Like many parents, I love to talk about my children. A conversation with someone to whom I’m newly introduced often begins: “Do you have children?” (Yes). “How many?” (Two). Their natural and understandable follow-up question usually is: “Boys or girls?”
Usually, I revel in the possibilities inherent in meeting someone new. However, at this moment I pause and silently protest. Ugg!! This is a question that one should NEVER ask someone …
Since the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), when civil service exams evaluated intellectual abilities, people have used cognitive assessments to identify special talents or, more commonly, to detect problems.
We’ve come a long way in 2,000 years! Today, neuropsychological batteries—combinations of assessments to detect dementia, learning disabilities, and cognitive impairments from chronic conditions or acute events—are widely used. Yet, far too often, these assessments are administered reactively, only after severe deficits …
In 2025, more than 38 million, or 1 in 10 Americans, live with Type 2 diabetes.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of the modern health care system, traditional care strategies for Type 2 diabetes often vastly overlook long-term individual and societal health outcomes in favor of short-term management of the disease. With over 20 years of experience as an endocrinologist at Harvard’s Joslin Diabetes Center, and as the Chief Medical Officer …
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Orthopedic surgeon Adil S. Ahmed discusses his article, “Academic medical centers under threat: the impact of funding cuts.” He outlines the essential, multifaceted roles of academic institutions in educating future doctors, conducting …
As we entered medical school, we were starry-eyed and hopeful about becoming primary care physicians. We romanticized building relationships with patients, providing high quality health care, serving our communities, and removing obstacles patients face when seeking care.
However, rotation after rotation, we were bombarded with discouragement.
“Being a primary care physician isn’t what it used to be.”
“You can’t get the support you need …
Recent headlines confirm what many Americans have sensed for the past few years: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is in crisis. A sweeping wave of layoffs is reshaping federal health agencies at every level—from the NIH to the CDC to the FDA. Some dismiss this as a political maneuver or an act of chaos. Others see it as an attack on career civil servants. I see …
It is a routine Saturday morning—I am sitting in my office, looking at the snowflakes dropping outside my window. As I sip on my cup of Earl Grey tea preparing my psyche for a busy day of managing an on-call shift on an acute care psychiatry floor, I am suddenly washed over by grief. A very similar Saturday a year ago, I was saying goodbye to my father as he …
“Some doctors type notes with their backs turned while I say things. I have aphasia. I need to be able to see people’s mouths and their eyes to help me understand.”
As a certified speech-language pathologist (SLP), I have spent most of my career working across the continuum of health care with people who have communication disabilities, such as aphasia. My patients have also included people with other …
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Cardiologist Stanley Liu discusses his article, “5 steps to ride out a non-compete without uprooting your family.” He shares his personal experience of being bound by an 18-month, 20-mile non-compete clause after …
The erosion of physician mentorship is not just a quiet tragedy; it is an accelerating crisis with rippling effects across the health care system. While much has been written about physician burnout and workforce shortages, far less attention has been paid to the vacuum this leaves in clinical mentorship, particularly in primary care. The implications for physician associates/assistants (PAs) are especially profound.
PAs were historically trained in the postgraduate space under …
After I was medically discharged from the military for seeking mental health treatment and transitioned out of surgery residency to recover, I isolated in guilt, shame, and exhaustion.
Despite my surgery program director telling me repeatedly that he was not disappointed in me and supporting me fully in my decision to transition into a different specialty where I could better take care of my health, I felt worthless …
If you are working as an independent or locum tenens physician, there’s a good chance you’ve found yourself wondering: Am I being paid fairly for my time and expertise? Unlike employed physicians, whose compensation is often shaped by established benchmarks and internal HR formulas, independent and locum tenens doctors are frequently left to navigate negotiations on their own—often with limited information.
Understanding what constitutes “fair market value” in this context is …
As health care embraces digital transformation, one truth is clear: AI’s success depends on data quality. No matter how advanced the algorithms, poor clinical data limits their effectiveness.
AI in health care: Promise meets reality
The health care technology landscape is abuzz with large language models (LLMs) and conversational AI applications that show remarkable capabilities in synthesizing patient information and streamlining clinical workflows. Clinicians …
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When Sam Altman recently said ChatGPT had become “too sycophantic,” the comment landed like a small UX confession—an admission that the model had gotten a little too flattering, a little too eager to please. Most coverage treated it as a byproduct of reinforcement learning. A bug to fix. A tone issue.
But that framing isn’t neutral.
Calling AI “too nice” is a values-based judgment. And it reflects something deeper than model …
So what exactly does collaborative health care mean? When we break this down into categories, there are three main approaches, each with a different benefit but ideally sharing the same end goal: to better improve patient outcomes. First, doctor to alternative practitioner. Secondly, patient to doctor. Lastly, patient to patient.
Years ago, I went through one of the biggest health battles of my life after being diagnosed with granulomatous mastitis (GM). …
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Pediatrician and certified coach Jessie Mahoney discusses her article, “Why physicians find negotiating challenging—and what they can do to negotiate better.” She explores why negotiation often feels stressful for physicians, linking it …
“What did you have for breakfast today?”
This phrase is a crucial part of my morning rounds.
While interacting with the patient, the greeting is very important. I believe doctors who approach the bedside without introducing themselves and who immediately ask about the patient’s active complaint tend to come across as less compassionate (whatever their actual intentions might be). This can hinder the development of the bond necessary for obtaining a complete …
In his book Ways of Attending, McGilchrist (2016) discusses a difference in attention—one that seeks organization and one that any attempt at organizing subverts. A bit like Schrödinger’s cat, just by looking, it is disturbed. In differing translations of Tranströmer’s poem Prelude from 17 Dikter (1954), about the moment upon wakening from a dream, he captures the infinite possibility that slides one fully awake into a new day, and which …
Monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA) twin pregnancies come with more scans, more risk, and more decisions to make in very little time. Parents are expected to absorb complex medical information, navigate unfamiliar terminology, and act quickly, often under pressure. When care teams do not meet that need for clarity and support, parents do what any reasonable person would do.
They go looking for answers.
In 2024, we published a study in Midwifery that explored …
As we near the end of Nurses Week, I can’t help but express my gratitude for our true health care heroes: nurses. Throughout my 20 years in medicine, I have worked with nurses on a daily basis. As an innocent, bumbling medical student, they would teach me how to place an IV or how to supplement potassium. In residency, they would teach the ins and outs of ICU care even …
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