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Why patient-centered care transforms chronic pain management

Physician

March 20, 2026

The real magic in chronic pain care isn’t just the pills or the procedures, but it’s the connection between doctor and patient. When a physician shows genuine empathy and truly listens, patients feel seen, trust deepens, and outcomes improve in ways that often outshine standard treatments. Take this striking study: Among more than 1,400 people with chronic low back pain, those cared for by highly empathic doctors ended up with …

Beyond standard protocols: How translational science helps difficult IVF cases

Lina Gabriela Villar Muñoz, MD

Conditions

March 20, 2026

I have stood in that exam room more times than I care to admit, my hand lingering on the door handle, searching for a way to tell a patient that she has no viable embryos to transfer because her egg quality is poor. “Poor egg quality” is not a diagnosis but an observation, and one that leaves us uncertain whether the problem is intrinsic to the patient or a response …

Navigating your orthopedic surgery residency after Match Day

John E. Klibanoff, MD

Education

March 20, 2026

For students matching into orthopedic surgery, Match Day is both an achievement and an invitation. I matched 36 years ago. I still remember the anxiety of not knowing where on my list I would match. Orthopedic surgery was exclusive then. It still is. Recent analyses show that orthopedic surgery offered 916 residency positions across 218 programs in 2024, with a 74.3 percent match rate for U.S. allopathic seniors. That is …

Evidence-based medicine vs. clinical judgment: a medical student’s perspective

Jay Pendyala

Education

March 20, 2026

As a third-year medical student, I always carried three essentials during my emergency medicine clerkship: a stethoscope, a Celsius, and at my fingertips, MDCalc. With a few taps, I could translate uncertainty into structure: the Wells criteria for pulmonary embolism, NEXUS for cervical spine imaging, CAM for delirium, COWS for opioid withdrawal. These tools did not replace my clinical reasoning, but they scaffolded it. They allowed me to justify and …

How to manage a difficult patient and survive a high-conflict encounter

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

March 20, 2026

Every difficult patient is not dangerous. But every high-conflict encounter carries risk. Doctors like to think clinical skill will protect them: It will not. In modern practice, a physician can make a sound decision, communicate it poorly, and still walk into a complaint, a licensing problem, a lawsuit, or public reputational damage. That risk becomes even sharper in the care of chronic pain, substance misuse, insurance-driven visits, and patients whose …

How the new DOT ruling on food allergies threatens air travel safety

Lianne Mandelbaum, PT

Conditions

March 20, 2026

On March 18, 2026, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a ruling that could make air travel less safe for millions of Americans with food allergies, by limiting a basic accommodation many rely on to prevent life-threatening exposure. Food allergies are a serious, life-threatening medical condition that remains widely misunderstood. For millions of travelers, navigating airline policies is an unpredictable challenge, where inconsistent accommodations and societal skepticism create unnecessary risk. …

The secret sauce of leadership trust in health care teams

All Levels Leadership

Physician

March 20, 2026

One of the true joys of leadership lies in building and leading an effective team. The sense of a shared vision and of all parts of the team striving in a coordinated fashion toward it is exhilarating. In contrast, we have all experienced what it is like when a team is struggling, with no common vision or shared effort. You might be wondering, “What is it that separates effective teams …

The psychology of hero worship: When admiration overrides reason

Rao M. Uppu, PhD

Conditions

March 20, 2026

Emotional contagion and crowd psychology are powerful forces that shape human behavior in large gatherings. In India, where collective identity and reverence for public figures often run deep, emotional responses within crowds may take on added intensity. This reflection draws on an incident from Tamil Nadu to illustrate how collective emotion can sometimes override proportion and common sense, with implications for community safety and well-being.

This may sound amusing today, but …

Florida health care legislation 2026: top bills to watch

Del Carter, MD

Policy

March 20, 2026

As Florida’s 2026 state legislative session reaches the halfway point, there are several health care bills up for discussion. While every session seems to have its own theme, common issues repeat themselves year after year. Here are some of the top bills involving health care in the Florida Legislature today.

AI regulation in insurance

Artificial intelligence (AI) and the concern for its regulation continues to be a hot topic. Mandatory Human Reviews …

How junk food shrinks your brain and fuels depression

Marc Arginteanu, MD

Conditions

March 20, 2026

Let us cut to the chase: Your daily dose of junk food is not just padding your waistline; it is quietly eroding the most complex organ in your body. The evidence is no longer scattered case reports or instinctive hunches. It is an ever-growing stack of human epidemiology, neuroimaging, and mechanistic biology. Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are associated with depression, a shriveling brain, systemic inflammation (which crosses the blood-brain barrier), gut …

The 3 levels of psychiatric treatment: biological, psychosocial, moral

Mark D. Kilgus, MD, PhD and Nicolas Badre, MD

Conditions

March 19, 2026

One can consider that psychiatric treatment occurs on three levels: biological, then psychosocial, and then moral-existential. First, if needed, the psychiatrist prescribes medication to rectify biological abnormalities. Second, the therapist facilitates psychotherapy to address psychosocial problems. Third, the therapist uses the clinician-patient …

Violence against health care workers: the silence must end

Carleigh Beriont and June Zanes Garen, RN

Policy

March 19, 2026

I spent decades as a nurse, choosing a profession grounded in care, patience, science, and the belief that showing up for others matters, even on the hardest days.

In 2017, that belief was shattered when I was physically assaulted at work. I survived, but I carry the scars of that day, both visible and unseen.

I have worked hard to heal through therapy, reflection, and learning how to trust my body again. …

Why early detection matters: Transforming lung cancer care [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 19, 2026

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

This article is sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company.

In this special sponsored episode from Eli Lilly and Company, I am joined by Dr. …

Why clinician education must prioritize nutrition training

Beata Pasek, EdD

Conditions

March 19, 2026

When I began coordinating GI research in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), I noticed something unexpected: Second- and third-year GI fellows, bright, motivated, steeped in medical science, had received little to no formal training on diet’s role in disease. For many, nutrition was treated as peripheral, “something dietitians handle,” rather than core physician knowledge.

This is not a reflection on their ability or commitment. It reflects how medical education is structured. U.S. …

Why residents unionize: systemic reform, not entitlement

Paz De la Torre, MD

Physician

March 19, 2026

I read a recent JAMA Viewpoint on medical trainee unions not just with disappointment, but with a deep sense of recognition. It presents a narrow and skewed interpretation of unionization, framing it not as a response to systemic dysfunction but as a threat to medical education and hospital finances.

We do not unionize for marginal gains or lighter schedules. We are responding to an embedded educational hierarchy that excludes us …

Moving beyond the false binary of medicine as a calling

Christie Mulholland, MD

Physician

March 19, 2026

There is a resident doctor on TikTok named Julia who is also a raver. She posts about her training, and her weekends, dancing, festivals, après ski, living a full and visibly joyful life outside the hospital. The comments on her videos are glowing. “I would love to have a doctor like you.” “You seem like a real person.” A lot of patients are not looking for a self-sacrificing doctor who …

Physician financial risk: Balancing capacity and tolerance

Stanley Liu, MD

Finance

March 19, 2026

It keeps us up at night. We pay thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to protect ourselves from it. Our hospitals or practices have entire departments dedicated to managing it.

It is “Risk.”

Avoiding risk is an inherent part of modern medicine. Every day, we practice CYA documentation, ensure our patients sign informed consent forms, and do everything we can to minimize the risk that someone will sue us …

Navigating the cybersecurity challenges of artificial intelligence in medicine

Francisco M. Torres, MD & Purab Patel

Tech

March 19, 2026

Artificial intelligence, or “AI,” is fast becoming indispensable to modern medical practice. Whether they are using complex prognostic algorithms to model possible disease outcomes or they are upgrading medical bookkeeping applications, physicians employ various forms of AI to aid in daily tasks. And while these tools can produce unprecedented benefits, the increased incorporation of AI in medical practice also brings with it a number of key cybersecurity challenges. Medical information, …

When side effects are actually a cry for help with medication costs

Shuchita Gupta, MD

Physician

March 19, 2026

“Doc, I cannot sleep well at night since I started taking the blood thinner (apixaban/Eliquis).”

“Hmm, that is not a typical side effect of the blood thinner. Have you considered any other changes to your routine that could be affecting how you sleep at night?”

“Doc, I also have joint pains and diarrhea since I started the blood thinner. Can I stop it?”

(The patient has had joint pains and diarrhea pre-dating the …

Politics and fear have replaced science in U.S. pain management [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 18, 2026

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

Patient advocate Richard A. Lawhern discusses the article “U.S. opioid policy history: How politics replaced science in pain care.” Richard argues that for decades, public policy on pain treatment has been driven …

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