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.
A version of column was published in USA Today on November 20, 2013.
I once diagnosed a patient with high cholesterol, and prescribed him a medicine commonly known as a statin. When I saw him months later for follow-up, he admitted that he didn’t fill the prescription.
“I took red yeast rice capsules instead,” he said.
When I asked him why, he told me that he was wary of statins’ long list of side effects …
The release of the new cholesterol guidelines from the ACC/AHA is big news. It represents a fundamental shift in how we prescribe statin drugs.
As with many sweeping changes, there are some good, and some controversial ideas.
I like removing non-statin cholesterol drugs from the recommendations, such as Zetia. Many haven’t been shown to save lives or decrease cardiovascular events.
When I talk to physicians about dipping their toes into the social media waters, I advise starting with LinkedIn. Spend about 45 minutes or so and create a LinkedIn profile, which is essentially a digital translation of your CV. LinkedIn profiles get ranked highest among the social media platforms, and can push down the influence of …
The Affordable Care Act is off to a rocky start, to say the least.
Attention has been focused on HealthCare.gov, where those without employer-provided insurance can shop for health plans. Finger pointing abounds, with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and contractors blaming each other.
A story in the Wall Street Journal chronicles the debacle:
The contractors said each of their pieces worked more …
In case you haven’t heard, Malcolm Gladwell recently released his book, David and Goliath. I’m just about finished reading it.
Just as interesting as the book are its reviews. In a recent post from Slate, Gladwell himself responds to the criticism. He freely admits that his books should not be held as pinnacles of academic rigor, but should be considered “intellectual adventures stories.”
This column was published in USA Today on September 9, 2013.
More patients are coming to my primary care clinic with forms from their employer, asking me to measure their blood pressure, or check their sugar and cholesterol levels. Companies requesting medical data drive employee wellness programs, a booming $6 billion business, with approximately half of large employers offering such plans.
Coaching and financial incentives are often offered to help employees meet certain health metrics, …
Most social media guidelines for physicians, most recently from the American College of Physicians and Federation of State Medical Boards, suggest that doctors separate their personal and professional identity.
Until physicians are better educated on how best to act professionally on social networks, keeping their online personal lives private is more likely to keep them out of trouble.
But is it time for that recommendation to be revised?
Many physicians continue to be fearful of online rating sites, despite evidence that they don’t have anything to worry about.
Multiple studies, including one from the Journal of General Internal Medicine (saying that 88% of physician reviews were positive), to a more recent one from the Journal of Urology (86% positive), say that the majority of physician ratings are better than most doctors would …
A version of this column was published in USA Today on July 3, 2013.
One recent day in my primary care clinic, I had a full schedule and was unable to see a patient for her cough. She instead sought medical care at a local drugstore, where she was treated for bronchitis. Normally housed in pharmacies and department stores like Target or Walmart, …
We’re spending an inordinate amount of time and effort trying to convince doctors to change the way they practice.
Most recently, for instance, a study came out saying that doctors aren’t following back pain guidelines. Or from a broader perspective, consider the Choosing Wisely campaign, which lists scores of tests and treatments that are ordered too frequently.
Various carrots and sticks have been used to steer …
The following column was published on May 29th, 2013 in the New York Times’ Room for Debate blog, which asked the question, “Is Obamacare too complicated to succeed?”
Is the Affordable Care Act complicated? Of course it is. Even one of its architects concedes that it is phenomenally complex. Why? To pass, it had to be contorted to satisfy a number of special interest groups.
It’s a question at the forefront of the minds medical and policy leaders today. Entire books have been devoted to the subject, and there is no shortage of suggestions to improve patient safety.
Internist Danielle Ofri recently wrote a New York Times op-ed on the issue, where she reflected on a “near miss” she had during …
A seemingly simple question, but patients are often confronted with too much information on the Internet, with variable quality.
Finding a doctor a similar to completing a puzzle. Like puzzle pieces, there are many resources available, including word of mouth, hospitals, insurance companies, and …
One of the more contentious topics on my site is the scope of practice for non-physician providers, such as nurse practitioners. This echos the debate on the national stage where leaders of physician organizations, who want to protect their scope of practice, conflict with those of nurse practitioners’, who want to perform the tasks that physicians traditionally have.
Simply Google “nurse practitioner” on this site, for instance, and you’ll see …
A lot of people ask me, “What tools do you use for blogging, speaking, when you’re on the road, seeing patients etc. …” So I decided to start a series that describe what tools I use, and why.
The first explored my speaking toolkit. This one details the technical tools I use to run KevinMD.com. I’ll discuss …
A version of this column was published in USA Today on April 1, 2013.
Prescription drug abuse is a growing national tragedy. One of the biggest culprits is opioid painkillers, such as Oxycontin and Percocet. Shockingly, more than 200 million of these types of drugs are prescribed annually, and they account for more than 16,000 deaths a year. And for every death, significantly …
As part of the health reform movement, hospitals that meet various quality measures, like reduced readmission rates or improved patient satisfaction measures, get financially rewarded. Those that don’t will be penalized.
That was how my 4-year old greeted me when I came home this evening.
Of course, I already knew about the horrific attacks during the Boston Marathon, first on Twitter, then realizing the gravity of the event as mainstream media caught up.
I practice in Nashua, NH, which is about 45 minutes north of Boston. But …
The following column was published on March 26th, 2013 in the New York Times’ Room for Debate blog.
In the coming years, health care reform will drive consolidation in the industry. Reformers, including the president himself, point to integrated health systems like Kaiser Permanente as the future of health care delivery. While this movement may improve patient care, whether it will shield …
