EMR errors get blamed on physicians, not systems

Health Policy
June 13, 2026

I don’t think many physicians would disagree that EMR usability is a patient safety issue. And yet, health systems seem perfectly happy to place 100 percent of the blame for any glitches on physicians.

I was recently involved in a situation where a physician was being blamed for an obvious system error. The physician in question is an experienced and dedicated pediatrician, well known in the area for her compassion …

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EMR errors get blamed on physicians, not systems

Permanent discipline punishes nurses in recovery

Conditions and Diseases
June 13, 2026

I did everything the system asked of me, and much more.

I sought help for a treatable medical condition. I laid down every ounce of pride I had and accepted accountability. I completed every requirement, rebuilt my practice, and spent years proving, through safe, competent care, that recovery works.

And still, my past follows me into every room.

In health care, we tell clinicians to speak up, to seek help early, to protect …

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Permanent discipline punishes nurses in recovery

Why the risk aversion that makes you a good doctor wrecks your finances [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 12, 2026
YouTube video

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

The same instinct that makes you a careful clinician may be the one sabotaging your financial future. Cardiologist and fiduciary financial planner Stanley Liu joins this episode to explain why physicians’ deeply trained …

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Why the risk aversion that makes you a good doctor wrecks your finances [PODCAST]

Health care system design isn’t failing, it’s working

Physician
June 12, 2026

In health care, we often describe what we are experiencing as system failure. We point to clinician burnout, staffing shortages, administrative burden, and the growing distance between those delivering care and those designing it. We talk about breakdowns in communication, gaps in safety, and the increasing strain placed on a workforce asked to adapt faster than it can recover. The language is familiar. The concern is real. But the conclusion …

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Health care system design isn’t failing, it’s working

How insulin drives polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome

Conditions and Diseases
June 12, 2026

One of the most misunderstood aspects of polycystic ovary syndrome, now increasingly reframed as Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS), is the role insulin plays in the disorder. For years, insulin resistance in PMOS was discussed primarily through the lens of diabetes risk and abnormal glucose metabolism. Yet insulin’s role in the syndrome appears to extend far beyond blood sugar alone.

What many patients, and even many clinicians outside endocrinology and reproductive …

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How insulin drives polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome

3 traits the physician leadership model is missing

Physician
June 12, 2026

There is a growing conversation in medicine about leadership. We talk about the need for more physician leaders, more voices at the table, more representation in decision-making spaces. And while these conversations are important, they often overlook a more fundamental issue. The problem is not a lack of physician leadership. It is the model of leadership we continue to promote.

From early training, physicians are conditioned to equate leadership with endurance: …

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3 traits the physician leadership model is missing

Why we know the model’s name but not the surgeon’s

Conditions and Diseases
June 12, 2026

I spent fifteen years in the world of fashion. Runway shows, parties, exclusive events, beautiful photographs, perfect smiles, the right connections. A world where the outer shell is often valued more than what lies beneath it.

Over those years, I met hundreds of people. Many called themselves friends. Many said all the right things. Many built around themselves an image of success, importance, and influence.

And then, in a single second, everything …

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Why we know the model’s name but not the surgeon’s

AI in health care is quietly displacing physicians

Health Technology
June 12, 2026

Every physician knows the feeling. You trained for years to think independently, to assess, to judge. Now you spend more than half your workday staring at a screen, entering data into fields someone else designed, responding to alerts someone else configured. The patient is in front of you. The system is between you.

That experience is not just a workflow frustration. It is a signal of something far more consequential that …

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AI in health care is quietly displacing physicians

Corporate practice of medicine vs. the golden days

Physician
June 12, 2026

In the golden days of practicing medicine, the hospitals’ boards were composed of community leaders acting on behalf of the hospitals to raise funds, negotiate insurance contracts, screen and supervise the performance of the key employees, and interact with the government. They used their passion and influence to facilitate the delivery of health care to the communities they served. Most of these board members were volunteers or philanthropists. Few practicing …

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Corporate practice of medicine vs. the golden days

The assumptions in medicine that put patients at risk

Conditions and Diseases
June 12, 2026

We all make assumptions based on beliefs that may or may not be true. We all have made the mistake of judging books by their cover and been wrong. Making assumptions is not always intentional or inherently bad. Our human brain uses these mental shortcuts to classify things in this large, ever-changing world we live in. We learn very early to classify things by color and shape, and this system …

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The assumptions in medicine that put patients at risk

Nursing during the Holocaust, one IV at a time

Physician
June 12, 2026

Lena spotted Dr. Kreindl, who without his cigarette, seemed a bit lost. But he knew better than to light up: The Gestapo would have never tolerated such an act of freedom, coming from a Jew.

“Ah, there you are,” he said. “Listen, it’s quite simple. Most of these patients have ingested large doses of Veronal. Do you know this drug? It’s a highly powerful sedative. Anyway, many of these people were …

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Nursing during the Holocaust, one IV at a time

Why diversity in medicine is a clinical intervention

Medical Education
June 12, 2026

Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) had a reasonable institutional story to tell.

U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, MD, MBA, is an alumnus. He is an emergency medicine physician, a Marine veteran, a former student body president, and the first MSM graduate elected to Congress. From the perspective of a communications office, the announcement almost writes itself: alumnus returns home to deliver the commencement speech; physician-leader addresses the next generation; a school devoted …

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Why diversity in medicine is a clinical intervention

Actual Intelligence: the skill AI cannot replace

Health Technology
June 12, 2026

Artificial intelligence is no longer arriving in medicine. It has arrived. The American Medical Association’s 2026 Physician Survey found that 81 percent of physicians now use AI in their practices, more than double the 38 percent who reported using it in 2023. In three years it went from a minority tool to a default one, concentrated most heavily in documentation and summarization, the workflows closest to how we think.

The same …

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Actual Intelligence: the skill AI cannot replace

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Physician burnout is not your fault, and here’s why blaming yourself keeps you stuck [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 11, 2026
YouTube video

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

What if the cure for physician burnout has been making it worse the whole time? Lisa Rubiano, an internal medicine physician and physician coach, spent over a decade as a hospitalist before burning out in 2021 and stepping back to figure out …

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Physician burnout is not your fault, and here’s why blaming yourself keeps you stuck [PODCAST]

Recording medical visits is your legal right

Conditions and Diseases
June 11, 2026

Patients are not guests in their own medical care. Their bodies are examined, their symptoms interpreted, their diagnoses explained, their treatment risks discussed, their consent sought, and their lives affected by the plan that follows. Yet when patients try to lawfully document those care conversations, they are too often treated as if they are doing something improper. They are told they are “not allowed” to record. They are told it …

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Recording medical visits is your legal right

Health care consolidation is the biggest reform barrier

Health Policy
June 11, 2026

An excerpt from America’s Wrong Turn: US Health Care in the Neoliberal Era.

Let’s consider U.S. corporate consolidation and antitrust policy in the context of health and medical care sectors. Concentration, mergers, and acquisitions are vital parts of corporate strategy among all forms of health and medical firms, a phenomenon at every stage and level across our dizzyingly complex system. In this section, we examine insurers, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceuticals, and …

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Health care consolidation is the biggest reform barrier

Health care investing needs a doctor in the room

Physician Finance
June 11, 2026

A conference table. Six to ten people around it. A health care startup is being evaluated for a multimillion-dollar investment. The people in the room are smart, with MBAs from top programs, former management consultants, ex-bankers who pivoted into health care venture capital. They have built financial models, analyzed market sizing data, and stress-tested the company’s revenue projections.

They are about to commit capital to a product designed for use inside …

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Health care investing needs a doctor in the room

AI bias in health care reads the writer, not the symptom

Health Technology
June 11, 2026

A few weeks ago I wrote here about the eGFR race correction, the flawed formula that overestimated kidney function in Black patients for twenty years while clinicians trusted the number on the screen. The piece ended with a warning that the same failure is being rebuilt with AI, minus the part where anyone can inspect the formula. Readers sent back the natural question. If the next eGFR is already …

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AI bias in health care reads the writer, not the symptom

How Becerra and Hilton differ on California health care

Health Policy
June 11, 2026

This article tries to be unbiased and compares Xavier Becerra (Democrat, former U.S. HHS Secretary, California AG, and Congressman) and Steve Hilton (Republican, former Fox News host, British-born American conservative political commentator, author, entrepreneur, and former adviser) contrasting approaches to health care.

Becerra emphasizes government-led expansion of access, protections against federal rollbacks, cost controls via regulation and purchasing power, and a long-term vision for universal coverage. Hilton focuses on reducing government …

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How Becerra and Hilton differ on California health care

Diagnosis shock is the missing piece in patient encounters

Conditions and Diseases
June 11, 2026

In a recent piece on KevinMD, patient advocate Alan P. Feren explores what he calls “unfinishedness” in medicine: the gap between what clinicians consider a complete visit and what patients actually experience. His observation is both valid and important: Physicians may achieve administrative closure through documentation, diagnoses, and treatment plans, yet patients can leave feeling confused, overwhelmed, or adrift.

However, there is a critical piece missing from this conversation, one …

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Diagnosis shock is the missing piece in patient encounters

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