From errors to resilience: a smarter approach to patient safety

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 …

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The unseen emotional toll of being a physician

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 …

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The most overlooked revenue strategy in primary care: trust

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 …

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Why medical boards are facing growing backlash for abusing power

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 …

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

Podcast
July 31, 2025
YouTube video

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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 …

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

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 …

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Why terminal cancer patients still receive aggressive treatment

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 …

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How doctors can build emotional strength through writing

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 …

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When medicine surrenders to ideology

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: …

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

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 …

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Why embracing imperfection makes you truly unforgettable

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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Affordable postpartum hemorrhage solutions every OB/GYN should know

Conditions
July 29, 2025

Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) remains one of the most common causes of maternal death globally. In many cases, it’s not a matter of lacking knowledge—it’s about lacking access to the tools we need.

In well-resourced U.S. hospitals, the JADA® System has in many ways been a paradigm change by using vacuum-induced uterine tamponade—a technique that creates gentle intrauterine suction to trigger uterine contraction and bleeding control. However, for the vast majority of …

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Why kratom addiction is the next public health crisis

Meds
July 29, 2025

In recent years, kratom, a botanical herb indigenous to Southeast Asia, has surged in popularity across the United States.

Marketed aggressively online and sold openly in vape shops, convenience stores, and specialty herbal outlets, kratom is often portrayed as a natural remedy, an herbal escape from chronic pain, anxiety, and opioid withdrawal. But beneath the alluring veneer of wellness and relief lies a dangerous, largely unregulated substance capable of causing severe …

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Why taxing remittances harms families and global health care

Finance
July 29, 2025

Like many of my fellow physicians, I suspect I’m two things: a child of immigrants and a child of a physician. That combination gave me a unique window into two fundamental systems, health care and global economics, long before I studied either formally. I saw the sacrifices and hard choices required to navigate both, often simultaneously, with no geographic boundary ever limiting our responsibilities.

Many vivid memories from childhood have stayed …

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How are prostate exams done and why you shouldn’t avoid them

Conditions
July 29, 2025

Men don’t usually bring up prostate exams in casual conversation, and that silence is part of the problem.

Across clinics and exam rooms, we see it all the time: men who delay checkups until urinary symptoms become disruptive, or worse, when routine blood work turns into a cause for concern. The truth is, prostate screening isn’t about embarrassment or fear, it’s about staying one step ahead of issues that are common, …

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Airlines’ policy ignores your do not resuscitate (DNR): Discover why and some ways to protect yourself

Conditions
July 29, 2025

“It is a sad state that fear of liability will oftentimes negate the moral choice made by a terminally ill patient.”
– Journal of Air Law and Commerce

Background

In August 2024, I gave a presentation, “You’re suing me because I kept your mom alive? Avoiding wrongful life lawsuits.” I discussed the consequences for medical staff when they disregard a valid DNR and revive a person, against their wishes. There are numerous nationwide …

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A dual citizen’s choice between two imperfect systems [PODCAST]

Podcast
July 28, 2025
YouTube video

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

Certified coach Kathleen Muldoon discusses her article, “Choosing between care and country: a dual citizen’s Independence Day reflection.” As a dual U.S. and Canadian citizen and mother to a child with complex …

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How pediatricians can address the health problems raised in the MAHA child health report

Policy
July 28, 2025

I understand that, in August, we will receive the prescription for the poor results of the recent Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) report focused on children’s health. As a pediatrician, I would like to offer some remedies for the child nutrition shortcomings identified in the report and provide feedback on other health concerns it raises.

Chronic disease rates among children are mentioned first in the report. Authors point to …

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The unseen burden patients carry between appointments

Physician
July 28, 2025

A man sat in my waiting room, heart racing—not from chest pain, but from panic. He’d been Googling his symptoms all night. Not afraid of what is—terrified of what might be. This is the anticipatory anxiety of modern medicine—a silent epidemic that strikes before any diagnosis ever does.

Patients no longer arrive with just symptoms. They bring stories already constructed. Hours of scrolling. Threads of worst-case scenarios. Algorithms feeding fear. By …

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Choosing the best EHR for your new behavioral health business

Tech
July 28, 2025

Clinicians who dream of starting a private practice in the field of behavioral health rarely daydream about the logistics involved. But preparing for common challenges is fundamental to success. Before taking on the roles of both behavioral health provider and entrepreneur, it is important to consider all of the behind-the-scenes work required.

Defining a practice’s niche, navigating regulatory and legal considerations, creating a business plan and a budget, and developing a …

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