Surgery

From burnout to balance: a neurosurgeon’s bold career redesign

Physician
July 3, 2025

When a neurosurgeon tells you she thinks she might want to leave surgery for interior design, you listen closely.

Not because it’s outrageous, but because it’s honest. Many physicians carry similar longings. They wonder whether it’s OK to want a different life.

In medicine, conformity is expected and often a means of survival. Especially for women in male-dominated fields. The unspoken expectation is to blend in, push through, and never question the …

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How New Mexico became a malpractice lawsuit hotspot

Physician
July 1, 2025

Across America, physicians worry about malpractice litigation—but what happens when state policies unintentionally create a malpractice litigation magnet? New Mexico offers a troubling case study every health care provider should know about.

Between 2019 and 2024, New Mexico lost 248 practicing physicians; for a large state with a small population, this is significant. Rural communities bear the brunt of this exodus. Specialists, surgeons, and primary care doctors alike have left, most …

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Why even the best employees are silently quitting health care

Physician
June 26, 2025

Imagine yourself being miserable at work and you have been thinking about quitting for a long time now, but you are just really good at what you do. Your colleagues approached you when they needed advice and even your patients praised and thanked you all the time. Imagine leaving all of this and walking away from years’ worth of hard work.

Initially, you might have felt guilty and isolated for feeling …

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How robotics are reshaping the future of vascular procedures

Conditions
June 18, 2025

Medicine has always evolved through a blend of scientific rigor and bold innovation. Over the last century, surgical practice has progressed from risky open procedures to highly controlled, minimally invasive interventions. Laparoscopic surgery marked one such revolution, dramatically enhancing patient outcomes by enabling precision through small incisions. By the 1990s, it had become an essential part of modern surgery.

A similar, albeit slower, evolution has taken place in endovascular care. …

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Bridging the rural surgical care gap with rotating health care teams

Education
June 9, 2025

Compared to urban areas, rural communities had a 21 percent higher rate of deaths due to heart disease and a 15 percent higher rate of cancer deaths from 2001 to 2019. The per capita number of general surgeons decreased from 6.4 to 5.2 per 100,000 population (−18 percent) during the same period, further highlighting disparities in rural care.

The recruitment of rural physicians and surgeons remains a challenge. …

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If I had to choose: Choosing the patient over the protocol

Physician
June 4, 2025

It was after dinner at The Goring, just the three of us—Ulla, David Chipp, and me. The kind of dinner where the wine lingers longer than the food, and the conversation slips into the quietly personal.

David, once Reuters’ correspondent in Peking during the Mao years and later editor-in-chief of the Press Association, handed me a gift: a copy of E. M. Forster’s What I believe. Inside, he had written a line …

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Hope is the lifeline: a deeper look into transplant care

Conditions
May 30, 2025

A few months after meeting her during rounds at a dialysis center, an elderly woman gripped my hand and quietly asked, “Do you think I’ll make it in time?” Her voice trembled. She had been silent for weeks, worn down by dialysis and overwhelmed by the long transplant process. Her question pierced through the clinical routine. I looked into her eyes, squeezed her hand gently, and said, “We’re going to …

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A surgeon’s startling ketamine experience [PODCAST]

Podcast
April 19, 2025
YouTube video

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

General surgeon Arthur Williams discusses his article “A surgeon’s battle with ketamine-induced hallucinations.” He shares an account from his novel of an experience needing a pacemaker for a “janky heart” prone to …

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Normalizing male plastic surgery in Africa

Conditions
March 26, 2025

Aloma Isaac Junior, a Nigerian comedian popularly known as Zicsaloma, recently underwent rhinoplasty. This intervention exposed deep-rooted biases about masculinity, beauty, and body autonomy in Africa. Instead of curiosity or support, his decision was met with mockery, outrage, and accusations of self-hate.

This backlash reveals a cultural blind spot. Plastic surgery is often seen as an indulgence for women, while men are expected to accept their looks as they are. Medical …

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The hidden financial burdens shaping modern medicine

Education
March 12, 2025

Imagine this: Two attending surgeons undertake a surgical procedure on a patient. The surgical residents have draped the patient; the surgical tech and the circulating nurse are ready to begin the operation. The surgical attendings enter the OR, scrub in, and move to the next order of business: “How are we going to bill for this procedure?”

Often, there is an unspoken—and spoken—consensus that the medical field is a lucrative one. …

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How operational inefficiencies are undermining patient trust and care

Physician
February 12, 2025

As I step into my fifth year of superspecialty surgical practice in corporate hospitals, I find myself reflecting on a recurring challenge that has profound implications for both patient care and professional satisfaction. Despite clinical expertise and the goodwill we work tirelessly to build, patient experiences in hospitals are often marred by factors beyond our control.

In my experience, negative feedback about hospital services is overwhelmingly linked to operational inefficiencies rather …

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Why patients choose the surgeon, not the hospital

Physician
February 12, 2025

It was a Sunday morning, a rare moment of leisure for a young surgeon stepping into the fifth year of his superspecialty practice. Sitting with his family, savoring the tranquility of a slow day, he felt grateful for the pause. But as the evening crept in, so did the familiar storm: Calls started pouring in—an OT staff member asking about requirements for the next day’s surgeries, a medical officer updating …

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Peer review case: a surgeon’s fight for due process

Conditions
January 11, 2025

We recently resolved a complex peer review case involving a surgeon in a Midwestern state. The case arose as the hospital began transitioning to an employed-physician model, seeking to phase out its non-employed, voluntary medical staff. Our client, a non-employed surgeon with privileges to treat patients at the hospital, was among those targeted in what appeared to be a strategic effort to remove voluntary non-employed physicians from the …

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How to make life-and-death decisions with confidence [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 10, 2025
YouTube video

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

We explore the high-stakes world of life-and-death decisions in medicine with William O. Collins, an otolaryngologist and airway surgeon. Drawing from personal experiences, he shares the challenges of performing under pressure, the importance …

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Sobriety is the ultimate superpower for overcoming life’s challenges [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 2, 2025
YouTube video

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

We dive into the transformative power of recovery with Courtney Barrows McKeown, a surgeon who shares her journey of sobriety and resilience. From navigating career setbacks to fostering personal growth, Courtney discusses how …

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Resilience whispers: the silent triumph through a surgeon’s lens

Physician
December 8, 2024

In the silence of a rural village, where dreams were often tethered to survival, I first learned the language of resilience. Life’s trials were as persistent as the dusty winds, shaping every step of my journey from those humble beginnings to becoming a surgeon. My story, like that of many others in the medical field, is one of quiet perseverance—a journey marked not by loud victories but by the soft …

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Reasons why you should consider having your surgery at an ASC

Physician
December 7, 2024

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
– Henry Ford.

The changing landscape of health care, along with a rising trend among patients for more affordable, manageable, and specialized solutions, has made ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) gain noticeable traction as a preferred surgical option. The value ASCs provide to patients, providers, and insurers is a perfect combination of convenience, safety, and cost savings. Here are ten data- …

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8 important things everyone should know about tongue-ties and lip-ties by a pediatric dentist

Conditions
December 4, 2024

As a pediatric dentist and owner of a tongue tie center, I pride myself on having a conservative and collaborative approach when it comes to treating oral restrictions. Too many providers rush to release, and too many parents are misinformed thinking the release is going to be a “magic fix.”

I’ve compiled a list of important things that I feel everyone (both providers and parents) should know about tongue-ties and lip-ties.

1. …

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Finding happiness in the challenges of neurosurgery

Physician
November 14, 2024

I have found that many physicians are not happy. I wanted to share with them some ways to find “amrita” in life. Then we can face life with joyful countenance, ready to receive the Maker when we hear the knock, as described in Revelation 3:20. It is important to associate with virtuosity. La Chaim!

The excitement: Albert Camus said that the “struggles that one encounters in life are by themselves the …

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The gifts of sobriety: Navigating career disappointments with grace and resilience

Physician
November 4, 2024

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
—Victor Frankl

I celebrated three years of sobriety earlier this year. It’s been a long, circuitous path, marked by seeking help, practicing acceptance, and diligently working a twelve-step recovery program.

Brené Brown, who’s been sober for twenty-seven years, shared in a 2019 article that her sobriety …

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