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How a heart transplant turned one woman into a national transplant advocate

Ava Kaufman

Conditions

August 3, 2025

My name is Ava Kaufman, and my doctors didn’t think I would be alive today. I defied the odds after being listed for – and receiving – an experimental heart transplant.

Before my transplant, I was a healthy mother and businesswoman who loved to dance. I randomly noticed a rash appearing on my hands and shins, so I went to the dermatologist. They told me that I had psoriasis, but it …

Innovation is moving too fast for health care workers to catch up

Tiffiny Black, DM, MPA, MBA

Policy

August 3, 2025

I recently spoke with close friends—both physicians—who admitted something quietly alarming: They’re not resisting change in health care. They’re just tired of constantly adapting while losing the essence of what brought them into medicine in the first place.

“I spend more time documenting than actually caring for my patients.”

“Every time I adjust to one system, a new one replaces it.”

These comments stayed with me—not as complaints, but as confessions. As a …

Physician burnout: a crisis of conscience, calling, and collective responsibility

Dr. Saad S. Alshohaib

Physician

August 3, 2025

Introduction

The medical profession is grappling with a crisis of profound proportions. Burnout now affects nearly half of all practicing physicians. This is not merely dissatisfaction—it is emotional and moral exhaustion that undermines both physician wellbeing and patient safety. At its core, burnout signals a loss of connection to purpose, to colleagues, and to the healing relationship that defines medical practice.

Burnout manifests as emotional depletion, depersonalization of patients, and a diminished …

How inspiration shapes the stories of our lives [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

August 2, 2025

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

Adjunct professor of psychiatry Arthur Lazarus discusses his article, “How inspiration and family stories shape our most meaningful moments,” which presents a moving fictional story excerpted from his book. The narrative centers …

When the pediatrician is the parent: a personal reckoning with childhood obesity

Chrissie Ott, MD

Conditions

August 2, 2025

I would never have thought I would be the one writing this piece.

I am a board-certified pediatrician and internist with a background in nutrition, well-versed in integrative medicine. Our family eats its fair share of kale, blueberries, and salmon. We hardly ever have a significant supply of junk food in the house. Fast food is a rarity, and she never even tasted juice in toddlerhood. And still, my child’s BMI …

How listening makes you a better doctor before your first prescription

Kelly Dórea França

Education

August 2, 2025

Before I ever introduced myself as a future doctor, I was a listener.

Not because someone told me that listening was important in medicine, but because, as a first-year student, I quickly realized I had no answers—but I did have ears. And heart. And a quiet seat at the edge of patient stories and preceptor reflections.

In the early days of medical school, everything felt unfamiliar. The terms, the pace, the sense …

I knew choosing DPC would exacerbate primary care physician shortages, and I chose it anyway. Here’s why.

Marina Capella, MD

Physician

August 2, 2025

When I made the decision to leave the traditional, insurance-based system and start a direct primary care (DPC) practice, I didn’t do so under any illusions. I knew what the critics would say. In fact, I’d already heard it.

You’re making it harder for patients to find a primary care doctor.
You’re reducing access for the underserved.
You’re selling out.

I’ve read the blog posts, like the one recently published on …

It’s OK to want a different life in medicine [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

August 1, 2025

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

Pediatrician and certified coach Jessie Mahoney discusses her article, “From burnout to balance: a neurosurgeon’s bold career redesign.” She shares the powerful story of a female neurosurgeon who, on the verge of …

Why treating obesity like a medical condition saves lives

Ted Dodge, MD

Conditions

August 1, 2025

Cardiovascular disease continues to be the #1 killer of Americans, both men and women.

Obesity and being overweight increase the risk of cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes, but beyond these are independent risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease.

Unlike hypertension, which has been called the “silent killer” as its presence is too often unknown to people who have high blood pressure, Americans are rarely unaware …

From errors to resilience: a smarter approach to patient safety

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

August 1, 2025

Historically, health care has approached safety with a Safety-I lens, emphasizing the prevention of errors and investigating failures. While this method remains significant, contemporary health care’s complex, dynamic, and interdependent nature necessitates proactive and adaptive safety strategies. The emerging Safety-II and Safety-III frameworks provide novel perspectives on safety by prioritizing resilience, real-time adaptation, and learning from success, rather than from failure.

Safety-II shifts the focus from what goes wrong …

The unseen emotional toll of being a physician

Sarah Epstein

Conditions

August 1, 2025

Many of the physicians who come to my therapy practice share a quiet, painful fear. They’re already excellent clinicians. They know the medicine, stay up to date on the literature, and often find deep meaning in their work. But they’re worn down by the emotional toll of sitting with suffering day after day. They start to wonder: Why is this hitting me so hard when everyone else seems fine? Am …

The most overlooked revenue strategy in primary care: trust

Jerina Gani, MD, MPH

Physician

August 1, 2025

We’re often told that the key to financial success in medicine is volume—more patients, more visits, more hustle. But after two decades in primary care, I’ve learned something different:
The most powerful asset in your practice isn’t speed. It’s trust.

And trust starts with one of the most human (and most overlooked) elements of medicine: the doctor-patient relationship.

Why relationships matter more than ever

Primary care isn’t just about diagnoses or prescriptions. It’s about …

Why medical boards are facing growing backlash for abusing power

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Physician

August 1, 2025

In principle, the judicial system is founded on fairness, requiring that guilt or innocence be established based on evidence.

All parties including judges, defendants, and plaintiffs should be engaged in a rigorous process of fact presentation and scrutiny.

However, in stark contrast, political systems often prioritize rule manipulation and fact distortion, seeking validation over truth. This critical distinction between politics and jurisprudence becomes dangerously blurred when examining the conduct of medical boards …

35 years in the ER and the search for an honest life [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

July 31, 2025

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

Independent emergency physician Kenneth Ro discusses his article, “From survival to sovereignty: What 35 years in the ER taught me about identity, mortality, and redemption.” He shares his deeply personal journey, from …

The hidden battle of weight loss: Why dieting alone isn’t enough

Richard A. Lawhern, PhD

Conditions

July 31, 2025

Among Americans and Europeans, overweight and obesity are endemic. Excess weight is also a primary or contributing cause and a significant risk factor for many chronic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, several cancers, liver and kidney diseases, respiratory and musculoskeletal disorders, and mental health problems.

That being said, one can read any amount of advice we can make time for, concerning dieting or exercise. But a harsh reality persists: Fat …

Why terminal cancer patients still receive aggressive treatment

M. Bennet Broner, PhD

Physician

July 31, 2025

Recently, researchers examined whether there had been any changes in the way terminal cancer patients died from 2014 to 2019, given the increased information available on hospice, palliative care, and advanced end-of-life planning (EOLP). They asked whether those who were terminal continued aggressive treatment until their demise. The authors anticipated a decrease in this, but found that the frequency of cancer patients who continued aggressive therapy had not declined. The …

How doctors can build emotional strength through writing

Carolyn Roy-Bornstein, MD

Physician

July 31, 2025

As I travel the country giving talks to various groups of health care professionals about resilience-building and physician burnout, I sometimes come up against some resistance to the idea. The argument goes something like this: If our emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of a sense of personal accomplishment (i.e. burnout) is largely caused by work overload, administrative burdens, and the moral distress of trying to practice medicine humanistically amidst insurance …

When medicine surrenders to ideology

Anonymous

Physician

July 30, 2025

I am a physician-scientist, a title earned through decades of toil in laboratories and hospital wards, where the twin pursuits of truth and healing once reigned supreme. Yet, at the flagship academic hospital of this self-proclaimed “sanctuary state,” I conceal my credentials—not out of humility, but from a grim desire to witness the system unadorned, as it reveals itself to the ordinary patient. What I have beheld is a travesty: …

Read more…

When medicine surrenders to ideology

How just culture can reduce burnout and boost health care staff retention

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

July 30, 2025

Health care systems acknowledge that how they respond to mistakes significantly impacts their workforce’s morale, retention, and overall productivity. The consequences of a punitive culture are costly in terms of financial and operational costs, as it discourages reporting, promotes burnout or fatigue, and aggravates staff turnover. Conversely, implementing a just culture promotes psychological safety, continuous learning, and fairness, which enables health care staff to remain engaged and resilient throughout their …

Why embracing imperfection makes you truly unforgettable

Osmund Agbo, MD

Physician

July 30, 2025

I love comedy clubs. Always have. My wife calls them my happy place and she’s not wrong. Although I haven’t had the opportunity to attend one recently, I often find myself immersed in stand-up clips from the likes of Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, and a constellation of other comedic virtuosos. Back in the pressure-cooker days of my residency training in New York City, those clubs were my sanctuary. …

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