KevinMD.com

July 15, 2026Jul 15, 2026

As physicians, we are taught to diagnose accurately and act quickly. Clinical guidelines assume that if we identify the problem, the health care system will provide the necessary tools to solve it. But what happens when the diagnosis is clear…

Recently, while working as an intern physician in South Sudan, I cared for a 9-year-old boy who had traveled from the outskirts of …

Conditions and diseases

We can rewrite DNA but not deliver it in time

Shaan R. Mody

July 15, 2026Jul 15, 2026

She was seven months old when her parents first noticed it. Not the peaceful stillness of sleep, but something heavier. Her arms, which had once reached for hanging toys, had grown quiet. Her head, once held with the wobbly determination of a healthy infant, began to drift. The milestones that seemed to be arriving suddenly began moving in reverse.

Weeks later, a child neurologist delivered the diagnosis: spinal muscular atrophy type …

Physician voices

The hospital that made us cut my child’s care in half

Christine Marie Deeths, MD

July 15, 2026Jul 15, 2026

When I was in medical school one day the dean stood up in front of my class holding a cheap, plain pen. He just stood there holding it for a minute without uttering a word. He then very slowly and…

When I was in medical school one day the dean stood up in front of my class holding a cheap, plain pen. He just stood there holding it for a minute without uttering a word. He then very slowly and deliberately said, “This, this pen is the most expensive tool you will ever hold. With this you will during your career spend hundreds of thousands of dollars.” He continued to …

Real physician voices, twice a week

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The Podcast by KevinMD

Why doctors hide their own depression until it nearly breaks them [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

July 14, 2026Jul 14, 2026

For 23 years, an emergency physician stayed calm in the chaos and held the line. Then one night he sat in the hospital parking lot, unable to start his car and drive home. In this episode, Kenneth Scott Burnham shares…

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Physician voices

What medicine gets wrong about names

Dr. Loshi Rajen

July 14, 2026Jul 14, 2026

While shadowing a senior colleague during Mental Health Act assessments in the U.K. a few months ago, I noticed something small but instructive. In his documentation for two different patients we had seen together, he referred to me as Dr…

Later that same day, while introducing me to colleagues who were joining us, he hesitated. Unsure which name …

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What medicine gets wrong about names

Conditions and diseases

When a DNR order becomes a legal liability

Teddy A. Teddy, MD

July 14, 2026Jul 14, 2026

A 78-year-old Black woman with advanced heart failure is admitted with shortness of breath. Her admission order set: full code. The next day, after a brief family conversation, a resident changes the order to DNR/DNI. No note explains the discussion. Two days later, she goes into cardiac arrest. The code team hesitates, then proceeds based on an outdated full code order still visible in the chart. The family later sues, …

Health technology

What software engineering just taught medicine about AI

Craig Hauben, MPA

July 14, 2026Jul 14, 2026

The most useful AI data for physicians published this year had nothing to do with medicine. In early June, Anthropic released a report called "When AI builds itself." One number matters more than the rest. As of May, more than…

The most useful AI data for physicians published this year had nothing to do with medicine.

In early June, Anthropic released a report called “When AI builds itself.” One number matters more than the rest. As of May, more than 80 percent of the code merged into the company’s own codebase was written by the very same AI. A typical Anthropic engineer now produces 5.8 times as much code per …

Health technology

5 hot takes on AI in health care from a physician CMO

Robert Murry, MD

July 14, 2026Jul 14, 2026

Everyone is talking about AI in health care, but I bring a somewhat unusual perspective to the discussion. In addition to serving as chief medical officer for NextGen Healthcare, I am a practicing family physician in a practice owned by a local hospital. I also own and operate a small practice with my wife, which gives me firsthand experience with the realities of independent medicine. On top of that, I …

Health policy

The question to ask after a hospital says it’s accredited

Reed Chiu

July 14, 2026Jul 14, 2026

China now has more than 100 JCI-accredited hospitals, the same Joint Commission International standard many U.S. patients recognize from conversations about hospital quality. That number surprises people. It also invites a dangerous shortcut: "JCI-accredited" becomes shorthand for "safe," "excellent," or…

China now has more than 100 JCI-accredited hospitals, the same Joint Commission International standard many U.S. patients recognize from conversations about hospital quality. That number surprises people. It also invites a dangerous shortcut: “JCI-accredited” becomes shorthand for “safe,” “excellent,” or “the best place for my operation.”

Patients deserve a more careful answer.

JCI accreditation matters. I do not dismiss it. But it is not a guarantee of outcomes, technical skill, complication management, …

Conditions and diseases

When a hit medical drama glorifies physician burnout

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

July 14, 2026Jul 14, 2026

I have spent the last few weeks watching a popular television drama set in a chaotic urban emergency department. After more than three decades of practicing psychiatry, I did not expect a network drama to affect me this way. It has felt like a strange form of therapy, vividly resurrecting the ghosts of my formative years and bringing back the exhausting, exhilarating days of medical school and my time as …

Health technology

Why AI clinical notes will never hold a trembling hand

Ope' Komolafe, MD

July 14, 2026Jul 14, 2026

It was one of the slower nights in December. The ICU PA and I were making small talk, and he handed me an AI-generated Christmas carol composed for ventilated ICU patients. Skimming through, I found the lines mischievously fascinating, if…

The prompt did not indicate a preference for note writing over Christmas cheer, but rather …

Physician voices

What rural community medicine really looks like

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

July 14, 2026Jul 14, 2026

I spent four years driving into rural Ohio for the developmental-behavioral clinics we built from scratch. The drives ran sixty to eighty miles each way, long enough to settle the mind and short enough to memorize every turn. I drove a white 15-passenger van, the kind no state trooper ever bothers to clock. I usually ran five miles over the limit, steady and unremarkable, blending into the landscape like another …

Physician voices

Who is your witness? A question for every patient

Tosin Adeyemi, MD

July 14, 2026Jul 14, 2026

With three months left of intern year of internal medicine residency, I took the leap and adopted a dog from the Dallas Animal Services shelter. She is my SuperNova. Nova is a two-year-old Lab-Pitbull mix with big brown eyes that…

With three months left of intern year of internal medicine residency, I took the leap and adopted a dog from the Dallas Animal Services shelter. She is my SuperNova.

Nova is a two-year-old Lab-Pitbull mix with big brown eyes that hold your heart and a wagging tail that could power a small town. Her world is simple: following me from room to room, shaking with excitement when I pull out her …

The Podcast by KevinMD

Why the cure for physician burnout is seeing fewer patients [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

July 13, 2026Jul 13, 2026

For 15 years, a primary care physician saw more than 22 patients a day and slowly lost herself to exhaustion. It followed her home every night and onto every vacation. In this episode, Jerina Gani explains how she broke that…

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Medical education

Family medicine match rates signal a workforce problem

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

July 13, 2026Jul 13, 2026

Each March, the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) Match offers a snapshot of how the next generation of physicians views the landscape of American medicine. The 2026 Match set records in nearly every category: more applicants, more positions filled, and high overall match rates. But beneath the headline strength, two datapoints tell a more complicated story about the future of primary care.

Family medicine once again posted one of the lowest …

Conditions and diseases

How doctors die differently than the rest of us

Mindy Leake, DNP, PMHNP-BC

July 13, 2026Jul 13, 2026

When my father was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, I made him a promise. I told him I would not let him die in a hospital. I had been an ICU nurse for years by then. I knew what dying…

When my father was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, I made him a promise. I told him I would not let him die in a hospital.

I had been an ICU nurse for years by then. I knew what dying in a hospital looked like. The fluorescent lights. The strangers in scrubs. The machines making noise at 3 a.m. The family members standing in hallways being asked to make decisions they …

Health technology

Why medicine is late to asynchronous telehealth

Tod Stillson, MD

July 13, 2026Jul 13, 2026

A patient called my office at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday. She had a UTI. She knew she had a UTI. She'd treated the same thing twice before that year and could probably have diagnosed it faster than a med…

A patient called my office at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday. She had a UTI. She knew she had a UTI. She’d treated the same thing twice before that year and could probably have diagnosed it faster than a med student. What she needed was a one-minute conversation and a prescription. What she got was my voicemail, a suggestion to call back in the morning, and an appointment slot 17 …

Conditions and diseases

How to stop fighting with the people you love

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

July 13, 2026Jul 13, 2026

We all bump into conflicts, whether at home with our partner or kids, or at work with colleagues. Many of these fights feel necessary in the moment but turn out to be exhausting and pointless. The good news? A few ideas from Immanuel Kant, mixed with a dash of Stoic wisdom and a clear-eyed look at how humans actually work, can help dial them down.

Kant pointed out something fundamental in …

Physician finance

How to evaluate a practice management consultant

GetPracticeHelp

July 13, 2026Jul 13, 2026

Most operational decisions in an independent medical or dental practice are made under time pressure with incomplete information. Hiring a practice management consultant is the decision practice owners turn to when they recognize that the operational gap exceeds their capacity to close. The mistake is not the decision to bring in outside help. The mistake is signing an engagement contract before disclosing what success looks like and verifying that the …

Physician voices

Why physician burnout is an exposure problem, not a failing

Dr. Paul Pers

July 13, 2026Jul 13, 2026

Burnout is often described in terms of workload: long hours, full waiting rooms, administrative burden. Those factors matter. But they do not fully explain a pattern many of us recognize. Some days are manageable on paper, with reasonable patient numbers…

Burnout is often described in terms of workload: long hours, full waiting rooms, administrative burden. Those factors matter. But they do not fully explain a pattern many of us recognize.

Some days are manageable on paper, with reasonable patient numbers and no major crises, yet feel exhausting by mid-afternoon. Other days are objectively busier but somehow easier to get through. By mid-afternoon, between routine follow-ups and repeat prescriptions, the day can …

Real physician voices, twice a week

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