Primary Care

How physicians can reclaim resilience through better sleep, nutrition, and exercise

Kim Downey, PT & Ziya Altug, PT, DPT and Shirish Sachdeva, PT, DPT

Conditions

August 27, 2025

Imagine a family physician who works 12-hour days packed with complex cases and endless paperwork. They may skip meals, miss their child’s recital, and stay late to finish charting. Patient care feels rushed, and the physician begins to feel emotionally numb and irritable. Driving home exhausted, the doctor wonders if medicine was the right career choice! A physician’s role is considered a calling, and when it starts to feel like …

This isn’t burnout, it’s moral injury [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

August 26, 2025

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

Family physician Jonathan Bushman discusses his article, “The hidden moral injury behind value-based health care.” He shares the story of a young physician who was told to remove her most complex patients …

Why heart and brain must work together for love

Felicia Cummings, MD

Physician

August 26, 2025

Come sit down and I will start
To tell a tale of Harvy heart,
And how his feud with Brian brain
Flushed their friendship down the drain.

Brian brain and Harvy heart
Were never very far apart.
Harvy fast and Brian slow,
They worked together, don’t you know?

Then one day they had a spat
Over whom to point their loving at.
Harvy thought that he should lead
Since hearts are much like trusty steeds!

Brian brain thought he was best
Since loving …

How AI helped a veteran feel seen in the U.S. health care system

David Bittleman, MD

Physician

August 24, 2025

A veteran came into my clinic with quiet frustration in his eyes. He was 100 percent service-connected and medically retired, struggling to survive in San Diego. He handed me a DMV disability form—something that could save him hundreds of dollars in car registration fees. But another VA doctor had already refused to sign it.

The form asked whether his disability caused “an impaired gait.” It was vague. He had chronic back …

The overlooked power of billing in primary care

Jerina Gani, MD, MPH

Physician

August 21, 2025

When most of us as providers think about success in primary care, we focus on patient volume, quality of care, or time management. But in my opinion, there is a less glamorous (yet absolutely vital) area that can determine both our income and our liability: billing accuracy.

Billing is not just about codes and claims. It is the foundation of our financial health and a critical layer of legal protection. When …

The joy of teaching medicine through life’s toughest challenges

John F. McGeehan, MD

Physician

August 20, 2025

Sepsis, multi-organ failure, near death

I fought back to the work I loved.

Life shifted; teaching’s call opened another door.

Not time yet.

The student clinic, a rebirth at the bedside,

Watching timid M1s bloom into confident, caring M3s: pure joy.

Being a doctor, teaching, healing, helping those in need.

Not time yet.

The pure fun of light bulbs igniting in small groups,

Connecting with so many bright, caring young minds,

Knowing medicine’s future is secure through them.

Not time yet.

Another …

The unspoken contract between doctors and patients explained

Matthew G. Checketts, DO

Physician

August 18, 2025

We often sign extensive contracts when entering long-term commitments — think of the fine print in a mortgage, a car loan, or a new job offer.

While there are privacy forms and acknowledgments of office policies, the expectations of the physician-patient relationship are often assumed rather than explicitly stated. Some providers do outline expectations, and in today’s medicolegal environment, HIPAA notices are always signed — but that’s not the same as …

The truth in medicine: Why connection matters most

Ryan Nadelson, MD

Physician

August 17, 2025

Being a doctor is about more than diagnosing illnesses or prescribing medications. It is about more than knowing the latest research, the right drug dose, or the most effective treatment plan. Those things matter (of course they do), but they are just part of the job description.

The reality is more human, more vulnerable, and more complex.

Imagine what it is like to sit in the waiting room before your appointment. You …

New student loan caps could shut low-income students out of medicine

Tom Phan, MD

Physician

August 17, 2025

I got into the car outside the bus station in Lowell, Massachusetts, where my father was waiting to pick me up. He looked nervous when he handed me an envelope. Inside was my medical school decision letter. I was accepted. We let out a cheer.

Along with the acceptance letter was the projected cost of attendance: around $70,000 for the first year, climbing to nearly $90,000 by the fourth. I would …

How mindful leadership transforms physician wellness

Jessie Mahoney, MD

Physician

August 14, 2025

The culture of medicine is shaped in quiet ways, by the way meetings begin, the pregnant pauses before a response, and the energy transmitted in emails sent and received. These seemingly insignificant experiences ripple outward, setting the tone for entire teams, shaping what is spoken and what is not, shaping what feels possible and what feels unsafe.

The culture of medicine is not an abstract force. It is built moment by …

Why primary care doctors are drowning in debt despite saving lives

John Wei, MD

Physician

August 12, 2025

I knew there was a cost when I chose to become a physician: The long hours, delayed gratification, the strained relationships. I could understand these things as familiar from my lived experiences. I knew there would be a financial burden, and having been raised by two immigrant parents, an electrician and a nurse, I was no stranger to the pressures of financial insecurity. I was fortunate too: my parents did …

Why boredom is good for your brain and health

Sarah White, APRN

Conditions

August 12, 2025

A few weeks ago, I heard Michelle Obama say something that stopped me in my tracks:

“We have to learn to be OK with the regular days. The in-between. The parts of life that aren’t exciting.”

I thought of my kids in the back seat during a long car ride, sighing dramatically, claiming they were “literally dying” of boredom. I thought of patients sitting in a waiting room with nothing but their …

The most overlooked revenue strategy in primary care: trust

Jerina Gani, MD, MPH

Physician

August 1, 2025

We’re often told that the key to financial success in medicine is volume—more patients, more visits, more hustle. But after two decades in primary care, I’ve learned something different:
The most powerful asset in your practice isn’t speed. It’s trust.

And trust starts with one of the most human (and most overlooked) elements of medicine: the doctor-patient relationship.

Why relationships matter more than ever

Primary care isn’t just about diagnoses or prescriptions. It’s about …

Why terminal cancer patients still receive aggressive treatment

M. Bennet Broner, PhD

Physician

July 31, 2025

Recently, researchers examined whether there had been any changes in the way terminal cancer patients died from 2014 to 2019, given the increased information available on hospice, palliative care, and advanced end-of-life planning (EOLP). They asked whether those who were terminal continued aggressive treatment until their demise. The authors anticipated a decrease in this, but found that the frequency of cancer patients who continued aggressive therapy had not declined. The …

When medicine surrenders to ideology

Anonymous

Physician

July 30, 2025

I am a physician-scientist, a title earned through decades of toil in laboratories and hospital wards, where the twin pursuits of truth and healing once reigned supreme. Yet, at the flagship academic hospital of this self-proclaimed “sanctuary state,” I conceal my credentials—not out of humility, but from a grim desire to witness the system unadorned, as it reveals itself to the ordinary patient. What I have beheld is a travesty: …

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When medicine surrenders to ideology

The unseen burden patients carry between appointments

Ryan Nadelson, MD

Physician

July 28, 2025

A man sat in my waiting room, heart racing—not from chest pain, but from panic. He’d been Googling his symptoms all night. Not afraid of what is—terrified of what might be. This is the anticipatory anxiety of modern medicine—a silent epidemic that strikes before any diagnosis ever does.

Patients no longer arrive with just symptoms. They bring stories already constructed. Hours of scrolling. Threads of worst-case scenarios. Algorithms feeding fear. By …

My journey to loving primary care again

Jerina Gani, MD, MPH

Physician

July 28, 2025

There was a time — not too long ago — when I dreaded the start of each workweek.

I had spent years studying, training, and sacrificing sleep, time with family, and even my health to become a physician. I believed in the value of primary care and the importance of relationships with my patients. But somewhere along the way, the dream started slipping through my fingers. I wasn’t unhappy because of …

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My journey to loving primary care again

First-name familiarity improves doctor-patient connection

Ryan Nadelson, MD

Physician

July 26, 2025

In medicine, one surprisingly heated debate doesn’t get much airtime: Should patients call their doctors by their first name?

It pops up often on medical forums. I’ve seen long threads dissect whether it’s disrespectful, whether it undermines authority, or whether it reflects a cultural shift in how we view physicians. Some doctors insist on “Doctor” as a matter of principle—status, respect, professionalism. Me? I appreciate being called Dr. Nadelson. It reflects the …

Why patients and doctors are fleeing flagship hospitals

Anonymous

Physician

July 25, 2025

In the once-venerable corridors of our state’s flagship academic hospital, a slow-motion disaster is unfolding. White patients — yes, white patients, because that’s who’s leaving — are abandoning ship, hightailing it to the quieter, politer hospitals in “white” suburbs. Why? Because the “uniformly Mexican” staff — medical assistants, front desk drones, and nursing staff — treat customer service like it’s a foreign concept. And frankly, it is. Mexico isn’t exactly …

The hidden moral injury behind value-based health care

Jonathan Bushman, DO

Physician

July 24, 2025

She works for a not-for-profit health system, but nothing about what she described to me felt charitable. A young physician, just a few years into her career, she’s already facing a choice that no doctor should ever have to make: protect her patients or protect the metrics that determine her employer’s paycheck.

The heart of the problem

This physician works under a value-based payment model. On paper, it sounds great: Pay doctors …