Primary care

8,116 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 4

Patient dissatisfaction begins before the doctor walks in

August 27, 2026Aug 27, 2026

When patients describe a disappointing health care experience, we often assume the problem occurred in the examination room. Sometimes it did. But after years of caring for patients in urgent and emergency settings and helping lead a high-volume orthopedic urgent care practice, I have learned that many negative patient experiences begin long before the physician walks through the door.

A patient may arrive in pain and not know how long the …

Drugs and prescribing

Is your patient’s new symptom a prescribing cascade?

Narinder Singh Parhar, MD

August 26, 2026Aug 26, 2026

Modern scientific medicine has given humanity extraordinary tools. Antibiotics transformed once-lethal infections into treatable illnesses. Cardiovascular medications prevent strokes and myocardial infarctions. Insulin, anticoagulants, immunotherapies, psychiatric medications, and countless other treatments have extended and improved millions of lives. The problem…

The problem is not medication. The problem begins when our capacity to prescribe becomes greater than our discipline to ask whether every intervention remains necessary. That distinction is increasingly important in an aging …

Conditions and diseases

Protect physicians from bureaucracy, not from patients

Matt Hasan, PhD

August 25, 2026Aug 25, 2026

Lately, there has been considerable discussion about the changing boundaries between physicians and patients. How quickly should doctors respond to portal messages? When does reasonable access become unreasonable intrusion? Where does professional responsibility end and personal time begin? These are…

These are legitimate questions. Physicians are entitled to privacy, reasonable working hours, and protection from inappropriate demands. No one should expect a physician to be available to every patient at every hour through …

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Conditions and diseases

In primary care, listening is a clinical skill

Kimberly Riggi, FNP

August 23, 2026Aug 23, 2026

As a family nurse practitioner, I've learned that the most meaningful moments in medicine rarely happen because I found the perfect medication. They happen because someone finally felt heard. Every day in primary care, patients arrive carrying more than symptoms.…

As a family nurse practitioner, I’ve learned that the most meaningful moments in medicine rarely happen because I found the perfect medication. They happen because someone finally felt heard.

Every day in primary care, patients arrive carrying more than symptoms. They bring uncertainty, fear, frustration, and often years of feeling overlooked. Many have seen multiple clinicians, searched endlessly for answers online, or quietly accepted that their concerns are “just part of …

Physician voices

Why should doctors treating family members step back?

Neil J. Farber, MD

August 22, 2026Aug 22, 2026

An excerpt from Treating a Broken System: A Physician's Cure For the Healthcare Crisis. I remember the event clearly, even though it was more than forty years ago. I was a fairly new faculty member in a Philadelphia university medical…

An excerpt from Treating a Broken System: A Physician’s Cure For the Healthcare Crisis.

I remember the event clearly, even though it was more than forty years ago. I was a fairly new faculty member in a Philadelphia university medical center, having finished my residency in internal medicine a few years prior. My wife, Terry, and I had been married for six years, and we had two kids at the …

Physician voices

I don’t like who I’ve become in primary care

Wendy Shue, MD

August 21, 2026Aug 21, 2026

I don't like who I've become, working in primary care. In the medical community, it seems like we've discussed the root causes of burnout ad nauseam: too much paperwork, too many in-basket messages and inane patient requests, too many clicks…

I don’t like who I’ve become, working in primary care.

In the medical community, it seems like we’ve discussed the root causes of burnout ad nauseam: too much paperwork, too many in-basket messages and inane patient requests, too many clicks in the EMR, too-short appointment times, too much corporate consolidation and insurance overreach. But as I see it, the end result, the final common pathway, is this: Most of us have …

Physician voices

Why setting boundaries as a physician feels impossible

Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH

August 21, 2026Aug 21, 2026

Many of the physicians I work with bring up the issue of boundaries. "I know I need to set better boundaries, but." They see the costs. They are clearly aware of what they need to do but just can't seem…

Many of the physicians I work with bring up the issue of boundaries. “I know I need to set better boundaries, but.” They see the costs. They are clearly aware of what they need to do but just can’t seem to execute. They let patients drive the conversations in the exam room so that they run late and finish notes at midnight. They agree to a schedule change to help …

Conditions and diseases

What happens to evidence-based medicine when patients stop trusting the evidence?

Lynn McComas, DNP, ANP-C

August 20, 2026Aug 20, 2026

National Immunization Awareness Month got me thinking about vaccines, but probably not in the way you might expect. I have never been anti-vaccine. In fact, vaccines are very personal to me. My father had polio. I spent my entire life…

National Immunization Awareness Month got me thinking about vaccines, but probably not in the way you might expect. I have never been anti-vaccine. In fact, vaccines are very personal to me.

My father had polio. I spent my entire life watching the effects it had on him and thinking about how different his life might have been if the polio vaccine had been available before he contracted the disease. It became …

Taking a leap of faith in my career was the best thing for my patients and me

CenterWell Senior Primary Care and Conviva Senior Primary Care

August 18, 2026Aug 18, 2026

This article is sponsored by CenterWell Senior Primary Care and Conviva Senior Primary Care. We've all taken a leap of faith at some point in our lives. For me, it was switching from a traditional physician's practice to joining CenterWell…

This article is sponsored by CenterWell Senior Primary Care and Conviva Senior Primary Care.

We’ve all taken a leap of faith at some point in our lives. For me, it was switching from a traditional physician’s practice to joining CenterWell Senior Primary Care, which employs a true team-based approach. Doing so has …

Physician voices

Rituals in primary care restore what screens erase

Tom Peteet, MD, MPH, MEd

August 16, 2026Aug 16, 2026

A social worker lights a single candle, and the entire primary care staff watches the flame. In turn, we jot the names of deceased patients on slips of paper. When moved to speak, we place a name in the basket. Sometimes we speak. For Ian, whose laugh could light up a room. Other times, we bear witness in silence and sit back down. The gathering feels recent, but it last …

The Podcast by KevinMD

When your labs are normal but you still feel sick [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

August 14, 2026Aug 14, 2026

Listen on Spotify · Apple Podcasts

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Your blood pressure is fine. Your cholesterol looks great. So why do you still feel exhausted, wired, and unwell? Internal medicine and functional medicine physician Shiv K. Goel returns to explain what standard lab panels miss when chronic stress quietly reshapes the body. This episode is based on his article “Normal labs miss what most patients are living through,” …

Conditions and diseases

Medication-induced dry mouth quietly damages teeth

Daria Buinevich, DDS

August 12, 2026Aug 12, 2026

During my years in clinical dentistry, I often saw patients develop new dental problems after starting medication for an unrelated condition. The medication lowered their blood pressure, eased their anxiety, improved their sleep, or controlled their allergies. At the same…

Most patients did not connect the dryness to their medication. Some considered it annoying but harmless. Others barely noticed it until eating, speaking, or wearing …

Conditions and diseases

Health care affordability starts with healthier patients

Narinder Singh Parhar, MD

August 11, 2026Aug 11, 2026

In Western medical training and clinical practice, one of the first questions a clinician traditionally asks is: "What is your chief complaint?" The patient tells a story. The clinician listens, asks questions, performs an examination, develops a differential diagnosis, and…

In Western medical training and clinical practice, one of the first questions a clinician traditionally asks is: “What is your chief complaint?” The patient tells a story. The clinician listens, asks questions, performs an examination, develops a differential diagnosis, and recommends appropriate treatment.

But what if our current health care delivery model itself were the patient? Its chief complaint might sound something like this: “Doctor, I am becoming unaffordable.” And then, …

Physician voices

A Muslim American physician on what an MD cannot shield

Sameen Farooq, MD

August 11, 2026Aug 11, 2026

As a physician, for the longest time, I thought my MD title, this profession, would be a shield in a world full of so many challenges. I was and am wrong. Growing up as an immigrant in the United States,…

As a physician, for the longest time, I thought my MD title, this profession, would be a shield in a world full of so many challenges. I was and am wrong.

Growing up as an immigrant in the United States, I became more acutely aware of my differences after September 2001. Due to my background, skin tone, complexion, name, religion, everything about me stood out. During this formative period, I …

Physician voices

A clinical research portfolio is a set of strategic bets

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

August 10, 2026Aug 10, 2026

Clinical research is typically managed one protocol at a time, with each study having its own budget, timeline, team, recruitment target, and publication plan. While this structure is essential, it can obscure a larger truth. Research organizations do not merely…

Every trial utilizes limited resources. Investigator time, research staff, patient access, data infrastructure, funding, laboratory capacity, and organizational attention cannot be allocated everywhere …

Physician voices

Explaining clinical reasoning to patients in five questions

Alan P. Feren, MD

August 8, 2026Aug 8, 2026

Every summer, a new class of medical students puts on a short white coat for the first time and walks onto a hospital floor. Elsewhere, third-year students begin their first clinical clerkships, and new residents are several weeks into carrying…

They will be taught multiple approaches to the art, science, and practice of medicine. They will learn …

Conditions and diseases

Saving a child’s permanent tooth after dental trauma

American Association of Endodontists

August 7, 2026Aug 7, 2026

When trauma threatens a child's permanent tooth A new electric scooter for a tenth birthday party. In the excitement of trying it out for the first time and demonstrating the speed to friends, the new rider doesn't notice the curb…

When trauma threatens a child’s permanent tooth

A new electric scooter for a tenth birthday party. In the excitement of trying it out for the first time and demonstrating the speed to friends, the new rider doesn’t notice the curb and goes flying over the handlebars. Landing face-first on the sidewalk, the upper lip and front teeth bear the brunt of the impact. This scenario is occurring with increased frequency, especially …

Physician voices

The patient experience question physicians get wrong

Manoj Sreedharan, MD

August 6, 2026Aug 6, 2026

There is a question I have heard countless times throughout my career. "Was the patient happy?" It is usually asked with good intentions, but I have often wondered whether we are asking the wrong question. As physicians, our responsibility has…

There is a question I have heard countless times throughout my career.

“Was the patient happy?”

It is usually asked with good intentions, but I have often wondered whether we are asking the wrong question. As physicians, our responsibility has never been to make every patient happy. We cannot promise antibiotics for viral infections, unnecessary imaging for reassurance, or pain medications simply because they are expected. Good medicine often requires uncomfortable conversations …

Conditions and diseases

Medicine keeps treating oral health as someone else’s job

Daria Buinevich, DDS

August 5, 2026Aug 5, 20263

During my years in clinical dentistry, I repeatedly met patients whose oral disease had been causing symptoms long before they reached a dental office. Some had mentioned bleeding gums to another health care professional but did not understand that the symptom required evaluation. Others had lived with painful chewing, loose teeth, or persistent dry mouth while managing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or multiple medications. By the time they sought dental care, …

Conditions and diseases

What ethics education owes students when evidence changes

Kyoko L. Yoda, DMD, MSPH, MSD

August 5, 2026Aug 5, 2026

Ethics education differs from other disciplines because its main goal is not to transmit information but to encourage moral reasoning. When students leave an ethics course, we hope they will be better equipped to analyze competing values, evaluate evidence, and justify their conclusions, not merely adopt those of the instructor. When you think about it, the teaching of ethics is itself an ethical act that can carry responsibilities extending beyond …

Primary care

Articles, page 4

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