KevinMD.com

July 22, 2026Jul 22, 2026

I recently listened to a heated but friendly debate among medical students about why some of their peers seemed to struggle far more than others. The underlying assumption was simple enough: they had the same twenty-four hours, sat for the same exams, moved through the same clinical rotations, and endured the same demands. If everyone was being asked to do essentially the same thing, why did some people seem to …

Physician voices

You could have been professional, but you chose kindness

Dr. Muhammed Huzaifa

July 22, 2026Jul 22, 2026

I still remember the mist that morning. Not because it was unusual, but because some mornings refuse to be forgotten. I was approaching the end of my second year of surgical residency. The nervousness of my first few months had…

I still remember the mist that morning. Not because it was unusual, but because some mornings refuse to be forgotten.

I was approaching the end of my second year of surgical residency. The nervousness of my first few months had slowly given way to confidence. I could evaluate patients independently, formulate plans, and perform a growing number of procedures. I believed I was learning how to become a surgeon.

What I did …

The Podcast by KevinMD

What no one teaches you about fertility before you need help [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

Fertility specialist and Montgomery Fertility Center founder Oluyemisi "Yemi" Famuyiwa discusses the article "What no one tells you about fertility, from a doctor." Yemi discusses the article through a compassionate look at the emotional, biological, and practical realities patients often…

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Fertility specialist and Montgomery Fertility Center founder Oluyemisi “Yemi” Famuyiwa discusses the article “What no one tells you about fertility, from a doctor.” Yemi discusses the article through a compassionate look at the emotional, biological, and practical realities patients often discover only after struggling to conceive. She explores fertility myths, …

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Health policy

A poem for everyone fighting the health care system

Michele Luckenbaugh

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

The steel cage door slams shut.
Its metallic echo reverberates through the arena,
a warning bell for a contest already decided by those selling tickets.
Under the harsh lights stands the patient.
Thin, weary, clutching a stack of medical records
instead of weapons.
Across the cage wait towering opponents.
Corporate health systems, their muscles swollen
with profits and policies.
Government regulations, thick rulebooks
wrapped around their fists.
Pharmaceutical giants, draped in sponsorship banners,
their pockets heavy with the cost of survival.

The crowd …

Physician voices

The physician who refused to follow the crowd

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

I grew up as the son of a dead Air Force officer who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. In Boston in the 1970s, that lineage didn't shield me. It marked me. I walked around with a crewcut, government-issued…

I grew up as the son of a dead Air Force officer who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. In Boston in the 1970s, that lineage didn’t shield me. It marked me. I walked around with a crewcut, government-issued BCG glasses (“birth-control glasses,” as every military kid knew), and a stubborn refusal to follow the crowd. That was enough to get me spat on more than once.

Those moments didn’t …

Physician voices

The physician as patient nobody wanted to listen to

Andrea Hayes, MD

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

I did not expect the red-carpet treatment. My illness came on abruptly, without a prodrome and without the courtesy of localizing symptoms, no cough, dysuria, or obvious source of infection. One weekday morning, after stepping out of a hot shower,…

I did not expect the red-carpet treatment. My illness came on abruptly, without a prodrome and without the courtesy of localizing symptoms, no cough, dysuria, or obvious source of infection.

One weekday morning, after stepping out of a hot shower, I collapsed onto the bathroom tile like a heap of wet seaweed. I attributed it to overwork, dehydration, and the predictable consequences of caring for everyone except myself. By the time …

Health technology

The real barrier to evidence-based medicine is access

Nicholas M. Stansbury, MD

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

Recently, I learned that access to a clinical artificial intelligence platform had been restricted within my training environment. My first reaction was not anger. It was curiosity. The decision may have been entirely reasonable. Health care institutions have legitimate concerns…

Recently, I learned that access to a clinical artificial intelligence platform had been restricted within my training environment. My first reaction was not anger. It was curiosity.

The decision may have been entirely reasonable. Health care institutions have legitimate concerns about privacy, security, liability, accuracy, and governance. Those concerns deserve thoughtful consideration. But the experience left me wondering about something much bigger than any individual hospital or software platform. If physicians …

Conditions and diseases

Newborn brain development starts at discharge

Cindy Parente

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

Every day, hospitals across America perform one of medicine's greatest achievements. A family arrives anxious and uncertain. A baby is born. Skilled physicians, nurses, therapists, and support staff guide mother and child safely through pregnancy, birth, and recovery. Before discharge,…

Every day, hospitals across America perform one of medicine’s greatest achievements.

A family arrives anxious and uncertain. A baby is born. Skilled physicians, nurses, therapists, and support staff guide mother and child safely through pregnancy, birth, and recovery. Before discharge, families receive careful instruction on feeding, safe sleep, car seats, medications, warning signs, and follow-up care.

In Connecticut, that commitment to the discharge moment has grown even further. Hospitals are now sending …

Physician voices

A doctor in South Sudan on a trillion-dollar Friday

Dr. Buga Charles George Kenyi

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

Recently, a rocket company went public on the Nasdaq, and by the time the bell closed, its founder had become the first person in history worth a trillion dollars. I read about it on a borrowed phone outside the pediatric…

I’m not writing this out of anger. I want to say that clearly. I …

Health technology

AI should elevate clinical judgment, not replace it

Matt Hasan, PhD

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

Artificial intelligence is forcing medicine to make a choice that has received surprisingly little attention. Should AI be designed to replace increasing portions of clinical judgment? Or should it be designed to elevate it? Much of today's discussion assumes these…

Unfortunately, the momentum today is largely toward replacement. We read almost daily …

Health policy

Kentucky’s abortion ban has no rape and incest exceptions

Taylor Scott

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

In 2019, Kentucky lawmakers passed the Human Life Protection Act (2019 HB 148), a law designed to take effect if Roe v. Wade were overturned. On June 24, 2022, following the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that law went into effect, banning abortion in nearly all circumstances. Today, the only exception permitted is for serious medical risk to the pregnant patient. There are no exceptions for rape …

The Podcast by KevinMD

Why women doctors get sick and blame themselves for it [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

Women doctors joke about being cursed with every complication, but what if the job itself is quietly damaging their health? Jessie Mahoney, a pediatrician and certified coach, returns to share her own story of pregnancy complications, an ICU stay, and…

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Health technology

What generative AI in health care makes newly possible

Dipu Patel, DMSc, MPAS, PA-C

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

When I served as chair of the Board of Registration for Physician Assistants in Massachusetts, every decision carried a weight that extended far beyond the immediate case in front of us. Whether we were reviewing a licensing violation, addressing unprofessional conduct, or weighing in on a practice standard, we were always, whether we named it or not, making decisions about what kind of profession we wanted PA practice to be …

Conditions and diseases

High-functioning codependency is quietly draining doctors

Sarah Bergakker, CRNA

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

A colleague recently recommended licensed clinical social worker Terri Cole's book Too Much after seeing a quote I shared on social media about no longer accommodating people who refuse to take responsibility for their own emotional work. Her timing was…

A colleague recently recommended licensed clinical social worker Terri Cole’s book Too Much after seeing a quote I shared on social media about no longer accommodating people who refuse to take responsibility for their own emotional work. Her timing was remarkable.

As I read, I felt as though Cole had somehow studied the way I lived for much of my life. I recognized the constant monitoring of other people’s emotions, …

Physician finance

Run a payer panel audit before renewal season

GetPracticeHelp

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

Most independent practices renew payer contracts the same way they sign them: the renewal letter arrives, the practice manager forwards it to the physician owner, and either someone signs it or no one does. The contracts that escape renegotiation for three or four cycles are the ones quietly anchoring 20 to 35 percent of commercial volume at fee schedules that lag the practice’s best contract by 15 to 25 percent.

The …

Physician voices

Why scientific dissent is a test of institutional trust

Tiffiny Black, DM, MBA, MPA

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

Recently, controversy emerged at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) annual meeting after several researchers were removed for distributing copies of an editorial concerning proposed federal funding cuts to biomedical research. The incident generated debate across the medical community. Some viewed the removal as an appropriate enforcement of conference policies and codes of conduct. Others questioned whether restricting the distribution of scientific perspectives at a professional meeting risks undermining the very …

Health policy

Physician moral injury, not burnout, is the real wound

Cassandra Craig & Toby Terwilliger, MD

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

"Have you seen The Pitt?" This question has become commonplace; patients want to know if it is realistic, colleagues want to compare reactions, and many of us find ourselves dissecting the commentary on an imperfect health care system captured in…

“Have you seen The Pitt?”

This question has become commonplace; patients want to know if it is realistic, colleagues want to compare reactions, and many of us find ourselves dissecting the commentary on an imperfect health care system captured in weekly, one-hour installments that mirror physicians’ everyday reality.

The show does many things well: It is medically accurate, faithfully depicts interdisciplinary teamwork, and reveals the humanity and vulnerability of health care …

Conditions and diseases

Why the digital rectal exam fails prostate cancer screening

Paul Dranichnikov, MD, PhD

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

For decades, the digital rectal exam (DRE), the traditional "finger test," has been a routine component of prostate screening. It is quick, inexpensive, and engrained in medical culture. But the question is no longer whether we can do it. It…

For decades, the digital rectal exam (DRE), the traditional “finger test,” has been a routine component of prostate screening. It is quick, inexpensive, and engrained in medical culture. But the question is no longer whether we can do it. It is whether we should. With PSA testing, advanced imaging, and refined risk stratification, routine DRE in asymptomatic men is increasingly indefensible.

Low sensitivity and limited value

Recent studies show that DRE has …

Conditions and diseases

The harm reduction debate isn’t exchange or nothing

Del Carter, MD

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

Needle exchange programs are one of the most well-known, and subsequently most controversial, forms of harm reduction in addiction medicine. These programs provide clean needles and/or syringes for drug users, often in exchange for used needles, in efforts to curb the unsanitary reuse of needles and subsequently decrease the spread of infectious diseases such as hepatitis and HIV. Needle exchange programs, on their own, have been shown to decrease …

Conditions and diseases

The PCOS diagnosis gap medical schools must close

Aislinn Jones

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

"Guess what? I have PCOS," was not what I expected to hear over the phone when catching up with a college friend the summer before my second year of medical school. Even more puzzling to me was the story of…

“Guess what? I have PCOS,” was not what I expected to hear over the phone when catching up with a college friend the summer before my second year of medical school. Even more puzzling to me was the story of how she got her diagnosis. She relayed the saga of an intrauterine device placement gone wrong, infection-induced psychosis, and severe menstrual bleeding and pain. Following an extensive workup, she was …

Real physician voices, twice a week

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