Duane Penshorn, MD

An essayist and medical and science fiction writer.

About

Duane Penshorn is an essayist and medical and science fiction writer. A practicing emergency physician, former ER medical director, and hospital chief of staff, he draws on decades of frontline clinical experience to explain how healthcare systems shape patient care. He writes about what happens when system design meets the realities of the bedside, including how metrics, workflows, and technology affect clinicians and patients. He is writing a book for general readers on why the ER is confusing and frustrating, and what you can do about it.

Penshorn brings the same clinical realism to his fiction as an award-finalist medical and science fiction writer. As the founder of Astus Press, he writes across genres to explore the unintended consequences of complex modern systems, and the value of clinical judgment alongside the tools we rely on. He practices and lives in San Antonio, Texas.

On The Podcast by KevinMD

Trusting the lab over the patient is the new medical errorOct 9, 2026

Latest articles

Physician voices

AI diagnosis can list 100 causes but can’t examine you

Duane Penshorn, MD

October 13, 2026Oct 13, 2026

The triage note read, "The patient wants her thyroid checked." On the stretcher, fully dressed, sat a 65-year-old woman with her family members at the bedside. She said she had been feeling weak and tired lately, so bad that even…

The triage note read, “The patient wants her thyroid checked.”

On the stretcher, fully dressed, sat a 65-year-old woman with her family members at the bedside. She said she had been feeling weak and tired lately, so bad that even her voice had turned hoarse. She’d never had any problems with her thyroid in her life, but she had looked it up; maybe it was her thyroid or anemia. That was …

Physician voices

Automation bias is the new medical error

Duane Penshorn, MD

July 1, 2026Jul 1, 2026

In 1999, researcher Dr. Kathleen Mosier placed 25 experienced pilots in a high-tech flight simulator. Her goal was to measure their response to inaccurate automated alerts. When cockpit instruments indicated an engine fire, the protocol was to verify the condition with other sensors. Instead, every one of the 25 pilots shut down the affected engine, responding to the false positive warning, an error of commission. In another scenario, the simulated …