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Why our health system fails chronic disease patients

Conditions

October 20, 2025

John, a man in his early sixties, waited nine months to see me about memory problems. When he finally arrived, I had twenty minutes. Eighteen went to detective work, extracting fragments of history from conflicting accounts, piecing together months of decline from unreliable memories, and completing a paper-based subjective memory test. What should have been a full consultation of patient-focused care, was reduced to only a few hurried minutes at …

AI moderation of online health communities

Kathleen Muldoon, PhD

Conditions

October 20, 2025

This summer, my Facebook account was permanently “disabled.”

I had been helping another mother navigate a medical decision for her child, a young adult who is living with a degenerative condition. It wasn’t medical advice. It was empathy, drawn from my own lived experience as a medical mother, a certified coach, and years of teaching courageous communication at a medical school.

Meta AI had flagged the conversation as a violation of Community …

Why physicians need a personal CFO and how tax mitigation fits in

Erik Brenner, CFP

Finance

October 20, 2025

As a physician, you are no stranger to complexity. From the first days of medical school to the years of long shifts in residency, you make high-stakes decisions every day. Yet many doctors tell us they feel too busy, or under-resourced, to give their money the same level of care.

That is where a Personal CFO helps. Just as a hospital relies on a chief financial officer to align budgets, risks, …

Why doctors must fight misinformation online

Monzur Morshed, MD and Kaysan Morshed

Conditions

October 20, 2025

Not long ago, a patient came to my busy clinic holding her phone. She had recently watched one of my short educational videos on heart attack warning signs, in Bengali. She told me, “Doctor, I did not know women can have different symptoms than men. That is why I came in today.”

That heartfelt conversation might have truly saved her life. And it was made possible not inside a hospital, but …

A urologist’s perspective on presidential health transparency

William Lynes, MD

Conditions

October 20, 2025

As a urologist, I consider myself an expert on the subject of prostate cancer. Here is a urologist’s view of a hypothetical announcement from a former U.S. president, five months after leaving office, of widespread high-grade metastatic prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males. It begins as a cancer in the prostate, and with progression, metastatic disease occurs, primarily in the axial skeleton. Prostate cancer is known …

Why physician wellness must be treated as a core business strategy [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

October 19, 2025

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

Psychiatrist, internist, and addiction medicine specialist Muhamad Aly Rifai discusses his article “It’s time to operationalize physician wellness.” Muhamad explains why wellness cannot remain a slogan or a poster …

The science of hydration: milk vs. sports drinks

Larry Kaskel, MD

Conditions

October 19, 2025

I thought of this while watching the Cincinnati Open tennis today. Between games, a sports drink ad flashed on screen claiming it “hydrates better than water.” The players kept chugging neon bottles, and the announcer repeated the tagline like gospel.

That is when it hit me: For recovery, I would still reach for milk.

Hydration is more than water replacement.

Hydration is not just about replacing fluids; it is about keeping them in …

Why caring for a parent is hard for doctors

Barbara Sparacino, MD

Conditions

October 19, 2025

I can sit with patients and families and talk about hospice, dementia, or end-of-life care without hesitation. Years of training as a physician and geriatric psychiatrist have prepared me for those conversations. But when my own parent needed care, all that training suddenly felt useless.

Medical knowledge didn’t shield me from fear or guilt. It didn’t stop the second-guessing that came with every decision. It didn’t help me navigate the family …

A pediatrician’s role in national research

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

October 19, 2025

I was not just a contributor. I was the pediatrician in the room, the one who translated clinical reality into research clarity, even when the system preferred abstraction.

From 1997 to 2003, I lived a six-year burst of energy: equal parts clinical invention, research precision, and institutional resistance. It was my Trinity Site: a catalytic moment where everything fused: rural care delivery, editorial rigor, and systems reform. The fallout still shapes …

How older adults became YouTube’s steadiest viewers and what it means for Alphabet

Adwait Chafale

Conditions

October 19, 2025

A demographic shift in viewership

With the rise of streaming, one platform is surging to prominence. According to Nielsen’s March 2025 report, YouTube now commands the highest total TV usage share of any media company at 11.6 percent. This marks a 53 percent increase in viewership compared to two years ago. But it is not because of younger generations sensationalized “addiction” with phones. It is a surge driven largely by …

The danger of calling medicine a “calling”

Santoshi Billakota, MD

Physician

October 19, 2025

The idea that medicine is a “calling” has been entwined deeply within our profession. From white coat ceremonies to recruitment posters featuring smiling doctors holding stethoscopes, we are told that to enter medicine is to answer a higher purpose. This framing is powerful. It inspires loyalty, fuels commitment, and builds identity. That is how the brainwashing begins as it also hides a dangerous truth: Labeling medicine as a calling has …

How retraining the physician mindset can boost resilience and joy in medicine [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

October 18, 2025

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

Licensed counselor and coach Mary Remón discusses her article “A mindset shift for physicians: Retrain your brain to see what’s going well.” Mary explains how physicians are trained to scan constantly for …

How AI on social media fuels body dysmorphia

STRIPED, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Policy

October 18, 2025

The alarming relationship between artificial intelligence and adolescent body dysmorphia

That is what the American Health Law Association called the global increase in social media usage: an epidemic.

Indeed, social media usage and reliance, especially by youth, is becoming a mental health phenomenon quickly escalating out of control.

Nearly 25 percent of youth report spending over four hours on social media daily, with 46 percent of adolescents claiming that social media …

Physician work-life balance and family

Francisco M. Torres, MD

Physician

October 18, 2025

As a parent and a doctor of nearly four decades, I’ve often found myself navigating the rugged terrain of a dual existence: the life of a devoted physician, and the life of a dedicated parent. I have not always succeeded in both arenas. My wife and I both bear the weight of our professions, drawn into the noble yet demanding world of medicine. Our missions and ambitions, while fulfilling, have …

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Physician work-life balance and family

Why hesitation over the HPV vaccine threatens public health and equity

Ayesha Khan

Conditions

October 18, 2025

In the quiet that follows a routine pediatric check-up, a single word, “vaccines,” can suddenly change the air. Where vaccines were once a simple part of childhood, they have become something parents scrutinize, debate, and sometimes outright resist. The shift is palpable, and it is increasingly showing up in clinic rooms every day.

As a medical student training in New York City, I am constantly struck by a paradox: We live …

What psychiatry teaches us about professionalism, loss, and becoming human

Hannah Wulk

Education

October 18, 2025

There is an old parable about a farmer whose horse runs away.

The neighbors cry, “Such bad luck!”

The farmer only replies, “Maybe so, maybe not. We will see.”

The next day, the horse returns with two wild horses. “Such good fortune!” they cheer.

Again, the farmer answers, “Maybe so, maybe not. We will see.”

Soon after, the farmer’s son breaks his leg taming one of the horses. “Such misfortune!”

The farmer answers, “Maybe so, maybe …

How Gen Z is reshaping health care through DIY approaches and digital tools [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

October 17, 2025

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

Amanda Heidemann, family physician and senior clinical content consultant for clinical effectiveness at Wolters Kluwer Health, discusses her article, “Gen Z’s DIY approach to health care.” Amanda explains how digital natives are …

Love and loss in the oncology ward

Dr. Damane Zehra

Physician

October 17, 2025

In the quiet moments of illness, I witness love and loss unfold.

I usually place the beds of relatively sick patients closest to my workstation. While I can monitor all the patients, except for a few female beds behind curtains, this arrangement helps me keep a closer eye on those who are more ill, particularly those receiving chemotherapy.

Directly in front of my counter lies a 50-year-old gentleman recently diagnosed with primary …

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Love and loss in the oncology ward

The weight of genetic testing in a family

Rebecca Thompson, MD

Physician

October 17, 2025

An excerpt from Held Together: A Shared Memoir of Motherhood, Medicine, and Imperfect Love.

Scott and I held hands as the last few minutes of waiting expanded to rival the anticipation of the days that had already passed. Two weeks ago at this same medical center, our perinatologist had performed a chorionic villus sampling, the procedure to collect the fragment of placenta that would determine our course. I had been …

A surgeon’s view on RVUs and moral injury

Rene Loyola, MD

Physician

October 17, 2025

For over forty years, I worked as a general and vascular surgeon. For the last ten of those years, I was employed under an RVU-based compensation model. That period is when my dissatisfaction with medicine truly began. Complex, life-saving operations were reduced to “productivity units.” The pressure was relentless, the system unforgiving.

And unlike primary care physicians, surgeons do not have the option of concierge or direct-pay models. We are necessarily …