As a child, I was an introvert. Due to various circumstances, I didn’t have the opportunity to play any sports.
On many days, I see young children playing football or cricket in the large cricket park in front of my home. Various trainers from different sports clubs bring their teams of girls and boys to play football. They do stretches and warm-up runs, and I watch them from a distance.
I stop …
The child within: a grown woman’s quiet grief
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Patient advocate Lianne Mandelbaum discusses her article, “What Avarie’s death in Rome teaches us about the gaps in food allergy education.” Lianne reflects on the tragic death of Avarie, a young American …
In an age where medicine is increasingly shaped by administrators, algorithms, and corporate cost-cutting, physicians find themselves stripped of many of the economic tools that once defined their professional autonomy.
The days when physicians—especially in fields like internal medicine, pediatrics, and even general surgery—could rely on billing, collections, and the straightforward logic of fee-for-service income are largely over. Reimbursement has stagnated or declined in real terms, overhead costs rise yearly, and …
Why the physician shortage may be our last line of defense
An excerpt from Real Medicine, Unreal Stories: Lessons and Insights from Clinical Practice.
The magnolias were blooming early this spring, their pale pink petals fluttering down onto the worn brick pathway outside the hospital courtyard. Dr. Eva Cardenas wrapped her thin white coat tighter as she waited on a bench, the same one she used to eat lunch on during the worst months of 2020, six feet apart from everyone …
5 years later: Doctors reveal the untold truths of COVID-19
An excerpt from Doctor Slave: Reflections on the Future of Medicine.
The distance from clinical practice provided a clarity that was impossible to achieve while embedded within the system. From outside, I could see patterns, pressures, and paradoxes that had been invisible when I was caught in the daily grind.
I recognized that many aspects of modern health care that are presented as inevitable or necessary are actually artificial constructs designed …
The hidden cost of health care: burnout, disillusionment, and systemic betrayal
Some people eat to live, but most of us live to eat. Meals are more than sustenance; they are how we celebrate milestones, connect with loved ones, and mark the passage of time. But for people living with food allergies, dining out can feel less like a joy and more like an exercise in survival.
Trust becomes the most important ingredient on the plate. Trust that an unfamiliar chef has taken …
What one diagnosis can change: the movement to make dining safer
I’ve had a few moments in my life where time seems to stand still.
I’m not talking about being in the flow of creativity or about a near-death experience. I’m referring to those times where a sudden realization makes you reconsider how you’ve viewed yourself or your life in fundamental ways.
After leaving clinical practice, I was dogged by guilt and shame for at least a decade. I viewed my choice as …
Why this doctor hid her story for a decade
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Endocrinologist William Hsu discusses his article, “Reimagining diabetes care with nutrition, not prescriptions.” William argues for a paradigm shift in treating Type 2 diabetes, moving away from a primary reliance on medications …
Reimagining Type 2 diabetes care with nutrition for remission [PODCAST]
Turning real world data into insights
A lot has been said and written about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to advance and improve health care. And while there are still many challenges to overcome and questions to answer, one area in particular shows dramatic positive results.
The use of AI to unscramble the unstructured data from electronic health care records (EHR) is uncovering previously hidden insights and bringing significant advances to …
How AI is revolutionizing health care through real-world data
A quiet revolution is taking place in health care technology. AI is shedding its screen-bound constraints and stepping into forms that blend seamlessly into our lives—rings, glasses, pendants, earbuds. These “ambient” devices collect real-time insights from sound, motion, and physiology, surfacing only when needed. For clinicians, this shift means more than convenience: It reimagines how we gather data at the bedside …
Ambient AI: When health monitoring leaves the screen behind
Sexism in the workplace is often associated with overt hostility, harassment, insults, discrimination, or intimidation. But what about the subtler, seemingly well-intentioned behaviors that can still hinder women’s advancement? Our study explores benevolent sexism (BvS) in academic medicine and how it may quietly limit women’s careers, even in environments committed to gender equity.
What is benevolent sexism?
Coined by Glick and Fiske in 1996, benevolent sexism refers to attitudes that appear …
How kindness in disguise is holding women back in academic medicine
In a time when anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is proliferating across the United States, targeting everything from gender-affirming care to inclusive science education, many physicians are facing a new ethical frontier. More than ever, the duty to protect patient health extends beyond the clinic walls. When policy threatens the well-being of entire communities, an inclusive and affirming exam room is no longer enough. It is time for doctors to speak up and …
Why physician voices matter in the fight against anti-LGBTQ+ laws
Last fall, more than 20,000 first-year medical students donned white coats, pushing total U.S. medical school enrollment to nearly 100,000. Yet despite this surge of new trainees, the American Association of Medical Colleges projects a shortage of up to 86,000 doctors by 2036.
The strain is already evident. Each year, tens of thousands of American physicians pack up their stethoscopes and scalpels …
From burnout to balance: a lesson in self-care for future doctors
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Health reporter Martha Rosenberg discusses her article, “Conflicts of interest are eroding trust in U.S. health agencies.” Martha outlines how faith in government health bodies like the FDA and CDC has plummeted …
How conflicts of interest are eroding trust in U.S. health agencies [PODCAST]
I am a first-year medical student in South Korea. I wrote this essay to share what it feels like to enter a system that demands so much and still receives so little understanding in return. I haven’t even worn a white coat yet, but I already feel the weight of it.
In South Korea, becoming a doctor requires six years of undergraduate medical education, followed by exhausting years of internship and …
Why young doctors in South Korea feel broken before they even begin
As an infectious disease fellow years ago, I was called to the hospital in the middle of the night for a possible case of measles.
I reviewed the clinical basics, as I was not quite sure what to expect, not previously …
Measles is back: Why vaccination is more vital than ever
Risk management has been around for centuries. In ancient times, there were oracles and soothsayers. In the 1950s, risk management became a science. Nevertheless, 75 years later, a medical malpractice lawsuit is still a problem. An unknown number of claims are reviewed by lawyers, but 85,000 lawsuits are represented. Of these, 66.6 percent are frivolous.
It stands to reason that many meritorious cases are reviewed but are never represented. There are …
When errors of nature are treated as medical negligence
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Shane Tenny discusses his article, “Navigating your 457 plan: key steps for physicians changing jobs.” He provides crucial advice for physicians, particularly those with non-governmental 457(b) plans, on how to manage these …
Physician job change: Navigating your 457 plan and avoiding tax traps [PODCAST]
If you have been to the circus and toured the tent where the elephants rest and are fed, you will see that large, two-to-three-ton elephants are tethered to a small wooden stake with a small chain around the ankle of one of their hind legs. This tiny wooden stake driven into the ground could be pulled up in a nanosecond, and the elephant could run away.
But the large …
The hidden chains holding doctors back
A few months after meeting her during rounds at a dialysis center, an elderly woman gripped my hand and quietly asked, “Do you think I’ll make it in time?” Her voice trembled. She had been silent for weeks, worn down by dialysis and overwhelmed by the long transplant process. Her question pierced through the clinical routine. I looked into her eyes, squeezed her hand gently, and said, “We’re going to …
Hope is the lifeline: a deeper look into transplant care
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