Medications

Every medication error is a system failure, not a personal flaw

Meds
August 29, 2025

Every 24 hours, at least one person dies from a preventable medication error. Every hour, countless others suffer complications that could have been avoided with better systems. Yet despite billions invested in health care technology and training, these numbers are not improving.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: We have been solving the wrong problem.

For decades, health care has treated medication errors like individual failures — a tired nurse, a distracted doctor, a …

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mRNA post vaccination syndrome: Is it real?

Conditions
August 15, 2025

This past week, an unhinged man in Atlanta committed an atrocity. He went to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) with five guns and killed a policeman. He blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal, and it is reported that he had been reaching out for mental health assistance for weeks.

Since January 2022, I have been interacting with national experts on a clinical problem that has hit …

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Why kratom addiction is the next public health crisis

Meds
July 29, 2025

In recent years, kratom, a botanical herb indigenous to Southeast Asia, has surged in popularity across the United States.

Marketed aggressively online and sold openly in vape shops, convenience stores, and specialty herbal outlets, kratom is often portrayed as a natural remedy, an herbal escape from chronic pain, anxiety, and opioid withdrawal. But beneath the alluring veneer of wellness and relief lies a dangerous, largely unregulated substance capable of causing severe …

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Pharmacists are key to expanding Medicaid access to digital therapeutics

Meds
July 11, 2025

More than 78 million Americans rely on Medicaid or CHIP for their health care. Yet many still cannot access FDA-approved digital therapeutics because their state does not include them in covered benefits.

Prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) are software-based treatments authorized by the FDA. They are delivered through smartphones or tablets and are used to manage conditions such as substance use disorder, ADHD, diabetes, and chronic insomnia. For people who face long …

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From stigma to science: Rethinking the U.S. drug scheduling system

Meds
July 3, 2025

In 1971, President Nixon initiated a battle that would reshape the United States: The War on Drugs. As a key part of that campaign, he enacted the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which authorized the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to categorize modern-day controlled substances into 5 “schedules” based on their “medical use, potential for abuse, and safety or dependence liability.” They range from Schedule I, which are substances with no …

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How drugmakers manipulate your health from diagnosis to prescription

Meds
June 27, 2025

It is said that 57 percent of U.S. doctors receive drugmaker/industry funding and 66 percent of U.S. adults are now on prescription drugs. Any correlation?

Drug ads now cast such a wide “symptom net,” comedian Chris Rock said he expected to hear, “Do you fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning? You might be suffering from ….”

Here are six ways drugmakers hijack U.S. medicine

Diagnosing. Once upon a time …

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The food-drug interaction risks your doctor may be missing

Meds
June 24, 2025

As a health care professional, I’ve often observed how one critical aspect of medication safety and efficacy gets overlooked: food-drug interactions.

Every day, we prescribe and dispense powerful medications — but what patients eat alongside those medications can completely alter their effects.

This isn’t just a pharmacy concern. It’s a multidisciplinary issue that deserves greater attention from physicians, pharmacists, and patient educators.

The physician’s role: Asking the right questions

We often do a solid …

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Reassessing the impact of CDC’s opioid guidelines on chronic pain care [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 11, 2025
YouTube video

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Internal medicine and pediatric physician Charles LeBaron discusses his article “How the CDC’s opioid rules created a crisis for chronic pain patients.” Charles discusses the 2016 CDC opioid guideline, initially framed as …

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Why retail pharmacies are the future of diverse clinical trials

Meds
June 10, 2025

The importance of diversity in clinical trials is well-documented, yet unfortunately the lack of diversity still occurs at an alarming rate. As a result, we continue to have less effective treatments, poorer health outcomes, one-size-fits-all medicine that falls short of many patients, and many more negative impacts on health care.

The reason for lack of diversity in clinical trials is similarly known, with language barriers, limited access to health care facilities …

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The hidden bias in how we treat chronic pain

Meds
May 2, 2025

As a health care writer and data analyst, I hear frequently from patients who are being denied safe and effective pain care due to unscientific bias on the part of U.S. health care agencies—and sometimes on the part of otherwise once-reputable medical journals. These are among millions of U.S. citizens who are now being deserted by the medical profession.

Thousands, overcome by their pain and depression, have already …

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Biologics are not small molecules: the case for pre-allergy testing in an era of immune-based therapies

Meds
May 1, 2025

“Once it’s in your body, there’s no taking it back.”

That’s what the infusion nurse told a friend of mine after administering the injection.

She had just started a biologic medication for an autoimmune condition. Immediately, her body reacted: nausea, then hives, then a terrifying tightening of her throat. She rushed back to the clinic. The IV steroids and Benadryl may have stopped the immediate effects, …

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Why the FDA’s outdated prescription rules hinder access to birth control and naloxone [PODCAST]

Podcast
April 17, 2025
YouTube video

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

Surgeon and author Jeffrey A. Singer discusses his article “The FDA’s outdated prescription rules are failing women and opioid users.” He argues that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s requirement for prescriptions …

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How America became overmedicated—and what we can do about it

Meds
April 6, 2025

In a revealing snapshot of American mental health, the CDC recently reported that nearly 1 in 4 adults in the United States may be taking psychotropic medications. This staggering number should both draw attention and raise questions. Are we truly addressing the root causes of psychiatric illness, or are we sedating a nation in pain?

As a psychiatrist and internist who has worked at the intersection of …

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The FDA’s outdated prescription rules are failing women and opioid users

Meds
March 25, 2025

An excerpt from Your Body, Your Health Care.

Tens of millions of American women—more than four out of five women who have had sexual intercourse—have used oral contraceptives, which are crucial for reducing unwanted pregnancies and the incidence of abortion. Obtaining a physician’s prescription can add up to $200 plus time and inconvenience to the cost of “the pill.” Nearly a third of American women who seek prescriptions for oral …

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Big pharma’s grip on health care: time for change

Meds
March 25, 2025

Everyone seems so scared of the word government regulation when it comes to health care. Why? In part, this is because those against regulations (everyone making money off health care) make sure to scare laypeople into equating such action with socialism. Fear of concept is not a good argument against regulating monopolies that are bankrupting millions of Americans. Pretty sure most Americans would be happy to have limitations placed on …

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Advancing drug discount programs starts with collaboration and clarity

Meds
March 8, 2025

The 340B drug discount program was enacted more than 30 years ago to lower the cost of medications so providers could deliver more comprehensive services for vulnerable patients. As care delivery has evolved greatly over that time, the program has not appropriately changed to match it and is no longer effectively meeting its original intent. The program’s rapid growth and misaligned incentives have led to a muddied, complex system with …

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You could soon be taking (or prescribing) a drug developed by AI

Meds
January 21, 2025

Across industries, artificial intelligence is revolutionizing how we approach innovation, and the life sciences and drug development sectors are no exception. This transformative technology is reshaping the way researchers discover and develop new products, particularly in the quest for groundbreaking treatments. While an AI-derived drug may feel like a distant reality, the integration of cutting-edge science, biomathematics, and computational power is accelerating the pace of discovery and testing. These advancements …

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How the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan provides a practical solution to medication nonadherence

Policy
December 18, 2024

Starting January 1, 2025, the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan (MPPP) will give providers a powerful way to address one of the biggest barriers to effective care: cost-related medication nonadherence. With 54 million Medicare beneficiaries eligible, this program has the potential to improve adherence, reduce hospital readmissions, and ensure better health outcomes on a large scale. By helping patients access the program, providers can play a pivotal role in transforming patient …

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How AI could disrupt the future of health care regulations [PODCAST]

Podcast
November 8, 2024
YouTube video

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

We dive deep into the evolving role of artificial intelligence in health care with Muhamad Aly Rifai, a practicing internist and psychiatrist. We explore how AI is not only shaping clinical care but …

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Are you taking FDA-unapproved drugs without knowing it?

Meds
November 6, 2024

If you think the labyrinth of U.S. government agencies and congressional subcommittees is complicated, be grateful you are not a pharmacy owner! Just to get your drugs reimbursed, you must navigate a river of upstream, midstream, and downstream suppliers, health plans and insurers, employers and other payers (including federal and state governments), rebate aggregators, “white and brown baggers,” and an alphabet soup of entities/concepts called things like PSAOs, GPOs, NADACs, …

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