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The hidden dangers of over-the-counter weight-loss supplements

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

Conditions

August 28, 2025

In July 2017, 24-year-old mother Lucero Garza sought a natural diet pill to aid in her journey to lose weight gained after pregnancy. Without consulting a doctor, Garza bought the supplement’ Avitia Cobrax’ via Facebook. While the supplement was marketed as a natural remedy, its effects were anything but remedial. After consuming the product, Garza began experiencing severe headaches and ultimately fell into a coma. Tragically, she passed six …

Implementing value-based telehealth pain management and substance misuse therapy service

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

August 28, 2025

The overlapping challenges of chronic pain and substance misuse overwhelm health care systems. Many people live with persistent pain, while others struggle with substance misuse, and some face both conditions simultaneously. This complex public health crisis is marked by rising opioid-related deaths, widespread under-treatment, and significant barriers to accessing care. Implementing a telehealth-based pain and substance misuse service represents a transformative response, bringing evidence-based, patient-centered treatment directly to individuals wherever …

How an insider advocate can save a loved one

Chrissie Ott, MD

Physician

August 28, 2025

Today I helped a family friend in a medical crisis. My friend’s elderly mom had been admitted to the hospital after a series of falls. In hospital medicine, this is a tale as old as time. Falls often herald the beginning of a downhill trajectory.

Experienced docs know to look for urinary tract infections, electrolyte abnormalities, dehydration, constipation, over-medication and more. We know that delirium (an alteration in mental status that …

Why medical notes have become billing scripts instead of patient stories

Sriman Swarup, MD, MBA

Tech

August 28, 2025

We tell ourselves documentation is for patient safety. For continuity. For protection. But let’s be honest. It’s for billing. And once you see that clearly, it is hard to unsee.

In training, I was taught that the note reflects the thinking of the physician. That it should tell the story of the patient and the rationale for each decision. But in practice, it does not. It is a tool for revenue …

A powerful story of addiction, strength, and redemption

Ryan McCarthy, MD

Physician

August 28, 2025

Tough and tender at the same time, Linda is a woman with a broad smile, the kind who likes to “fish all weekend at the lake, a place where I don’t think about anything. Or, anyone.” I often smelled cigarette smoke on her, and she has the raspy voice that comes from a lifetime of stepping outside on the porch to light up. She embodies the physical strength that comes …

An ER nurse explains why the system is collapsing [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

August 27, 2025

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

Professional development practitioner and veteran emergency nurse Kristen Cline discusses her article, “America’s ER crisis: Why the system is collapsing from within.” Using the TV drama “The Pitt” as …

Why reforming medical boards is critical to saving patient care

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Physician

August 27, 2025

Imagine a dedicated physician, after years of rigorous training and countless lives saved, facing a medical board complaint over a minor issue—perhaps a clerical error in documentation or a subjective interpretation of a clinical decision. What should be a straightforward matter escalates into a career-threatening ordeal. State medical boards, endowed with significant authority, often wield it with little accountability. Armed with prosecutors who prioritize winning over truth, boards can distort …

How denial of hypertension endangers lives and what doctors can do

Dr. Aminat O. Akintola

Conditions

August 27, 2025

“Doctor, it’s not my portion. I don’t have hypertension,” she said confidently, shifting her wrapper and returning my gaze like I had just accused her of something terrible.

The blood pressure monitor read 170/120 mmHg. I had just measured it myself twice, yet here I was, facing a patient who flat-out refused to believe her numbers.

She was a middle-aged woman who came in complaining of a headache and body weakness. She …

AI in health care is moving too fast for the human heart

Tiffiny Black, DM, MPA, MBA

Tech

August 27, 2025

Health care is in the middle of a technological reckoning. AI and IT innovations promise efficiency, predictive analytics, and system-wide transformation. Yet inside hospitals, clinics, and virtual care platforms, the psychological fallout tells a different story, one that leadership must reckon with before the cost becomes irreversible.

The silent resistance: Psychological transition vs. technical adoption

Most health care executives measure success by how fast they implement new systems. But psychological readiness is …

How physicians can reclaim resilience through better sleep, nutrition, and exercise

Kim Downey, PT & Ziya Altug, PT, DPT and Shirish Sachdeva, PT, DPT

Conditions

August 27, 2025

Imagine a family physician who works 12-hour days packed with complex cases and endless paperwork. They may skip meals, miss their child’s recital, and stay late to finish charting. Patient care feels rushed, and the physician begins to feel emotionally numb and irritable. Driving home exhausted, the doctor wonders if medicine was the right career choice! A physician’s role is considered a calling, and when it starts to feel like …

This isn’t burnout, it’s moral injury [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

August 26, 2025

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

Family physician Jonathan Bushman discusses his article, “The hidden moral injury behind value-based health care.” He shares the story of a young physician who was told to remove her most complex patients …

Why heart and brain must work together for love

Felicia Cummings, MD

Physician

August 26, 2025

Come sit down and I will start
To tell a tale of Harvy heart,
And how his feud with Brian brain
Flushed their friendship down the drain.

Brian brain and Harvy heart
Were never very far apart.
Harvy fast and Brian slow,
They worked together, don’t you know?

Then one day they had a spat
Over whom to point their loving at.
Harvy thought that he should lead
Since hearts are much like trusty steeds!

Brian brain thought he was best
Since loving …

Who are you outside of the white coat?

Annia Raja, PhD

Conditions

August 26, 2025

It is a question that has stopped more than a few of my physician clients in their tracks: Who are you outside of the white coat?

I do not mean your hobbies, though yes, of course those matter. I mean your identity. Your core sense of self when you strip away the pager, the patient lists, the provider ID, and even the deeply ingrained instincts to care, to fix, to achieve. …

Read more…

Who are you outside of the white coat?

How hospitals can prepare for CMS’s new patient safety rule

Kim Adelman, PhD

Conditions

August 26, 2025

Medical errors happen every day, and patients are being harmed in hospitals. Despite years of tracking and reporting outcome-based quality measures, preventable harm remains widespread, prompting the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to launch the Patient Safety Structural Measure (PSSM). This measure, released in August 2024, focuses on structural and cultural root causes of harm rather than just retrospective results of quality improvement initiatives.

In our consultancy practice, we’re …

Physician practice ownership: risks, rewards, and reality

Paul Morton, CFP

Finance

August 26, 2025

A physician’s financial journey isn’t always linear, and the journey can’t always be predicted in a how-to book. While the hospital-employed physician normally gravitates toward a path filled with benefits and retirement plans, the equity owner physician, or physician practice owner—both terms used interchangeably—has a much different pathway. Let’s dive into the equity owner physician a bit further.

Why choose ownership?

Like the term “business owner,” equity ownership physician is a generic …

How peer support can save physician lives [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

August 25, 2025

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

Anesthesiologist and clinical mental health counselor Maire Daugharty discusses her article, “Why peer support can save lives in high-pressure medical careers.” Drawing from her personal experience of losing three colleagues to suicide …

Why AI in health care needs the same scrutiny as chemotherapy

Rafael Rolon Rivera, MD

Tech

August 25, 2025

We’ve all seen the hype.

AI will revolutionize health care. It will cut documentation time. Improve diagnoses. Save lives. Maybe even replace doctors.

But here’s what I know after 11 years as a hospitalist: Hype without evidence is dangerous. And AI—especially in medicine—isn’t just software. It’s treatment.

If we’re going to let AI influence life-or-death decisions, it needs to meet the same standard as any clinical intervention. That means rigorous trials, transparent design, …

The truth about fat in whole milk and your health

Larry Kaskel, MD

Conditions

August 25, 2025

For decades, you were told that whole milk was the devil in a glass. Doctors (including me), dietitians, and public health agencies told you to toss the red cap and grab the blue — skim, 1 percent, or 2 percent milk. Why? Because whole milk had fat. And fat, particularly saturated fat, was supposed to clog your arteries like grease in a kitchen drain.

Except we were wrong.

The fat in whole …

How pain clinics contribute to societal safety

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

August 25, 2025

In today’s interconnected society, individual health shapes the well-being of communities. This is evident in the role of pain clinics, which have evolved beyond their traditional mandate of managing chronic pain. A recent peer-reviewed research publication in the SVOA Medical Research journal highlights how pain clinics are contributing to societal safety by addressing risks that extend beyond the clinical setting; promoting safer roads, stronger families, and healthier workplaces.

The clinical …

Why primary care needs better dermatology training

Alex Siauw

Conditions

August 25, 2025

About a month ago, I developed a very sudden and alarming skin condition—clusters of painful, itchy bumps that quickly spread across my arms, legs, and chest. At first, I was not overly worried. I made an appointment with my primary care physician, expecting answers. But the exam was brief—she took a cursory glance and speculated it was an allergic reaction. To her credit, she didn’t jump to conclusions. She snapped …

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