Anesthesiology

The assumptions in medicine that put patients at risk

Conditions and Diseases

June 12, 2026

We all make assumptions based on beliefs that may or may not be true. We all have made the mistake of judging books by their cover and been wrong. Making assumptions is not always intentional or inherently bad. Our human brain uses these mental shortcuts to classify things in this large, ever-changing world we live in. We learn very early to classify things by color and shape, and this system …

Insurance consolidation is a patient safety problem

American Society of Anesthesiologists

Health Policy

June 4, 2026

Imagine a physician who has been practicing anesthesiology for 20 years. She is skilled, board-certified, well-liked, and respected by her team. She now works more hours than she did 10 years ago, covers more call, cares for sicker patients, and manages an …

How a self-driving car medical escort could work

Deepak Gupta, MD

Physician

June 3, 2026

Ensuring a patient escort has long been a standard safety requirement for discharge after outpatient anesthesia. The rule is increasingly difficult to satisfy for patients who live alone. Even when a loner patient can arrange for someone to closely oversee them at home until the effects of anesthesia have completely worn off, which is generally presumed to be a 24-hour period after administration, they cannot always ensure someone to physically …

Anesthesiologist bedside manner matters more than skill

Britney Bowling, MD

Physician

May 25, 2026

In anesthesia, we meet patients at one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. We care for patients as a team, and I’m grateful for the skilled certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) I work alongside every day. Often, we are asked to earn trust quickly, while patients place their safety and comfort in our hands. What we offer in those moments goes beyond technical skill. This is my attempt …

Opt-out states and physician-led anesthesia care explained

Michael Beck, MD

Physician

May 5, 2026

Clear, factual information regarding the roles and responsibilities of anesthesia care team members is increasingly difficult to find. In health care, “scope of practice” defines the range of responsibilities professionals may perform based on their license. As many state legislatures and Washington, D.C. are currently in session, anesthesiologists across the country are advocating for patient safety by promoting anesthesiologist-led care, not as part of a “scope” agenda, but as a …

Why artificial intelligence in medicine cannot replace clinical intuition

Garrett Terracciano, MD

Physician

May 2, 2026

It was a cold January night, around two in the morning on my third consecutive 34-hour shift as a senior pediatric resident at a major freestanding children’s hospital in the northeast. My floor had absorbed four admissions in the last hour, our eleventh of the night. The last was a teenage boy, new onset type 1 diabetes presenting in diabetic ketoacidosis. By the time the call came through from the …

How to negotiate a physician sabbatical in private practice

Sarah Gebauer, MD

Physician

April 29, 2026

When I tell other physicians that I negotiated a sabbatical from private practice, a full semester abroad with my family, followed by months of extended travel, the reaction is almost always the same. It starts with disbelief, moves quickly to calculation (“But who covered you? What happened to your income?”), and ends, more often than not, with a version of: “I could never do that.” I understand the reaction because …

The hidden dangers of dental sedation and dental anesthesia in kids

Irim Salik, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 24, 2026

A healthy, 4-year-old girl was brought to the pediatric dental office for treatment of several cavities. The parents were told their child would be given medication to help her “sleep” through the procedure. Easier and quicker than going to a hospital, office-based dental sedation was presented as a safe, routine option for children.

After the sleeping medication was administered, the child grew quiet and became still. The dental work began. At …

How a hidden genetic mutation creates a severe pediatric anesthesia risk

Claudia Bruguera, MD & Luis Rodriguez, MD & Rita Agarwal, MD & Veronica Zoghbi, MD

Physician

April 6, 2026

Imagine a healthy eight-year-old boy going under general anesthesia for a routine procedure. His preanesthetic workup is unremarkable. His family history raises no flags. He receives sevoflurane, the most commonly used inhaled anesthetic in pediatric practice worldwide, and he does not wake up the same.

This is not a theoretical scenario. It has happened to families of Venezuelan ancestry on multiple continents, across multiple decades, and no one connected the dots. …

Tracheostomy communication barriers: a gap in medical training

Alyssa Lambrecht, DO

Conditions and Diseases

March 15, 2026

Despite an ongoing shift in medical training across the country to enhance physician communication skills, there remains limited formal training communicating with patients who have tracheostomies. With over 100,000 tracheostomies performed every year in the United States, clinicians in every field will encounter patients who have individualized communication needs. These patients often experience isolation, depression, and anxiety due to an inability to interact and communicate with others. Clinicians can and …

The truth about ketamine: an anesthesiologist explains drug safety

Jim Ellwood, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 27, 2026

Unfortunately, we’re all too familiar with the tragic headlines:

Matthew Perry, cause of death: ketamine overdose
Michael Jackson, cause of death: propofol overdose
Prince and Tom Petty, cause of death: fentanyl overdose

We can easily conclude from these stories that ketamine, propofol, and fentanyl are inherently dangerous substances. When used irresponsibly or in the wrong hands, they are dangerous. But as an anesthesiologist, I, and many other medical professionals, use these …

Outsourcing patient contact: a solution for multilingual health care

Deepak Gupta, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 26, 2026

The fissuring of health care, along the lines of “The Fissured Workplace: Why Work Became So Bad for So Many and What Can Be Done to Improve It” by David Weil (2014), may not be entirely negative after all. Outsourcing patient contact services, perioperative or otherwise, to centralized, multilingual third-party entities with nationwide reach may be the need of the hour in an ever-evolving multilingual society seeking health care. In …

Spaced repetition in medicine: Why current apps fail clinicians

Dr. Sunakshi Bhatia

Physician

February 6, 2026

In the high-stakes world of medical education and lifelong clinical practice, there is a constant battle taking place: the struggle between the human brain and the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve.

The science of memory is settled. Dozens of studies confirm that spaced repetition consistently outperforms traditional “massed” study (cramming) for long-term retention. By reviewing a clinical concept just as it is about to slip from our neurons, we “hack” the brain into …

The risks of the single-provider dental sedation model

Rita Agarwal, MD & Sangeeta Kumaraswami, MD

Conditions and Diseases

December 28, 2025

Anesthesia and sedation in dental patients has come under scrutiny in recent years, fueled in part by high-profile tragedies, such as the deaths of six-year-old Caleb in 2015, cardiologist Dr. Henry Patel in 2020, and the five media-reported deaths in 2025. These incidents serve as a stark reminder that the current landscape of dental sedation practices is fraught with inconsistencies and a lack of oversight, which can have devastating consequences …

How to manage intraoperative pain during C-section deliveries

Megan Rosenstein, MD, MBA & The Doctors Company

Conditions and Diseases

December 9, 2025

A cesarean section, or C-section, is one of the most common surgeries in the United States. In 2023, 32.3 percent of live births were cesarean deliveries, while 67.7 percent were vaginal deliveries, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Pain during cesarean delivery under neuraxial anesthesia (regional anesthesia including spinal and epidural anesthesia) is a recognized clinical …

Understanding the deadly gaps in pediatric dental safety [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

November 30, 2025

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Pediatric anesthesiologist Irim Salik discusses her article, “The hidden danger in pediatric dental offices.” Irim reveals a terrifying oversight in ambulatory pediatric dental care: children are suffering neurologic injuries or dying during …

Language doulas bridge care gaps

Deepak Gupta, MD, Kaya Chakrabortty, and Yara Ismaeil

Physician

November 28, 2025

During health care encounters with patients from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, there is always a concern about information getting lost in translation between health care providers and their patients. Language and cultural concordance significantly affect the quality and effectiveness of health care delivery. Although phone-in interpreters, with or without video capabilities, are accessible online, none can match in-person interpretation. Even if high-profile political conversations have adapted to artificially intelligent …

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Language doulas bridge care gaps

Why can’t finding a doctor job be like Zillow?

Rob Anderson, MD

Physician Finance

September 30, 2025

After seventeen years of marriage, I found myself divorced, co-parenting, and facing two of life’s most daunting transitions at once: reentering the dating world and buying a new home. The reasons were many: parenting stressors, mid-life transitions, childhood wounds, and outside influences. There was no doubt that my career as a full-time, call-taking anesthesiologist also played a role. While the brutal 24-hour calls and 80-hour weeks were mostly behind me, …

The hidden danger in pediatric dental offices

Irim Salik, MD

Physician

September 21, 2025

A dangerous truth is hidden behind the winning smiles and cartoon-adorned walls at pediatric dental offices: Children are dying or suffering from debilitating neurologic injury during routine care, and few are paying attention. This glaring oversight in ambulatory pediatric dental care is concerning not only for the potential harm to vulnerable, unknowing families but also to the medical community at large. Now more than ever, pediatric dental care is being …

How physician burnout and system reform are shaping the future of U.S. health care

Irim Salik, MD

Health Policy

September 18, 2025

As a young pediatric anesthesia attending, I would often roll my eyes at resident trainees who prioritized their personal needs and required mental health days. I may have even looked down upon them as lazy, weak, and lacking grit. I prided myself on my work ethic, sacrificing time with my two children and aging parents for the sake of my patients. Medicine is a calling, not just a job, I …

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