How to stay safe from back-to-school illnesses

Conditions
October 15, 2025

From daycare to college, the back-to-school season almost always correlates to one thing: a rise in respiratory illnesses. In late summer, when children are returning to their classrooms, outbreaks of illnesses like strep throat, influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) become more common, and schools can quickly become amplifiers of community transmission. These infections can spread rapidly through contact with surfaces where the virus or bacteria is present, like …

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The burden of the eldest daughter

Physician
October 15, 2025

Were you the one who always held it together? The responsible one? The one who made sure everyone else was okay, sometimes at the cost of your own well-being?

For most eldest daughters, this role is inevitable. We don’t choose it. We are handed it, early and often, because we are so “capable.” We accept this role and excel at it. That’s what most eldest daughters do with whatever is handed …

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A doctor’s letter from a federal prison

Physician
October 15, 2025

Understanding the legal process in America is not easy, and I do not envy the attorneys who try to defend doctors in court. I do envy them for their protections. Lawyers, for the most part, as elected members of Congress, create our laws. Others, also for the most part lawyers, are selected to be U.S. Attorneys, and they enforce those laws. Lawyers called judges control our courtrooms. Almost all of …

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A surgeon’s reflections on God, intelligence, and being a good cell in the universe [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 14, 2025
YouTube video

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Surgeon Fateh Entabi discusses his article “A surgeon’s take on God, intelligence, and cosmic responsibility.” Fateh reflects on how the complexity of the human body inspired him to think more broadly about …

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A doctor’s tribute to her father

Physician
October 14, 2025

“Who would you go on a date with, and why?” That was the question that came up in a recent speech workshop. People shared fun, lighthearted answers. But for me, the answer came straight from my heart. I would go on a date with my dad.

My father passed away nearly fifteen years ago, just before my life was about to begin a whole new chapter. I was newly married, preparing …

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The link between financial literacy and physician burnout

Finance
October 14, 2025

An excerpt from The Savvy Physician: A Financial Wellness Handbook for Physicians and Professionals.

As a physician, helping people in need is among the greatest honors and privileges in the world. In the complex world of medicine, physicians and health care professionals have the opportunity and privilege to enormously contribute to patient well-being at a time of significant personal and/or family health crisis.

In addition, many physicians and health care professionals …

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Treating autism and ADHD as a spectrum, not a contradiction

Physician
October 14, 2025

He was five, wiry, and fast, so fast his mother looped her purse strap around his wrist in the waiting room. She spoke softly, in Spanish, explaining that he could not sit still, could not sleep, could not stop. As she described his meltdowns, he interrupted with nonsense sentences, unrelated to her words, untethered from context. It was not defiance; it was overflow.

I and my team of CNA Spanish interpreters …

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The infectious hypothesis of heart disease revisited

Conditions
October 14, 2025

I have written here before about my growing conviction that coronary artery disease is not just about LDL, inflammation, or bad luck. It is time to talk about what might be the elephant in the cath lab: infection.

A recent pathology study out of Japan looked at coronary plaque samples from patients with symptomatic CAD. Using both immunohistochemistry and PCR, they found Chlamydia pneumoniae in every single sample. All fifty plaques …

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Why bureaucracy is threatening the survival of private practice physicians [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 13, 2025
YouTube video

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Neurologist Scott Tzorfas discusses his article “The crushing bureaucracy that’s driving independent physicians to extinction.” Scott shares his firsthand experience as a neurologist in private practice for three decades, where endless pre-authorizations, …

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Why direct primary care (DPC) models fail

Policy
October 13, 2025

I’m going to say something controversial: the DPC community’s obsession with “purity” is missing the point. After two decades designing health care financial models, negotiating payer & vendor contracts, and building compliance frameworks, I’ve learned that most alternative payment models don’t fail because they’re impure. They fail because someone forgot to do the math.

When $1 million can’t save a bad idea

The University of Houston medical school launched a direct primary …

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The silent victories of medicine

Physician
October 13, 2025

Some battles announce themselves with trumpets; others creep in silently, spreading their fire unseen. His battle was the latter. What began as a hidden spark in his muscles had grown into an inferno consuming his young body from within.

He was barely thirteen, a boy from Bihar, when fate dragged him into this fight. By the time he reached us, fever had bound him for three relentless weeks. His pulse was …

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How timing affects chemical exposure risks

Conditions
October 13, 2025

As physicians, we’re used to thinking about dose (how much medication, how often, and for how long). But there’s another dimension that’s often overlooked: time. For decades, we’ve known that the body processes medicines differently depending on the time of day. A blood pressure pill or chemotherapy drug can have markedly different effects depending on when it’s taken. This field, known as chronopharmacology, has transformed how we think about drug …

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A physician’s tribute to respiratory therapists

Conditions
October 13, 2025

Larry is a friend. We are not besties. He is a neighbor, a few miles down the road from our forty-eight-acre hobby farm in our quaint little town, surrounded by farmland, generational farmers, rusted old tractors, cornfields, livestock, and a few homes interspersed in between. He is a neighbor, nonetheless. And a friend.

I first met Larry when we were building our country home, where my wife dreamt of raising a …

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A cancer doctor’s warning about the future of medicine

Physician
October 13, 2025

I am a cancer doctor.

It took me many years to become one and while I paid for my medical school tuition, my residency and fellowship training was partially subsidized by government funds for general medical education. Every residency and fellowship is partially funded this way because the government recognizes the need for doctors. I have also had an NIH funded basic research lab where I did research that has contributed …

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How to protect your voice like a professional

Conditions
October 13, 2025

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently made headlines for his marathon public appearances, speeches, and press briefings. Watching him, I could not help but wonder what his voice coach or speech-language pathologist might say. As a clinician who specializes in voice therapy, I see teachers, pastors, lawyers, and health care providers (people who depend on their voices every day). Politicians are no different.

Our voices are often our most valuable tool, yet …

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How physicians can use faith, family, friendship, and fulfillment to combat burnout [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 12, 2025
YouTube video

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Rheumatologist Ananta Subedi discusses his article “The 4 foundations that sustain physicians through burnout and balance.” Ananta reflects on his journey from medical education in Nepal to building a rheumatology practice in …

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Is Alzheimer’s an infectious disease?

Conditions
October 12, 2025

For decades, neurology has told us that Alzheimer’s disease is caused by toxic proteins (amyloid plaques and tau tangles) that clog the brain. Pharmaceutical companies have poured billions into anti-amyloid drugs designed to wash them away. The results? Repeated failures, high-profile disappointments, and a handful of marginal approvals with no meaningful improvement in patients’ lives. Sound familiar? In cardiology, we’ve built an entire industry on lowering LDL cholesterol. Statins move …

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Life after GLP-1s: How to sustain weight loss

Conditions
October 12, 2025

It should come as no surprise that GLP-1 receptor agonists have revolutionized the management of obesity and metabolic syndrome. These drugs have shown extraordinary promise in regulating appetite, promoting weight loss, and improving blood sugar control. Nearly one in eight adults (twelve percent) have taken a GLP-1 agonist, and forty-three percent of adults diagnosed with diabetes have used these therapies, numbers likely to have increased further in the last year …

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Teaching medical students what it is really like to be a physician

Physician
October 12, 2025

Physician burnout and physician suicide continue to plague the medical profession. Everyone knows the tragic statistic: one U.S. physician commits suicide each day. While some statistics report a decrease in the problem over time, the accuracy of these reports is questionable. The reality is that it is far too common.

The term burnout, while a necessary label, implies that a single factor causes it. In reality, each burned-out physician is different. …

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