Pediatrics

Why scale of effort matters more than ego in health care

Physician

February 4, 2026

The inventor of the Post-it note deserves a medal. Not for convenience, but for clarity. In my practice, those little squares became tactical weapons, bright flags of truth in a sea of institutional delusion. My mother once told Kathy, before our wedding, never to touch the scraps of paper I left everywhere. She understood that my visual memory depended on those markers. Each Post-it was a breadcrumb, a map, a …

From pediatrics to geriatrics: How treating children prepared me for dementia care

Loretta Cody, MD

Physician

February 3, 2026

As a pediatrician, I spent many years in a busy, at times hectic, mostly enjoyable practice before retiring and segueing into teaching. Now as an adjunct professor in pediatrics, I aspire to help future health care workers pursue a career in pediatrics.

I have often asked myself: Have I missed anything about the day-to-day of practicing pediatrics?

My answer was what I truly missed were the interactions I had with the children: …

Why AAP funding cuts threaten the future of pediatric health care

Umayr R. Shaikh, MPH

Policy

February 2, 2026

During my pediatrics rotation in my third year of medical school, the most important skill I learned was how to listen more carefully.

Children rarely have the language or power to fully articulate their needs. They are forced to rely on adults, systems, and institutions to advocate on their behalf. In pediatrics, that responsibility is not an abstract idea. It shows up in exam rooms where parents must choose to pay …

A blueprint for pediatric residency training reform

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

January 31, 2026

The false promise of efficiency

The latest punditry calls for three-year medical schools, stripped of ethics and other vital subjects, with less clinical training. The rationale? Efficiency. The result? A generation of physicians unprepared for the complexity of children’s lives.

General pediatricians themselves admit in published surveys that they “know squat” about developmental-behavioral pediatrics (DBP) after residency. Yet the proposed solution is to shorten training further. That is not reform; it is …

Why I chose disruption over conformity in medicine

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

January 25, 2026

I am no poster boy. I deal with significant physical challenges and mobility issues. The toll continues. I face major medical procedures in the coming year, the price of decades spent serving others while refusing to serve the system. I am actively planning my eventual funeral, which many in my field are likely looking forward to. I served the people, not the system. That choice was the death knell for …

The impact of war on the innocence of children

Michele Luckenbaugh

Conditions

January 23, 2026

They are not born into battle.
They arrive with open hands,
with laughter,
with faith that the world will keep them safe.

Yet, men who are not content with peace
clench their fists around power,
mistaking domination for strength
and control for legacy.
They draw borders with bullets
and call it victory.

In their pursuit to prove themselves,
they let the bombs fall.
Roads darken with blood.
Homes become rubble.
The sky learns the language of fire.

And in the wreckage stand the children.

They watch …

Why ACIP’s ruling on universal hepatitis B vaccination endangers newborns

A. Lane Baldwin, MD

Physician

January 12, 2026

On December 5, I started my hospital shift learning that the ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) had voted against offering universal administration of hepatitis B vaccine at birth, opposing the long-standing practice endorsed by experts. After a long day of examining newborn babies and counseling families, my mind drifted back to the announcement and unearthed a memory of a boy named Sam.

Sam was born a healthy newborn to loving …

Examining the rural divide in pediatric health care

James Bianchi

Policy

January 9, 2026

A vacant expression covered the face of a 14-year-old boy who lay almost lifeless in a hospital bed, completely unaware of the frantic hustle that surrounded him. Once an extraordinary student-athlete, intracerebral hemorrhage unjustly robbed him of his robust character. This was my most significant interaction with a patient. I knew him not as the student-athlete, nor the boy from neurosurgery, but as my youngest brother. With limited access to …

The Chief Poisoner: a chemotherapy poem

Ron Louie, MD

Physician

January 7, 2026

An excerpt from What the Physician Whispered.

You are looking at me, little one,
perhaps wondering who I might be.
Even though I might seem friendly,
you seem wary and frightened, not yet
used to seeing strangers and busy places.
Someone thought maybe I might help save you.

I offer to give you poison.

They have not told you, because they do not know
how sick you really are, meaning how close you are
to an unexpected conclusion that …

Read more…

The Chief Poisoner: a chemotherapy poem

Pediatric respite homes provide a survival mechanism for struggling families [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 1, 2026

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

Certified coach and professor Kathleen Muldoon and co-founder of Ryan House and Children’s Respite Homes of America Jonathan Cottor discuss the article “The need for pediatric respite care.” Kathleen shares the personal …

The impact of policy cuts on ableism in health care

Ashna Shome, MD

Policy

December 19, 2025

I am a disabled doctor. Being in residency, where many of my peers are young and able-bodied, I entered medicine with extensive experience on the other side of the examination table. I also entered medicine wanting to emulate the best of the care I received, and minimize the worst.

Over time, I have met more and more doctors like me who struggle with temporary or permanent disability. I see how systems …

Why medicine needs military-style leadership and reconnaissance

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

December 18, 2025

Robert E. Lee did not lose Gettysburg because he lacked courage or troops. He lost because he was blind. His cavalry commander, J.E.B. Stuart, galloped off on his own, leaving Lee without reconnaissance. By the time Stuart returned, George Custer cut him to pieces. Leadership without recon is leadership without eyes.

Screening tests are the point in a military formation. They provide the initial lay of the land. In medicine, they …

Why pediatric leadership fails without logistics and tactics

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

December 16, 2025

In my previous critiques of the failure of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP), and the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (SDBP) titled “Why developmental and behavioral pediatrics faces a recruitment collapse,” I argued that “leadership presence without leadership action is theater.” The SDBP strategy had no actionable items.

Any military historian will tell you that in addition to an overall strategy, you …

Why humanity in medicine requires peace with a spine

Kathleen Muldoon, PhD

Conditions

December 15, 2025

This past year, I’ve found myself in many different rooms (on podcasts, in boardrooms with legislators, and in conversations with program directors at medical schools and hospitals) talking about what humanity truly means in clinical and caregiving professions.

I hear back from my third- and fourth-year medical students about how this work shows up for them in clinics, auditions, and residency interviews. They describe moments when an intentional emphasis on humanity, …

Why developmental and behavioral pediatrics faces a recruitment collapse

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

December 14, 2025

For two months I have staged testimony, written op-eds, and amplified coalition voices about the collapse of developmental and behavioral pediatrics (DBP). This piece is an epilogue, a reckoning with a specialty that once held promise but now clings to aspirational posters instead of actionable reform.

The poster problem

The Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (SDBP) recently circulated a flyer titled Critical Outcomes in DBP. Page 2 lists “Solutions” to the …

Why true leadership in medicine must be learned and earned

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

December 10, 2025

I learned about leadership from my father as a child. My father enlisted in the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and went through basic training. He was a “slick sleeve,” no rank insignia on his shirt sleeve as an Airman Basic. It took him the bare minimum of time, five years, to be promoted to technical sergeant because of his skills in electronics. The USAF selected him for Officers Training School. …

How medical students can handle vaccine hesitancy in pediatrics

Adam Zbib

Education

December 9, 2025

“Explain a time you faced vaccine hesitancy and how you handled it.” As a fourth-year medical student applying for pediatric residency, this question came up often in interviews. It is an experience that almost every medical professional has encountered, even early in training. The first story that came to mind was from my newborn nursery rotation during my third year of medical school.

I met a first-time mother who had just …

Blackballing in medicine: a physician’s story

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

December 8, 2025

Medicine remembers data but forgets voices. I learned this between 1999 and 2003, when I was quietly fired and branded as someone who had “burned too many bridges.” That label was projection, not a critique of my science. My work within the national research network remains foundational to current clinical guidelines, and my training-grant application ranked near the top of all those submitted. Yet the whisper of “bridge-burning” became the …

The inconsistent academic peer review process

V. Sushma Chamarthi, MD

Physician

December 7, 2025

I check the submission website again. And again. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I find myself refreshing the page, hoping for a small update (a new status, a change in wording, a sign that my manuscript has moved from “under review” to “decision in process”).

For early-career researchers, this waiting game is familiar. We pour months, sometimes years, of effort into designing a study, collecting data, writing, revising, and …

How online parent communities extend care

Jorge Rodriguez, MD

Physician

December 7, 2025

As a pediatric gastroenterologist with more than 10 years of face-to-face clinical experience, I can recall countless stories of parents who felt lost at sea, adrift between vague diagnoses, inconclusive tests, and unanswered questions. Medicine has its boundaries; doctors can only work within what is known. And while artificial intelligence now helps us digest vast amounts of medical data, nothing can replace the curiosity and determination of parents who take …

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