Public Health & Policy

Health outcomes rely on more than just health care

Physician

May 13, 2026

If the quality of health care was the only major determining factor of health outcomes, then the healthiest cities in the U.S. would simply be those with the best health care facilities. Recent national rankings of city health status, based on composite measures of health care access, food environment, physical activity, and built infrastructure, reveal a different reality. The cities that perform best are those where health is structurally …

A Medicare for All alternative that keeps insurers in

Ken Terry

Policy

May 12, 2026

An excerpt from Beyond Medicare For All: Cracking the Code of the Healthcare Affordability Crisis.

If our goal is high-quality, comprehensive, affordable health care for all, we must make health care less profitable. If health systems and corporations continue to control health care and their main goal is profit, health costs will continue to rise faster than the ability of society to pay, regardless of any reform efforts.

On the other …

Physician vs. provider is an ethics issue, not just style

American College of Physicians

Physician

May 12, 2026

A position paper about using the term physician instead of provider? What does this have to do with biomedical ethics?

I fully support calling ourselves physicians and not providers, and have been sensitive to this issue in part thanks to Read more…

Physician vs. provider is an ethics issue, not just style

Uber’s personal injury lawsuits split doctors and lawyers

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Physician

May 9, 2026

As a practicing physician who also specializes in caring for patients injured in motor vehicle accidents, I’ve seen firsthand how complex and emotionally charged these situations can be. Over the years, I’ve treated people with devastating, life-changing injuries from crashes, as well as those with subtler but still very real problems like persistent pain, spinal issues, or concussions that develop over time. At the same time, I’ve witnessed the intricate …

Bridging the health equity gap with artificial intelligence

Judith Eguzoikpe, MD, MPH

Policy

May 9, 2026

Let us be honest about what is really happening: Automation is coming for medicine, and equity is still waiting in line. Across hospital systems, medical schools, and conference stages, a profession is holding its breath. The question consuming medicine right now is not about patients. It is about survival. About whether artificial intelligence (AI) will hollow out what took decades to build, whether the clinical judgment earned through sleepless residencies …

California’s governor race is missing a health care plan

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Policy

May 7, 2026

As California gears up for its gubernatorial primaries and debates, the familiar issues dominate the conversation: housing affordability, crime, taxes, and economic pressures. Health care surfaces, but rarely as a central priority with concrete, actionable solutions. Candidates offer broad strokes on affordability or protecting programs from federal changes, yet the crushing realities of escalating costs, physician shortages, regulatory burdens, and a system skewed against preventive, relationship-centered care receive little more …

Your waiting room does what social media cannot [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

May 5, 2026

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What happens when patients from opposite ends of the political spectrum sit together in your waiting room and start talking like neighbors? Psychiatrist Farid Sabet-Sharghi explores why the medical …

How medical misinformation drives demand for nonscientific treatments

M. Bennet Broner, PhD

Conditions

May 5, 2026

Not long ago, when the president announced that Tylenol caused autism, he commented that leucovorin, a cancer medication, treated the condition. It was disturbing to see the outsized impact the pronouncements of a nonscientist had on the public, despite counterstatements by autism scientists to the contrary. I can fully understand the response. What mother-to-be would take the chance, even if untrue, that Tylenol may cause autism? Or if parents have …

Why lung cancer screening needs urgent policy reform

Anuraag Balaji

Policy

May 5, 2026

The act of taking a deep breath is a simple, mindless reflex. However, for nearly 124,990 Americans this year, that same breath will become a reminder of a system that failed them. Currently, health care in the U.S. is viewed as a privilege, reserved for those who have the means to access it; it is no longer seen as a right. When it comes to lung cancer, our health …

Why Kennedy’s addiction treatment plan raises ethical concerns

Gary McMurtrie and Abhijay Mudigonda

Policy

April 28, 2026

The current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has consistently captured public attention with his actions and rhetoric, but one aspect of his public health agenda that has received comparatively little scrutiny is his proposed reconceptualization of addiction treatment, undergirded by his support for and stated intent to emulate Patrignano. Patrignano is an addiction treatment program in Italy where people who use drugs (PWUD) participate …

Preparing for Medicaid cuts and the imperial health boomerang

MarkAlain Dery, DO, MPH

Policy

April 24, 2026

I first met Ramon in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when I was moonlighting in local ERs and assisting wherever needed. New Orleans has a long-standing historical and economic connection to Honduras, primarily through the banana trade and shipping routes linking Honduran ports to New Orleans. These routes facilitated both commerce and migration between the two. Ramon, whose family has deep roots in both Honduras and New Orleans, arrived here …

I have cerebral palsy and I’m a doctor. Here’s what policy cuts mean for patients like me. [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

April 20, 2026

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What happens to patients with disabilities when the government signals their lives don’t matter, and what does that mean for the doctors fighting alongside them? Ashna Shome, a pediatrics resident with cerebral palsy, …

Evaluating the credibility of major medical journals today

Laurel A. Coons, PhD

Policy

April 20, 2026

In recent months, a heated debate has emerged about the credibility of major medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and The Lancet. Critics, including United States Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior, have argued that these journals are compromised by pharmaceutical industry influence and therefore cannot be trusted. At first glance, the claim may sound extreme. …

Clinicians are failing at value-based care because no one taught them the system [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

April 17, 2026

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What happens when you ask clinicians to hit dozens of quality metrics but never explain why those metrics matter or how to manage them? Kenneth Botelho, founding program director …

The hidden toll of medical debt on patient health and survival

Adam Cunningham

Policy

April 15, 2026

One hundred million Americans carry medical debt. Research published in JAMA Network Open found that medical debt is associated with higher mortality across every leading cause of death, including suicide. A national study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that people carrying debt burden are more than three times as likely to attempt suicide. Sixteen percent of suicides in this country involve a financial crisis. I do not write …

How health care lobbying distorts the U.S. opioid crisis

Richard A. Lawhern, PhD

Policy

April 12, 2026

KevinMD recently published a paper describing the horrible impacts of health care lobbying in the U.S. This article assesses how effective the lobbyists have been in misdirecting four key legislators on health care-related committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

As we will shortly discover, these highly influential lawmakers have parts of their story right. They also have parts desperately wrong, in ways that are destroying American medicine …

Bridging the gap in rural dementia care with technology

Rachel Milke and Roshni Raj

Policy

April 7, 2026

15642, five numbers that have shaped my life. We all have a zip code that we call home, yet some of us can face detrimental health outcomes based on where we live. Dementia does not discriminate by zip code, but the comprehensiveness of care and patient outcomes often do. Rural families face greater barriers to accessing dementia care resources, which deepens inequities between urban and rural health care. Barriers include …

Balancing civil rights and trauma in an antisemitism investigation

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Physician

April 2, 2026

In the wake of the October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, allegations of antisemitism surged on American campuses, including at the University of Pennsylvania. In response, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) launched a Title VII investigation and subpoenaed Penn for the names and contact information of faculty and staff affiliated with Jewish organizations and Jewish Studies programs. Penn resisted. Faculty groups intervened. The phrase that reverberated through court filings …

Reclaiming human dignity as the foundation of medical practice [PODCAST]

American College of Physicians & The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

April 1, 2026

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Former Treasurer of the American College of Physicians Janet A. Jokela discusses the article “The service of humanity: Recommitting to physicians’ ethical duties.” Janet reflects on her visit to the Ronald Reagan …

Medicine and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Policy

March 29, 2026

Many doctors hear “the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals” and assume the subject belongs to diplomats, ministers, and development agencies. It does not. Doctors advance the Sustainable Development Goals every day, often without naming them. The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda includes 17 goals designed as an integrated framework for human well-being, equity, prosperity, sustainability, and partnership. They are meant to work together, not in silos. That matters because health does …

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