Kevin Pho, MD, is a practicing, board-certified internal medicine physician and the founder and editor of KevinMD, which he built from scratch in 2004 to give clinicians and patients a place to be heard. Over two decades, it has become one of the most recognizable physician-led publications in health care, drawing more than 7 million annual page views and over 500,000 followers across social media. He still sees patients in primary care in Nashua, New Hampshire, the practice he says keeps the platform honest.
He is the host of The Podcast by KevinMD, a daily, 15-minute show that has surpassed 2,000 episodes and 2.6 million IAB-certified downloads, featuring physicians, patients, caregivers, founders, and health care leaders in conversation about what they actually see and do. He is also a national media commentator and the coauthor of Establishing, Managing, and Protecting Your Online Reputation: A Social Media Guide for Physicians and Medical Practices.
An acclaimed keynote speaker, Kevin speaks nationwide to clinicians and non-clinicians on health care, digital media, physician leadership, and burnout. His signature keynote, "Connect and be heard: Make a difference in health care with social media," traces his social media journey since 2004 and inspires audiences to strengthen the doctor-patient relationship, make their voices heard in health reform, and turn the tide against clinician burnout. He is the founder of Physician Speaking by KevinMD, a physician-run speakers bureau, and is available for speaking opportunities.
Kevin earned his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency at Boston University Medical Center. The New York Times called KevinMD "a highly-coveted publishing place for doctors and patients," and Forbes called it a "must-read health blog." He is an inductee of the Healthcare Internet Hall of Fame, a recipient of the American Medical Writers Association McGovern Award, and a New Hampshire Magazine Top Doctor.
Recently, JAMA published a study concluding that doctors are hesitant to report incompetent physicians or those who were impaired.
According to the article,
more than a third of docs don’t think they’re responsible for reporting those who aren’t fit to practice, according to the results just published in JAMA. And only 69 percent of the docs who knew about an impaired or incompetent colleague reported them.
To those who advocate that the medical …
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Patient safety requires doctors report incompetent physicians
Physician salaries are always a sensitive topic.
A common view among health reforms is that doctors, in general, are paid too much. Various progressive pundits point to statistics showing that American doctors are the highest paid in the world.
For many specialists, that may be true. But not for primary care.
A recent Tweet by Ves Dimov pointed me to an article from the UK, stating that primary care doctors working in …
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Primary care salaries need to be addressed to improve health care
There’s little question that medical school debt is rising rapidly, affecting the career choice of medical students.
It’s one of the main reasons why the disparity between the number of specialists and primary care doctors is widening. There have been a variety of proposed solutions — most recent of which are medical schools completely subsidizing their tuition. I think that’s a good step forward, but so far, has only been …
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Would eliminating medical school debt produce more primary care doctors?
How effective is direct to consumer drug advertising?
Some think that drug ads should be banned altogether, saying that it encourages patients to ask their doctors for expensive, brand name prescription drugs.
It turns out, their fears may be overblown.
NPR’s Shots blogs about a recent study looking at the effectiveness of these ads. The numbers, for the pharmaceutical companies anyways, are not encouraging:
Overall, about 8 percent of the people who were …
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Direct to consumer drug advertising is money wasted
Remember when I wrote, way back when, that expanding health coverage without a concurrent increase in primary care access will only worsen emergency room waits?
For instance, consider this, from CNN.com:
What good is having health insurance if you can’t find a doctor to see you? …
… The Massachusetts Medical Society reported that the average wait time for a new patient looking for a primary care doctor ranged from 36 to …
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Emergency room waits grow as more people become insured
Should doctors face consequences if they run late?
From the New York Times’ health blog, Well, comes a story where a medical group promises, “same-day appointments and longer, more personalized visits that start on time.”
Sounds good, right?
But it comes with a caveat, namely, a $199 annual membership fee. A tremendous amount of primary care can be bought with that amount of money, and if patients were willing to pay that, …
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Patients can ask for discounts if the doctor is running late
The following op-ed was published on June 7th, 2010 in CNN.com.
“I read all about my condition on the Internet,” a recent patient proudly told me. Like other doctors, I’m seeing more patients research their symptoms thoroughly before setting foot in the exam room.
Patients are using the Web in unprecedented ways for their own health empowerment. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 61 percent of American adults …
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Op-ed: Empowered e-patients are failed by our health system
Should drug and device makers fund continuing medical education courses?
That’s a question medical schools and academic medical centers have recently been grappling over.
Now, the University of Michigan has taken the controversial step to completely divorce the industry from physician education.
According to the New York Times,
the University of Michigan Medical School has become the first to decide that it will no longer take any money from drug and device makers …
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Banning industry sponsorship of CME has wide ranging repercussions
It’s well known that patients Google their doctors, a practice that’s performed with increasing frequency.
But what about doctors researching their patients on the web?
It’s an interesting idea that I hadn’t thought of. I have never Googled a patient, and can’t see any reason to in a primary care setting. But the context of the piece, which I first saw in the WSJ Health Blog, was in psychiatry. It would …
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Should doctors Google their patients?
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady recently underwent repair of his anterior cruciate ligament at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles. His doctor was Neal S. ElAttrache, who’s a renowned orthopedic surgeon and former team physician of an NFL team.
Unfortunately, his post-op course has been complicated by an infection. On his website, TomBrady.com, he acknowledged this and said that the original procedure was …
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Tom Brady’s 2008 knee infection after ACL surgery
A reader writes:
I agree with you completely on the importance of having a physician functioning as the coordinator of care for a patient (I have always assumed that a primary care physician would do that) my experience has been that they resist that role. I have become my own and my wife’s primary care person because of that.
There are hospitals that discourage …
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Hospitalists and the loss of continuity of care
WSJ Health Blog: “Russert’s doctor Michael Newman said the tough-questioning but congenial host of NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ had been under treatment for asymptomatic coronary disease, but that it was under control with medication. He was carrying excess weight, Newman observed, but he got regular exercise and he performed well on an exercise stress test in April.”
GruntDoc: “I therefore propose a new sign in …
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Tim Russert and the limits of a normal stress test
Maria writes: “I’d like your take on what you think constitutes a ‘good’ medblog . . . I am continually surprised with what people like about medblogs. Some people like brief links, some people like critical discussions, some people like stories.
This ultimately all boils down to opinion, but I’d like to know what traits you like in medblogs.
Can you start by opining that you strongly dislike …
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What makes a good medical blog? 5 traits that matter
Stunning news. The Boston Globe on Flea, his trial and how his blogging ultimately led from a possible victory to settlement:
As Ivy League-educated pediatrician Robert P. Lindeman sat on the stand in Suffolk Superior Court this month, defending himself in a malpractice suit involving the death of a 12-year-old patient, the opposing counsel startled him with a question.
Was Lindeman Flea?
Flea, jurors in the case …
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How an anonymous doctor blog surfaced in a malpractice trial
What is defensive medicine?
Defensive medicine is the deviation from sound medical practice to avoid the threat of malpractice litigation.
According to a 2005 study in JAMA, over 90 percent of physicians surveyed admitted to practicing defensive medicine. This can range from “positive” defensive medicine, like ordering unnecessary tests, referring to consultants, or performing unneeded procedures; to “negative” defensive medicine, like avoiding high-risk patients or procedures.
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What is defensive medicine, and why do doctors practice it?
Due to intense interest in the Anna Pou story, the following post will be republished to stay current.
Original post date: 7/19/2006
Waking Up Costs offers his support:
I just learned that a former colleague and friend has been charged with second degree murder in the death of four patients at a New Orleans hospital after Katrina. I worked with Dr. Anna Pou in the operating …
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Dr. Anna Pou after Katrina: Colleagues come to her defense
Much denial-blogging today. Alisha’s mother-in-law won’t accept physical limitations imposed by her cancer. Orac tries to help a patient who rejects her malignant biopsy results. What is denial, and how should we approach it? (Pause for a quick check – has the Cheerful Oncologist posted about this yet? No? I’d love to know what he thinks!) Here’s Dr. Simon Wein, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering …
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Is denial always bad for seriously ill patients?
