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From Pakistan to Indiana: climate change and patient health

Health Policy

June 14, 2026

I am a proud Pakistani Hoosier.

My father immigrated from Pakistan in 1992 in search of a better life than what was possible back home. After moving around for work in those early years, my parents settled outside Indianapolis when I was four years old, and Indiana has been home ever since. As I now pursue my medical education, I find myself thinking often about the two places that shaped me …

The case for an AI-native health care platform

Brian Hudes, MD

Health Technology

June 14, 2026

From 1992 to 1995 I was a GI fellow. Nothing on the market made clinical sense for endoscopy reporting. The tools available were designed by people who had apparently never performed a procedure or written a note for one. I met a colleague in Australia, and together we built one of the first Windows-based endoscopy reporting systems in the country.

Microsoft Access. It worked.

It worked well until the United States moved …

10 ways to keep women physicians from leaving

Dawn Sears, MD

Physician

June 14, 2026

We all saw the report on early clinical departure. Women are leaving medicine at age 45.8. A senator immediately replied that we needed to be more selective and implied that medical school applicants should accept 30 plus years in a career that is crumbling under our feet.

We know the data. Women physicians have higher burnout than male physicians, and we also know that women physicians have double the suicide …

Physician trust in leadership drives health care execution

Dave Cummings, RN

Conditions and Diseases

June 14, 2026

Health care leaders often believe organizational struggles are driven by resistance to change. When initiatives fail, engagement declines, or operational performance weakens, the explanation frequently centers on physician pushback, burnout, staffing shortages, or financial pressure. But after years working in complex health care environments, I’ve come to believe many execution failures begin somewhere less visible and far more dangerous: the breakdown of trust between physicians and leadership.

In health care, trust …

Has higher education in India kept its promise?

Rao M. Uppu, PhD

Medical Education

June 14, 2026

Recent discussions about the employment prospects of PhD graduates in India prompted me to reflect on a broader question that I have considered for many years. India has expanded higher education dramatically over the past several decades, including medical education, doctoral training, and other professional programs. Yet expansion alone does not automatically translate into educational quality, research capacity, clinical excellence, or meaningful career pathways for highly trained graduates. The question …

The collusion in discussing prognosis with cancer patients

Kyle Edmonds, MD

Physician

June 14, 2026

Two people sit in an exam room. One has an illness that will end their life. The other knows. Neither wants to say it out loud, so neither does. The conversation drifts toward next steps (another scan, another line of therapy, another visit on the calendar), and both leave the room feeling that it went well.

This is not a thought experiment. In 2012, the New England Journal of Medicine published …

5 ways to calm fight or flight insomnia at bedtime

Lindsay Anderson

Conditions and Diseases

June 14, 2026

We all know the feeling of being in a stressful situation when the body’s fight-or-flight response kicks in. Your palms begin to sweat, your heart pounds, and your blood pressure rises as your brain signals that something may not be safe.

This response can be incredibly helpful when you need to respond to a real threat. However, when the body remains in this heightened state for too long, it can make …

Pediatric gender transition needs evidence, not ideology

William Malone, MD

Conditions and Diseases

June 13, 2026

One of America’s largest and most influential doctor groups earlier this year advised their members to stop conducting surgical interventions on minors who experience gender dysphoria.

In a new position statement, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons noted that “there is insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio” for those interventions. This announcement represents a watershed moment for the American medical establishment, one that could help spare thousands of vulnerable children …

Surgeon outcomes data is no longer ours alone

Marc Granson, MD

Physician

June 13, 2026

For thirty-five years, I was a practicing vascular surgeon in a four-person private vascular surgery group. For thirteen years, I also served as chairman of surgery for a large health network.

I sat in morbidity and mortality conferences and watched experienced surgeons present cases that quietly revealed patterns. I looked at internal scorecards and noticed which names appeared on the better side of the outcomes curve and which on the worse …

The corporate money behind psychedelic drug legalization

Martha Rosenberg

Conditions and Diseases

June 13, 2026

In April, President Trump, with psychedelic advocates HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. and podcaster Joe Rogan at his side, signed the “Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness” executive order, which dramatically decreases some drug approval times. FDA Commissioner Makary promptly issued priority review vouchers to companies that make psilocybin and the Ecstasy chemical cousin methylone.

Many public health professionals are surprised at how fast the move to legalize Schedule 1 …

You won the lawsuit. Search still says you lost.

Tim Brocklehurst, MBA

Health Technology

June 13, 2026

Kevin Pho has spent two decades making one argument to physicians: Your online reputation does not manage itself. Patients Google you before they call your office. What they find shapes their decision before you say a word. The solution, as he has consistently framed it, is to create content, to claim the top listings rather than leaving them to chance.

That advice is correct. It is also, in one specific and …

Experienced nurse pay is leadership, not a liability

Rennae Revell, RN

Conditions and Diseases

June 13, 2026

There was a time when longevity in nursing was something to be proud of, something that reflected commitment, growth, and a deep dedication to patient care. But somewhere along the way, that narrative has shifted. It has become increasingly unsettling to watch longevity in nursing, commitment, loyalty, and experience, be treated not as an asset, but as something to be managed, limited, and at times, even quietly penalized.

Many of us …

Workplace mental health is a culture problem

Ronke Lawal, MBA

Conditions and Diseases

June 13, 2026

The illusion of safety

“I suffer from depression and my boss told my coworker behind my back that I was using it as an excuse to be lazy, and that if I just listened to some Taylor Swift I’d feel much better.”
– Junior Associate

Anyone with an HR voice will tell you that one of the most important steps you can take to protect your well-being at work is to talk to …

AI medical notes are losing the patient story

Paul Vance, DO

Health Technology

June 13, 2026

There was a time when a SOAP note meant something simple and important. It was a shared language among clinicians: Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan, designed to capture what actually happened in the exam room and to communicate it clearly to the next physician who would care for the patient. It was, at its best, a tool for continuity, safety, and professional accountability.

That time is slipping away.

Over the past two decades, …

EMR errors get blamed on physicians, not systems

Dennis Hursh, Esq

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 …

Permanent discipline punishes nurses in recovery

Natalie Conrad, MBA, RN

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 …

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

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 12, 2026

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 …

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

Tiffiny Black, DM, MPA, MBA

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 …

How insulin drives polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome

Oluyemisi Famuyiwa, MD

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 …

3 traits the physician leadership model is missing

Bertina Marie Hooks, MD

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: …