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Bundled payments in Medicare: Will fixed pricing reshape surgery costs?

AMA Committee on Economics and Quality in Medicine, Medical Student Section

Policy

July 15, 2025

Imagine going to a restaurant where, instead of being charged separately for your appetizer, main course, and dessert, you pay a fixed price for the entire meal. That’s the idea behind a bundled payment plan in health care. Instead of billing patients and insurers for every individual test, treatment, or doctor’s visit during a medical episode—like a knee replacement—providers receive a single, comprehensive payment for all services related to a …

How Project ECHO is fighting physician isolation and transforming medical education [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

July 14, 2025

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

Pediatrician Daniel Johnson discusses his article, “From isolation to innovation: the power of learning communities in health care.” He reflects on the collaborative, case-based learning that makes medical training exciting and contrasts …

Why clinical research is a powerful path for unmatched IMGs

Dr. Khutaija Noor

Education

July 14, 2025

For thousands of International Medical Graduates (IMGs) every year, the third week of March is defined by a single, gut-wrenching question: Did I match? The entire future seems to hinge on a single email. We spend years navigating exams, clinical rotations, and visa applications, all for a shot at a residency spot in the United States. But what happens when that email doesn’t bring good news? For many, it feels …

Addressing menstrual health inequities in adolescents

Callia Georgoulis

Conditions

July 14, 2025

Menstrual health is one of the most neglected aspects of adolescent care—especially for teens living in poverty. For these adolescents, getting a period doesn’t just mean discomfort—it means missing school, hiding pain, and facing daily choices between basic needs and menstrual products.

In both low- and high-income countries, period poverty is a quiet crisis. In the U.S., nearly one in five teens has missed school because they couldn’t afford menstrual products. …

How to advance workforce development through research mentorship and evidence-based management

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

July 14, 2025

In the current era of rapid health care changes, a very effective tool for workforce development is research mentorship based on evidence-based principles. As the health care industry faces a worsening shortage of professionals, the need to cultivate talent, empower early-career clinicians, and guide them through structured research and professional development is becoming more urgent. Research mentorship offers a replicable and transformative framework for addressing the health workforce crisis.

Research mentorship …

The truth about perfection and identity in health care

Ryan Nadelson, MD

Physician

July 14, 2025

As we move through life, questions of identity echo through our minds—bouncing like a pinball, scattered and relentless.

Am I a doctor? A friend? A colleague? A leader? A husband? A parent? A son? These questions don’t just arise—they linger. Because every day, we’re asked to balance who we truly are with who we’re expected to be. We carry the weight of responsibility, chasing clarity, meaning, and success. We show up …

Civil discourse as a leadership competency: the case for curiosity in medicine

All Levels Leadership

Physician

July 14, 2025

In the high-stakes, knowledge-driven world of medicine, we’re taught from day one to project an aura of certainty. From the anatomy lab to the hospital wards, the message is clear: know the answers, lead with confidence, and never let them see you sweat. But what if that fixation on “knowing” is holding us back? What if the very traits we’ve been trained to cultivate—the resolute certainty, the surgical precision, the …

Healing beyond the surface: Why proper chronic wound care matters

Alvin May, MD

Conditions

July 13, 2025

An excerpt from Heal Your Wound: A Doctor’s Guide For Hard-To-Heal Wounds.

Chronic wounds are more than just a medical issue, they can be a daily challenge that can impact every part of a person’s life. From physical discomfort to emotional stress, these wounds often linger for weeks or months, especially when tied to conditions like diabetes, poor circulation, or limited mobility.

But here is the good news: With the right …

Why specialist pain clinics and addiction treatment services require strong primary care

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Conditions

July 13, 2025

Specialist pain clinics and addiction management services are vital in addressing some of the most complex and costly health care conditions. However, their success depends on stable and robust primary care systems. Without strong primary care as a foundation, these health care initiatives risk fragmentation, poor continuity, and low patient accountability. Stable primary care ensures timely access, coordinated care, longitudinal monitoring, and patient engagement, all essential elements for the value-based …

Dear July intern: It’s normal to feel clueless—here’s what matters

Tomi Mitchell, MD

Education

July 13, 2025

It’s July—the official new year for medicine.

You’re either a brand-new intern, wide-eyed and exhausted, equal parts proud and terrified, or maybe you’re stepping into fellowship, wondering how you’re suddenly supposed to be the expert. You’re navigating hallways you haven’t mapped yet, still figuring out whether your badge works on the north wing or the south elevator, trying to remember where you parked, and already questioning if you made a huge …

Who gets to be well in America: Immigrant health is on the line

Joshua Vasquez, MD

Policy

July 13, 2025

As lawmakers debate cuts to Medicaid and restrictions on care for undocumented immigrants, the question isn’t just what America covers—it’s who.

Proposals like the No Medicaid for Illegal Immigrants Act of 2025, and related attempts to embed its provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, aim to block federal funding for Medicaid services to undocumented families. Some state plans go further, threatening to remove children from CHIP if …

When a medical office sublease turns into a legal nightmare

Ralph Messo, DO

Physician

July 13, 2025

An excerpt from The Doctor is Out—Justice vs Injustice in America.

In the hug of a crisp autumn morning, with the world adorned in the warm hues of changing leaves, the seed of an idea took root within me—an idea born from the necessity of expanding my medical practice to accommodate the growing needs of my patients.

Crossing the convoluted corridors of administrative tasks and logistical considerations, I found myself confronted …

Why the heart of medicine is more than science

Ryan Nadelson, MD

Physician

July 12, 2025

Take a moment—not just to see where you are, but to remember how far you’ve come.

Through obstacles that once felt impossible.

Through stress that nearly broke you.

Through moments when the weight of it all made you question everything.

But still—you kept going.

Because medicine isn’t just a job. It’s a calling.

And here, decisions aren’t just professional—they’re life and death.

You meet people at their most vulnerable, in their most intimate realities.

There’s no room for …

How Ukrainian doctors kept diabetes care alive during the war

Dr. Daryna Bahriy

Physician

July 12, 2025

When the full-scale war broke out in Ukraine, the country’s health care system was suddenly thrown into chaos. Hospitals were destroyed or severely damaged by missile attacks. Medical professionals were forced to flee, relocating to relatively safer areas in the western regions of the country. Millions of civilians became internally displaced. Amid this disruption, doctors in western Ukraine found themselves facing unprecedented challenges, trying to reorganize services and adapt rapidly …

Why Grok 4 could be the next leap for HIPAA-compliant clinical AI

Harvey Castro, MD, MBA

Tech

July 12, 2025

When ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, many clinicians glimpsed the future then ran smack into a wall of red tape labeled “HIPAA.” Since then, large-language models (LLMs) have matured from clever chatbots into workhorse tools that summarize admission notes, draft prior-authorization letters, and even suggest antibiotic dosing. Yet most models still sit outside the guarded perimeter of protected health information.

Grok 4, the next-generation model from xAI, could …

How women physicians can go from burnout to thriving

Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH

Physician

July 12, 2025

I’ve been working with women physicians intensively now for six years, and I’ve noticed a few things.

The women I work with are amazing. They are altruistic and caring. They are resilient, independent, and able to put others’ needs before their own. They are smart, detail-oriented, and care about getting things right.

If you’re a patient (and we all are at some point), this is exactly what you want in your doctor. …

What a childhood stroke taught me about the future of neurosurgery and the promise of vagus nerve stimulation

Anonymous

Conditions

July 12, 2025

I had a stroke at the age of five.

It was an ischemic event, rare in children, difficult to diagnose, and often missed in early stages. I experienced a sudden loss of motor function that led to a long period of rehabilitation. I spent months relearning how to walk, balance, and perform basic movements, guided by physical therapists and the steady structure of routine. I was too young to understand what …

Beyond burnout: Understanding the triangle of exhaustion [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

July 11, 2025

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

Physician coach Nicole Perrotte and physician advocate and physical therapist Kim Downey discuss their article, “Love, empathy, and the triangle of exhaustion: Why humanity must come first.” Nicole introduces her powerful framework, …

Facing terminal cancer as a doctor and mother

Kelly Curtin-Hallinan, DO

Conditions

July 11, 2025

In elementary school, my teachers always told us it was important to understand math because “you won’t always have a calculator in your pocket.” That sentiment hasn’t aged well, given that my iPhone and Alexa are always within reach. But no one said, “You better learn this because one day you’ll be teaching your own kids during a plague.” That was where the real value lay. In medical school, I …

Online eye exams spark legal battle over health care access

Joshua Windham, JD and Daryl James

Policy

July 11, 2025

Brick-and-mortar stores must deal with online competition. Even health clinics face disruption from telemedicine. Yet optometrists have special protection in South Carolina.

When a telehealth company invented a safe and effective way for doctors to renew vision prescriptions remotely, political insiders rallied in Columbia to ban the service in South Carolina. Now, nine years later, the state-sponsored favoritism could end.

The South Carolina Supreme Court, which already rejected an attempt to …