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AI and moral development: How algorithms shape human character

Physician

January 23, 2026

Most of us don’t notice moral development happening while it is happening. Moral character forms quietly, through repetition, through what we get used to doing and through what we slowly stop doing without much forethought.

Artificial intelligence matters from a moral perspective long before it ever potentially becomes conscious or autonomous. Although AI may or may not confront us with dramatic ethical dilemmas, it does change our moral lives in a …

The impact of war on the innocence of children

Michele Luckenbaugh

Conditions

January 23, 2026

They are not born into battle.
They arrive with open hands,
with laughter,
with faith that the world will keep them safe.

Yet, men who are not content with peace
clench their fists around power,
mistaking domination for strength
and control for legacy.
They draw borders with bullets
and call it victory.

In their pursuit to prove themselves,
they let the bombs fall.
Roads darken with blood.
Homes become rubble.
The sky learns the language of fire.

And in the wreckage stand the children.

They watch …

Overcoming the economic barriers of fee-for-service medicine [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 22, 2026

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

Surgeon and health tech strategist Sarah Matt discusses her article “Why fee-for-service reform is needed.” Sarah analyzes the friction between efficient digital health tools and an outdated payment system that rewards activity …

Why epistemic trespassing in medicine is a dangerous trend

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

Conditions

January 22, 2026

Somewhere over the last two decades, medicine began to drift into strange territory. Authority (once grounded in evidence, humility, and disciplined expertise) became diluted. Being loud, charismatic, or highly visible somehow became a substitute for scientific credibility.

We’ve long had celebrity doctors, but a new hybrid has emerged: Physicians who are not celebrities in the traditional sense, yet who speak with sweeping certainty far outside their field of training. A neurosurgeon …

Why evidence-based practice in nursing is a strategic imperative

Mark Mahnfeldt, RN, MBA

Conditions

January 22, 2026

Every day, nurses make thousands of clinical decisions that directly shape patient outcomes, safety, and recovery. Yet in many hospitals across the country, these critical choices are still guided by experience-based models rather than current evidence. For a profession that defines itself as patient-centered and science-driven, this approach contradicts the very standard of care we strive to uphold. True excellence in nursing is not defined by technology alone or by …

Why organizational culture eats strategy for breakfast in health care

Jeffry A. Peters, MBA

Conditions

January 22, 2026

Eighteen months ago, I learned something every patient hopes never to hear: that my cancer had returned. Years earlier, I had been treated successfully for prostate cancer. When my PSA began to rise again, I knew something was wrong. It took persistence and more than a few second opinions to confirm what my instincts already told me.

That journey eventually led me to a leading cancer center. I had already seen …

Urological analysis of delayed cancer diagnoses in political figures [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 21, 2026

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

Urologist William Lynes discusses his article “A urologist’s perspective on presidential health transparency.” William examines the medical plausibility of a former president being diagnosed with widespread metastatic prostate cancer just months after …

The economics of prevention: Why an ounce is worth a pound

Joshua Mirrer, MD

Conditions

January 21, 2026

We repeat the phrase “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” as if it were a folksy reminder to eat better or get a flu shot. But taken seriously, it is not a medical cliché. It is an economic law. And it exposes a devastating flaw in how modern societies choose to spend money.

Prevention is not the opposite of cure. Cure is essential, lifesaving, and often extraordinary. …

Methamphetamine-induced lung injury: the hidden diagnosis in South Texas

Shiv K. Goel, MD

Conditions

January 21, 2026

Methamphetamine has become an unavoidable presence in South Texas medicine. It shows up in our EDs, clinics, and ICUs, usually framed as a cardiotoxic, neurotoxic, or psychiatric problem. But over the past few years, a different pattern has kept surfacing in my practice: “pneumonia” cases that don’t behave like pneumonia, young lungs that look like ARDS, and hypoxic patients whose imaging and labs do not match the story, until someone …

A 6-step framework for new health care leaders

All Levels Leadership

Physician

January 21, 2026

Assuming a new health care leadership role is both exciting and daunting. Even in the best circumstances, new leaders must navigate a complex web of expectations, relationships, and organizational priorities.

Drawing on over 30 years of health care leadership experience, we have observed that while new leaders bring enthusiasm and vision, they often encounter predictable obstacles. Many receive little to no formal leadership training, leaving them without a structured approach to …

The cost of ignoring pharmacist clinical judgment in health care

Muhammad Abdullah Khan

Conditions

January 21, 2026

A patient walks into the pharmacy with a prescription. The pharmacist reviews it, recognizes a serious problem, and contacts the prescriber. The prescriber dismisses the concern. The pharmacist has two choices: dispense a medication they know is wrong, or refuse and risk professional consequences. This happens daily. And health care pretends it doesn’t.

The power imbalance nobody discusses

Pharmacists are trained to be medication experts. They study pharmacokinetics, drug interactions, disease-specific dosing, …

10,000 steps before lunch: How a retired doctor models prevention

Gerald Kuo

Conditions

January 21, 2026

On a recent morning, my mentor, a retired breast cancer surgeon in his 70s, sent me a screenshot from his Apple Watch.

10,208 steps.
7.25 kilometers.
One flight of stairs.
Before lunch.

For him, it was just another day. For me, a younger volunteer and PhD student watching Taiwan age into a super-aged society, it was a quiet masterclass in what prevention really means.

This surgeon, Dr. Lin, is not just any retiree. For more than …

Why health advocacy needs foresight and backcasting tools

Dr. Lind Grant-Oyeye

Physician

January 21, 2026

At some point in their careers, health practitioners find themselves preoccupied with issues that go beyond the confines of the clinical room. Beyond diagnoses and prescriptions lies a larger health care landscape, one shaped by policy, economics, culture, technology, and power. Health professionals then begin to ask how this broader system affects not only their individual patients, but also communities and society at large. It is often at this intersection …

Genetic testing requires more than just a binary result [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 20, 2026

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

Fertility specialist Oluyemisi Famuyiwa discusses their article “Why carrier screening results are complex.” Oluyemisi explores the transition to “Genetic Carrier Screening 3.0,” a new era where expanded panels reveal hidden complexities that …

How a pregnancy test on a male patient revealed health care flaws

Eric Goldfarb

Conditions

January 20, 2026

My father’s last medical bill suggested he might be expecting a child. He was 88 years old. Somewhere in the hospital’s system, common sense had vanished. We found the pregnancy test charge only after paying the bill in full. My mother and I wrote to the hospital. The first reply was warm and procedural: Thank you for contacting us. We will submit this to Revenue Integrity. You should expect a …

Beyond burnout: the rise of the optimized, dissociated executive

Jenny Shields, PhD

Conditions

January 20, 2026

The man sitting across from me is a Titan.

In the taxonomy of the 2026 economy, he is the apex predator: an MD, a CEO, and the chair of multiple boards. He has navigated the post-pandemic attrition and the algorithmic market corrections that swallowed lesser firms. He is wildly, empirically successful.

But recently, he sat across from me, sharing a shade of rage I hadn’t seen before. He had just navigated a …

How system strain contributes to medical gaslighting in health care

Alan P. Feren, MD

Physician

January 20, 2026

Medical gaslighting has become a widely discussed concept in health care. The term is often misunderstood as implying intentional dismissal or manipulation by clinicians. In reality, most encounters that patients later describe as gaslighting do not arise from ill intent. They arise from something far more common and far more complex: communication breakdown under system strain.

Understanding medical gaslighting requires examining the clinical encounter from both sides of the stethoscope, not …

Black women’s health resilience: the hidden cost of “pushing through”

Latesha K. Harris, PhD, RN

Policy

January 20, 2026

As a nurse, I have been with patients during their first breath and their last. While with grieving families, one statement that stays with me is, “At least now she/he can rest.”

This statement almost always comes from a grieving Black family who lost a family member to a premature death of a preventable or manageable disease. Why must we wait until we are six feet under to rest?

As a Black …

Why tele-critical care fails the sickest ICU patients

Keith Corl, MD

Physician

January 20, 2026

Not long ago in a community intensive care unit (ICU) in a midsized American city, I cared for a sick young woman who had just delivered a baby. Part of the placenta, which is supposed to be fully expelled following delivery, remained in her uterus. This condition, known as “retained products of conception,” provided an opportunity for bacteria to infect the retained tissue. The infection spread from her uterus to …

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