalgia myths the current evidence doesn’t support

Physician mental health and the shame of asking for help

Physician
September 17, 2026

I have intubated people who intentionally overdosed on many things they could find. I have sat with families in the minutes after we lost someone who didn’t have to be lost. I have written discharge summaries for patients I worried about the moment they walked out the door.

For twenty-three years, I was the doctor on the other side of the crisis. Then I wasn’t.

It didn’t arrive the way emergencies do: …

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Physician mental health and the shame of asking for help

Why haven’t ambient AI scribes boosted productivity?

Health Technology
September 17, 2026

A physician finishes today’s note noticeably faster than they used to. The AI scribe listened, drafted, and closed most of the gap between seeing the patient and finishing the paperwork. At the end of the day? That’s less time hunched over a keyboard once the last patient leaves.

But ask, three months in, whether the practice is seeing more patients or capturing more revenue because of it. What comes back is …

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Why haven’t ambient AI scribes boosted productivity?

Burnout isn’t only about autonomy, it’s about your bank account [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 16, 2026
YouTube video

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

Physicians stay in jobs they cannot afford to leave. The wellness conversation talks about resilience and meaning, and never about what is in your bank account. Stanley Liu, cardiologist, financial planner, and founder …

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Burnout isn’t only about autonomy, it’s about your bank account [PODCAST]

Physician well-being is not an individual problem

Conditions and Diseases
September 16, 2026

The effectiveness of a health care system is routinely judged by the care patients receive. Far less attention is given to the conditions under which that care is delivered. Health care policy continues to emphasize insurance coverage, access to care, rising costs, workforce shortages, and health outcomes. Yet one question remains largely unaddressed: Who is caring for our physicians?

Physician well-being has traditionally been viewed as an individual concern. Current evidence …

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Physician well-being is not an individual problem

Hospital IT approval has no path for clinician-built tools

Health Technology
September 16, 2026

Six years ago, a man pulled off a highway in rural Washington because his chest hurt. The ER physician called Gautam, the cardiologist on call, 120 miles away. Nearly twenty minutes passed before he had the ECG. In rural Washington in 2019, you send an ECG by fax. By the time Gautam reviewed it and called back, the patient was coding. He died.

That story is about a fax machine. It …

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Hospital IT approval has no path for clinician-built tools

Surgical judgment: the skill no one sees from the gallery

Physician
September 16, 2026

When I was younger in surgery, I watched hands. I watched how senior surgeons held an instrument, how little unnecessary movement they made, how calmly they worked around a vessel that could turn an orderly operation into an emergency within seconds. Technical mastery was visible. You could stand across the operating table and recognize it.

I wanted that kind of control. Most young surgeons do.

In my first year of cardiovascular surgery …

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Surgical judgment: the skill no one sees from the gallery

How fentanyl misinformation turns suspicion into fact

Medications
September 16, 2026

Numbers do not have to be fabricated to mislead. They can be technically accurate and still create a false story when “detected” becomes “caused,” “involved” becomes “alone,” and a preliminary suspicion becomes a headline.

This dynamic played out following a May 2026 emergency in Mountainair, New Mexico. Three people died in a home where investigators found fentanyl, para-fluorofentanyl, and methamphetamine, while eighteen first responders later reported symptoms such as nausea, …

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How fentanyl misinformation turns suspicion into fact

Patient-centered device design is not bedside manner

Health Technology
September 16, 2026

This year I interned at Dr. Ziauddin Hospital during my biomedical engineering studies. Much of what I learned there was not to be found in books. At the moment it was standing next to a machine, doing its job perfectly, and the patient attached to it, looking totally lost.

Medical devices are manufactured to perform accurately. They have to be quick, believable to the physician that reads the number, fail-safe, and …

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Patient-centered device design is not bedside manner

Genetic test results, social media advice, and an irreversible choice [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 15, 2026
YouTube video

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

Your genetic test results now arrive on your phone before anyone is available to explain them. So the questions go to an online mom group, or to ChatGPT, and strangers answer first. Stephanie …

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Genetic test results, social media advice, and an irreversible choice [PODCAST]

AI in dementia care could give doctors time to listen

Conditions and Diseases
September 15, 2026

The questions a doctor asks a patient and their family are particularly important for a diagnosis in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, but the demand for care is rapidly outpacing the supply of clinicians, and the time to truly listen keeps shrinking. My colleagues and I have been testing a possible way to protect that conversation: a voice-based artificial intelligence “agent” that interviews patients before they ever see a clinician, …

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AI in dementia care could give doctors time to listen

Physician burnout often begins with self-abandonment

Physician
September 15, 2026

The room was still dark, my cat curled next to me, when I looked at the clock: 4:18 a.m. It was well before my alarm was set to go off, but I knew I wasn’t going to fall back asleep. Reluctantly, I grabbed my phone, put on my slippers, and shuffled downstairs to the coffee maker. While the coffee brewed, I skimmed my email and read the news headlines. Coffee …

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Physician burnout often begins with self-abandonment

Barriers to yoga practice, and how to lower them

Conditions and Diseases
September 15, 2026

Musculoskeletal and mental-health conditions are among the most consequential and costly health challenges in the United States. Musculoskeletal conditions affect more than one-third of U.S. adults and account for more than $300 billion in medical spending, while mental illness is estimated to cost the broader U.S. economy approximately $282 billion annually. Although many of these conditions are chronic and cannot be addressed through a single universally effective intervention, …

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Barriers to yoga practice, and how to lower them

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The nociplastic pain question new pain therapies avoid

Medications
September 15, 2026

Systematic review data puts the prevalence of central sensitization features among knee osteoarthritis patients at approximately 36 percent by validated instrument. More than one in three patients carrying an orthopedic diagnosis you trust, presenting with pain that structural intervention may only partially address. The joint pathology on the imaging is real. The dominant pain mechanism is incompletely characterized.

In my last piece, I argued that glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) pharmacology and neurotechnology …

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The nociplastic pain question new pain therapies avoid

Can physicians and organized labor stand together?

Physician
September 15, 2026

Our cultural ethos has revolved around the paragons of “hard work” and so much so that now our health leaders are suggesting that “healthy” Americans work longer to delay retirement to stimulate the economy. In the words of Dr. Oz, “If Americans could stay healthy enough to work just one additional year or start working earlier in their lives, it would increase the GDP of our nation by trillions …

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Can physicians and organized labor stand together?

5 nutrition questions for every weight-loss drug follow-up

Conditions and Diseases
September 15, 2026

Picture a common follow-up visit: Six weeks into glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) treatment, a patient has lost weight and their glucose measures have improved. They describe the nausea as “manageable.” Then you ask what they ate yesterday: coffee until noon, a few bites at lunch, half a dinner, and less water than usual because everything feels too filling. They’ve also stopped walking because they feel weak.

The medication may be working as …

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5 nutrition questions for every weight-loss drug follow-up

Rethinking the clinical utility of diagnostic tests

Health Technology
September 15, 2026

Introduction

Approximately fifty years ago, while attending a social gathering at a suburban hospital with my first wife, I found myself speaking with an attending physician. During our conversation he made a remark that has remained with me throughout my professional life.

“Medicine is not science; it is an art.”

At the time, I accepted the statement without much reflection. Certainly medicine requires compassion, judgment, communication, and an appreciation for the complexity of …

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Rethinking the clinical utility of diagnostic tests

Fragmented care made my family her care coordinator

Physician
September 15, 2026

I recently read Kara Wada’s September 7, 2026, KevinMD essay asking a simple but profound question: Who holds the telescope? Her article resonated with me immediately because I know the answer.

When my wife Kathy was dying, nobody did.

Kathy was not the victim of one catastrophic mistake. There was no single dramatic error that changed the course of her illness. What I witnessed instead was something more common and, in many …

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Fragmented care made my family her care coordinator

Women’s health in primary care needs continuity, not visits

Conditions and Diseases
September 15, 2026

My wife and my daughter both have endometriosis.

I have spent nearly thirty years working in community health, much of that time leading a federally qualified health center. I know how health care works. I know how referrals work. I know how to ask questions, find resources, and push when something does not make sense. None of that shortened the road for the two women I love.

I watched appointments end with …

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Women’s health in primary care needs continuity, not visits

Half of mental health apps vanish within 3 years

Health Technology
September 15, 2026

Every caregiver of someone with a serious mental illness knows the moment: You’re searching an app store at 2 a.m., looking for something, anything, that might help your loved one track symptoms, stay on a medication schedule, or just feel less alone between crises. You download it. You show them how to use it, gently, because trust is already fragile. And if you’re lucky, it becomes part of the routine …

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Half of mental health apps vanish within 3 years

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