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Robert C. Smith, MD

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Robert C. Smith is an internal medicine physician and author of Has Medicine Lost Its Mind?: Why Our Mental Health System Is Failing Us and What Should Be Done to Cure It.

How the mind-body split in medicine shaped modern clinical care

Robert C. Smith, MD
Conditions
January 24, 2026

In my first and second KevinMD posts, I emphasized how medicine had failed clinicians by not training them in mental health care. All agree, it’s not our fault. Now let’s look at how successfully our teachers did prepare us for patients with medical disorders. There’s an interesting history behind how we developed expertise in physical diseases: Medicine needed to overthrow the four humors theory that guided clinical care …

Read more…

How the mind-body split in medicine shaped modern clinical care

Why medicine needs a second Flexner Report

Robert C. Smith, MD
Physician
September 20, 2025

Modern medicine is failing in three critical areas: mental health, chronic disease, and prevention at the cost of trillions of wasted dollars and untold suffering.

The problem runs deep. In my earlier KevinMD post, “Medicine’s mental health crisis: why the system is failing us,” I described the “mind-body split” theory of the 16th and 17th-century Scientific Revolution as guiding medicine and medical education since that time. It …

Read more…

Why medicine needs a second Flexner Report

Medicine’s mental health crisis: Why the system is failing us

Robert C. Smith, MD
Conditions
April 3, 2025

An excerpt from Has Medicine Lost Its Mind?: Why Our Mental Health System Is Failing Us and What Should Be Done to Cure It.

One of society’s great issues is who decides what science does—the public or science. For example, the populace has taken control and been clear that it does not want science to create human beings in a laboratory or construct computers that run the world. Once …

Read more…

Medicine’s mental health crisis: Why the system is failing us

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  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Politics and fear have replaced science in U.S. pain management [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Evidence-based medicine vs. clinical judgment: a medical student’s perspective

      Jay Pendyala | Education
    • The controversy over Maintenance of Certification for grandfathered physicians

      Bernard Leo Remakus, MD | Physician
    • How hindsight bias distorts clinical medicine

      Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD | Physician
    • When side effects are actually a cry for help with medication costs

      Shuchita Gupta, MD | Physician
    • The hidden math behind physician hiring costs and recruitment

      Timothy Lesaca, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • The dangers of vertical integration in health care

      Stephanie Waggel, MD | Policy
    • Why does sex work seem like a more viable path than medicine in 2026?

      Corina Fratila, MD | Physician
    • The 9 laws of health care quality: Why metrics miss the point

      Constantine Ioannou, MD | Physician
    • Politics and fear have replaced science in U.S. pain management [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • From Singapore to Canada: a blueprint for primary care transformation

      Ivy Oandasan, MD | Policy
    • How board certification fuels the physician shortage crisis

      Brian Hudes, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Why measuring muscle mass matters more than tracking your weight [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Health insurance incentives and alternatives to opioids for chronic pain

      Molly Candon, PhD and Daniel Clauw, MD | Conditions
    • Independent medical practice: Why private clinics are essential

      Marcelo Hochman, MD | Physician
    • How hindsight bias distorts clinical medicine

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    • Do no harm: Why physician burnout requires bottom-up reform

      Desiree Francis, MD | Physician
    • Institutional distrust in health care: Why a doctor lost faith

      Joshua Mirrer, MD | Physician

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