Vikram Madireddy is a neurologist.

China’s health care model of scale and speed

Physician
November 15, 2025

Medicine is more than biology; it is organization. Every country builds its system of care according to its culture, economy, and priorities. In Japan, where I have spent the past few years, health care feels like an extension of social rhythm: precise, deliberate, quietly humane. In the United States, where I trained, the emphasis is on innovation and specialization, but often at the cost of coordination. Now, as I prepare …

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China’s health care model of scale and speed

A doctor’s promise after a patient’s suicide

Physician
October 8, 2025

Suicide is the elephant in the room in medicine. We rarely speak about it openly, yet it remains a silent epidemic, among our patients, and tragically, among physicians themselves.

I first encountered this reality as a medical student in Tennessee in 2022. One of my earliest patients was not much younger than I was. Because we were close in age, I felt we …

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A doctor’s promise after a patient’s suicide

From Tokyo to Paris: Bringing the brushstrokes of healing to Western medicine

Physician
October 1, 2025

When we think about palliative care, our first instinct is to picture pain medications, symptom checklists, and clinical protocols. But for patients with terminal brain cancer, the reality is much more complex. As speech declines, as motor function deteriorates, and as identity itself feels threatened, the greatest need is not always more medicine; it is meaning, connection, and dignity.

In recent years, I have had the opportunity to study an ancient …

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From Tokyo to Paris: Bringing the brushstrokes of healing to Western medicine

How Japan and the U.S. can collaborate for better health care

Education
July 26, 2025

The United States and Japan, while separated by geography, language, and culture, share more in common than first meets the eye—particularly when it comes to health care. As post-war democracies that developed robust medical infrastructures in the latter half of the 20th century, both countries have grappled with similar challenges: Aging populations, rising costs, workforce burnout, and persistent health disparities. Yet their respective approaches—the U.S.’s pluralistic, market-driven model and Japan’s …

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How Japan and the U.S. can collaborate for better health care