Take-home messages: what physicians say when asked to leave one

Last updated October 3, 2026.

The short answer

Read together, the 2,419 closing answers on this page show what guests of The Podcast by KevinMD most want a listener to carry away: something to do rather than something to feel. Of the answers, 44 percent tell the listener to do something and 4 percent offer encouragement; the rest restate the guest’s argument, tell a story, or name a hope. What changed in 2026 is where the instruction points. The word system appears in 21 percent of the 2026 answers, against 9 to 15 percent in every earlier period, and the rise is spread across 42 guests rather than a few frequent ones.

This page is a maintained record of what guests say when asked to leave a take-home message at the end of The Podcast by KevinMD, the daily interview show hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, a board-certified internal medicine physician in Nashua, New Hampshire, who founded KevinMD.com in 2004. The guests are physicians and the nurses, students, patients, attorneys, and others who write for KevinMD, 1,686 of them, and the question is the same in every episode, which makes this the one place in the archive where that many people answer an identical prompt, on the record, with a date. The record draws on every episode that carries a full transcript on its page, 2,262 as of October 3, 2026, published between June 2020 and October 2026. Every episode from that first one on now carries a full transcript. Every claim on this page is attributed to a named guest with the month it was said and a link to the episode.

The sections below are organized around the subject the guest was discussing, because the answers follow the conversation rather than a common theme. Each opens with a direct answer, followed by what named guests have said, in the order they said it, from 2020 to 2026. Guests are named as the host introduced them. This is a record of opinion and experience, not clinical guidance.

This record at a glance

2,419closing answers

2,262transcribed episodes

2020 to 2026years covered

64episodes cited on this page

Questions this record answers

What is a take-home message on The Podcast by KevinMD?
What do physicians tell other physicians about diagnosis and treatment?
What do physicians say patients should do?
What do physicians say actually helps with burnout?
What advice do physicians give medical students and residents?
What do physicians advise other physicians about using AI?
What do physicians say to check before signing a contract?
What do physicians say should change in health care?
What do physicians say makes a good leader in medicine?
Do guests give the same answer years apart?
Which guests appear most often on The Podcast by KevinMD?
Have the take-home messages changed since 2020?

What is a take-home message on The Podcast by KevinMD?

It is the closing question of every episode, asked after a conversation about an essay the guest published on KevinMD. Guests expect it, so answers are substantive. Of the 2,262 transcribed episodes, 2,260 contain an answer, and in 136 of them two or three guests each answer, for 2,419 answers in all, at a median of 125 words. The largest share names an action; a smaller group restates the essay’s argument in one sentence; a few speak to one listener, a resident, a patient, a colleague who is struggling.

Every episode, year by year: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026.

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What do physicians tell other physicians about diagnosis and treatment?

Physicians closing a clinical conversation name a behavior to change rather than a fact to remember: question the diagnosis when treatment keeps failing, treat the driver rather than the number, and know when not to operate. This is the largest group on the page, 876 of the 2,419 answers.

Caroline DeFilippo, an internal medicine physician, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in May 2021 to other physicians: “Please start talking to patients about this,” in “End-of-life conversations: Embrace the responsibility.” Robert Trent, a biochemist, said in August 2021: “Be skeptical of statistics, and be skeptical of data,” in “Does Aduhelm mark the return of science-based medicine?“

Peter T. Hetzler, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in February 2023 that the most important thing is “learning when surgery is not the best option and helping your patients through that decision-making process,” in “Beyond the physical: How hand injuries affect identity and expression.”

Richard M. Fleming, a physician specializing in cardiovascular and inflammatory disease, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in May 2026 that “precision medicine means precision measurements, not simply using surrogates,” in “GLP-1s, weight loss, and the inflammation tests your patient needs.” Victoria Rundus, a pediatrician, said in August 2026 that medical knowledge helps, but “we have to always keep an open mind to those zebras and constantly reassess,” in “A wrong diagnosis that almost killed a doctor.” Francisco M. Torres, an interventional physiatrist, said in August 2026 that treatment should not be set by the payer’s algorithm: “You need to question what you are doing,” in “A back procedure that can weaken a young spine.”

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What do physicians say patients should do?

Asked what a patient should do, guests most often say to find a clinician who will listen and put the whole picture together, to learn enough about the condition to advocate for yourself, and to know that others are in the same position. Of the 2,419 answers, 150 are addressed to patients directly, and several come from guests who are patients or family members themselves.

Denise Reich, a patient advocate, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in January 2022 to patients: “Be vigilant about your chart. Look at it often,” in “When records are wrong, patients are at risk.” Sonya M. Sloan, an orthopedic surgeon, said in February 2022 that patients should “speak up for yourself. Be your own advocate,” in “Why and how to get a second opinion.”

Richard A. Lawhern, a patient advocate, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in October 2023 that patients should “reach out to other patients on social media and realize that you’re not alone,” in “Opioid regulations: a patient advocate’s insights.” Alan Lindemann, an obstetrician-gynecologist, said in March 2024: “To patients, I’d say try to find somebody who will listen to you,” in “Postpartum depression: 40 years of insights.”

Oluyemisi Famuyiwa, an obstetrician-gynecologist and infertility specialist, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in July 2026 that a patient with irregular periods should “come see a doctor who can help you put it all together,” in “PCOS was never just about your ovaries.”

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What do physicians say actually helps with burnout?

Guests who work on burnout say almost uniformly that the exhaustion is a response to working conditions rather than a personal failing, and that the individual should still change the one thing they control rather than wait. The earliest answers say it most bluntly: this is not a problem to solve through self-care. This group holds 402 of the 2,419 answers.

Susan Hart Gaines, an executive coach specializing in physician well-being, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in March 2022 that “self-care is this deep knowledge of who you are, what matters to you,” in “What doctors and soldiers have in common.” Amy Vertrees, a general surgeon, said in June 2022: “you have permission to stop. Everyone needs you to stop,” in “A call to stop overworking.”

Mara Buchbinder, a medical anthropologist, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in August 2023 to individual physicians that “This is not your problem to solve through self-care,” in “Addressing clinician burnout: an occupational health perspective.” Archana Reddy Shrestha, an emergency physician, said in December 2023: “I want you to know that there’s nothing wrong with you,” in “Breaking free from metric shaming.”

Shari Morin-Degel, a counselor, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in December 2025 that “We can’t wait for those big system things to change,” in “Leadership buy-in is the key to preventing burnout.” Lisa Rubiano, an internal medicine physician and physician coach, said in June 2026 that burnout and moral injury are “a natural process that happens when you’re in a toxic system,” in “Physician burnout is not your fault, and here’s why blaming yourself keeps you stuck.”

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What advice do physicians give medical students and residents?

Guests addressing students and residents give three instructions more than any others: know that you have power even in training, speak up when something is wrong even when it costs you, and value what the training cost rather than trading it away. The advice here is the most direct on the page because the guest usually remembers being the listener. This group holds 531 of the 2,419 answers.

Clayton Korson, then a medical student, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in October 2020 that “we need to take ownership over our education,” in “Medical students are benched during the pandemic.” Adam Lieber, then a medical student, said in April 2021 to fellow medical students that the take-home message is to “give yourself a break sometimes. Realize that what you’re doing is very hard,” in “End medical school grades.”

Kelley Butler, then a family medicine resident, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in July 2023 that “I want to make sure that everyone who’s listening to this knows that you have power,” in “Improving the financial struggles of resident physicians.”

Umayr R. Shaikh, a medical student, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in March 2026 to physicians who teach: “Don’t be afraid to ask us about whatever concerns you may have,” in “Shift from universal to optional vaccination risks normalizing preventable disease.” Vasilii Khammad, a physician and researcher, said in August 2026 that residents should “keep fighting for what you think is fair,” in “He spoke up in residency, then got walked out in front of his patients.” Kathleen Muldoon, a certified coach and medical education professor, said in August 2026 that “Who you are matters just as much to your patient as what you know,” in “Medical students aren’t cheating on their essays: They’re afraid.”

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What do physicians advise other physicians about using AI?

No guest on the show advises a colleague to refuse artificial intelligence. Before 2023 the tools were telehealth and the record system; since then the advice has been consistent: learn the tools well enough to govern them, take a role in designing them, and judge each one by whether it gives the physician back to the patient. Answers naming AI rise from 0 percent in 2020 and 2021 to 11 percent in 2026. The group below, 319 of the 2,419 answers, also counts answers about data, apps, and telehealth.

Rodrigo Martínez, an otolaryngologist and health care executive, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in May 2022 of clinical technology that “it’s all about workflows and incentives,” in “Make technology work for doctors.” Christina Khou, a rehabilitation psychologist, said in October 2022: “The take-home message is that telehealth works,” in “Want to improve telehealth? Ask people with disabilities.”

Brett Mollard, a radiologist, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in July 2023 that “I think the biggest take-home message that I have is that we need to be open to AI,” in “How artificial intelligence is transforming radiology.”

Robert Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in April 2026 that “The next 10 years are going to be pretty great for doctors,” in “Gradually, then suddenly: Dr. Robert Wachter on health care’s giant AI leap.” Tod Stillson, a family physician, said in June 2026 that physicians should “embrace it and govern it and use it as a capacity multiplier in their clinical practice,” in “What happens when physicians cede AI to direct-to-consumer startups.”

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What do physicians say to check before signing a contract?

Guests who talk about money name the same things to check: the whole contract rather than the salary line, the loan plan before payments restart, the tax structure of the income, and the revenue a practice leaves on the table. Several describe what they did not know when they signed. This group, which also counts answers about loans, pay, and the business of practice, holds 286 of the 2,419 answers.

Travis Hornsby, a chartered financial analyst, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in June 2022 , while a temporary Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) waiver was open: “Really pay attention to the PSLF waiver,” in “Medical school loan repayment tips.” Dennis Hursh, a physician contract lawyer, said in December 2022 that physicians should “have a competent physician’s attorney review the agreement,” in “Physician contract horror stories.”

Dennis Hursh, a physician contract attorney, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in June 2023 that “the biggest thing is don’t sign what’s handed to you,” in “Physician employment contracts: the key to fighting burnout and improving working conditions.” Altelisha Taylor, a family medicine physician, said in August 2023 that “my take-home message is really to get a plan for your student loans,” in “Navigating medical student loan repayment choices.”

Logan Foltz, a physician and tax specialist, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in April 2026 that “It is generally better to have steady income than to have variable income,” in “Why physicians pay more in taxes and how to reclaim your income.”

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What do physicians say should change in health care?

Asked what should change, guests in 2023 said the people who can change it are physicians; guests in 2026 name consolidation, Medicare, and disaster planning, and ask physicians to engage at the level of the system rather than the case. This group holds 418 of the 2,419 answers.

Ni-Cheng Liang, a pulmonary physician, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in November 2020 of health disparities: “Notice how you treat your patients,” in “COVID-19 amplifies health disparities.” Lisa Park, a pediatrician, said in December 2022 of gun violence: “My take-home message would be that we are not powerless,” in “Bulletproof backpacks: There’s more we can do.”

Michael Fine, a family physician, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in April 2023 of corporate primary care that “probably the only people who can change it are us,” in “From community to corporation: the transformation of primary care.”

Stephanie Waggel, a physician and founder of Improve Medical Culture, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in May 2026 that consolidation means “People are going to have to wait longer,” in “I Googled my own name and a corporate clinic I’ve never worked at appeared.” Timothy Bulat, a consulting actuary who led Medicare Advantage analytics inside an insurer, said in June 2026 that the program’s incentives deserve scrutiny but “Medicare Advantage is absolutely a valuable part of the Medicare program,” in “20 years inside a Medicare Advantage insurer, and who actually pays.” Angela C. Johnson, an internal medicine physician and member of the American College of Physicians Board of Regents, said in September 2026 that a natural disaster asks physicians for “the ability to engage at a higher level on systems,” in “Hurricane season is a fifth season, and medicine has to plan for it.”

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What do physicians say makes a good leader in medicine?

Guests describing good leadership say the same thing in different words: leadership belongs to the role a clinician already has, it is a practiced skill rather than a title, and it starts with the patient and the leader’s own capacity. This group holds 485 of the 2,419 answers.

Steve Adelman, a coaching and consulting psychiatrist, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in July 2021 that a leader should stay in touch with what is inside, because “you can’t take excellent care of patients if you don’t really fine-tune yourself,” in “How physicians can be better medical leaders.” Richard Winters, an emergency physician, said in December 2022: “I hope that people step into leadership roles,” in “Leadership lessons from Mayo Clinic.”

Peter Angood, chief executive of the American Association for Physician Leadership, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in March 2023 that physicians should “leverage the role that you already have to help create the larger-scale change in health care,” in “Empowering physicians to lead: the benefits of physician leadership.”

Cristin Mount, an intensivist, said on The Podcast by KevinMD in March 2026 that a new leader’s framework takes practice, and “Practice doesn’t have to be large and grand and in public,” in “How to master a new health care leadership role.” Jessie Mahoney, a pediatrician and certified coach, said in July 2026 that the profession should “figure out how we can change things for the next generation,” in “Why women doctors get sick and blame themselves for it.”

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Do guests give the same answer years apart?

Some do; the same guests answer the same closing question across as many as six years. Three who appeared in both 2023 and 2025 or 2026:

Lianne Mandelbaum, founder of the No Nut Traveler, told clinicians in June 2023 to “Treat food allergies as a real disease,” in “Empathy and awareness: Unveiling the hidden dangers of food allergies.” By May 2026 the listener had widened to everyone else on the plane: “Be kind to people who have food allergies, even if they look normal,” in “DOT ruling protects peanut allergies but not eggs, sesame, or milk.”

Tod Stillson, a family physician, closed in September 2023 on business structure: “Teach them, coach them and mentor them in understanding the value and benefits of micro-corporations,” in “How micro-corporations transform medical careers.” In August 2026 the subject was who reaches the patient first: “The AI companies are going for the land grab,” in “Doctors are now the second opinion, AI is the first.”

Wendy Schofer, a pediatrician, told parents in February 2023 to “Focus on what you want to create, what you want to go towards,” in “Moving beyond weight-centered approaches in childhood obesity.” In November 2025 the advice had become about pace: “really slowing down is the most important thing that we can look at, in particular as parents and physicians,” in “A pediatrician explains the real danger of food perfectionism.”

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Which guests appear most often on The Podcast by KevinMD?

Muhamad Aly Rifai has appeared 28 times since October 2024 and Jessie Mahoney 27 times since July 2020, the two most frequent guests among the transcribed episodes. Dennis Hursh has the longest run, 25 episodes from March 2022 to September 2026. In all, 298 guests have appeared more than once and account for 1,031 of the 2,419 answers. Kim Downey, a physician advocate, appears in 32 episodes since May 2023, 31 of them alongside another guest, and is listed here as a co-host rather than ranked.

Guest	Episodes	Span	First transcribed episode	Most recent
Muhamad Aly Rifai	28	October 2024 to March 2026	Inside the courtroom: a doctor’s battle against a fraud investigation	Unregulated botanical products pose hidden risks in convenience stores
Jessie Mahoney	27	July 2020 to July 2026	How to handle family and parenting stress as a physician	Why women doctors get sick and blame themselves for it
Dennis Hursh	25	March 2022 to September 2026	Are hospitals evil? A physician contract lawyer explains.	Blaming the doctor is cheaper than fixing the record system
Oluyemisi Famuyiwa	17	August 2024 to September 2026	How microplastics affect our reproductive health	Why acne, chin hair, and irregular cycles are more than an ovary problem
Janet A. Jokela	16	August 2024 to June 2026	From refusal to acceptance: a journey of trust in vaccination	Why physician is not the same as provider
Tod Stillson	15	July 2021 to August 2026	Doctors beware: There’s a $400,000 target on your back	Doctors are now the second opinion, AI is the first
William Lynes	13	May 2022 to January 2026	Mental illness and suicide: a physician’s story	Urological analysis of delayed cancer diagnoses in political figures
Kathleen Muldoon	13	May 2025 to September 2026	Why true listening is crucial for future health care professionals	She spent weeks on her personal statement. Then someone asked why she didn’t use AI.

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Have the take-home messages changed since 2020?

Less than the subjects of the show have. Three measures move. The word system holds at 9 to 15 percent of answers through 2025 and reaches 21 percent in 2026, across 42 guests; artificial intelligence rises from 0 percent in 2020 and 2021 to 11 percent in 2026; and the word patients rises from 37 percent to 50 percent over the same span. Burnout, advocacy, and encouragement each stay within three points, and the share of answers that tell the listener to do something stays between 42 and 47 percent.

Term	2020 to 2021 (614 answers)	2022 to 2023 (771 answers)	2024 (402 answers)	2025 (385 answers)	2026 (247 answers)
Artificial intelligence	0 percent	2 percent	5 percent	5 percent	11 percent
Burnout or moral injury	6 percent	8 percent	6 percent	5 percent	5 percent
Advocacy	7 percent	7 percent	6 percent	8 percent	9 percent
Encouragement	5 percent	5 percent	4 percent	3 percent	4 percent
An instruction to the listener	43 percent	47 percent	42 percent	43 percent	45 percent
The word patients	37 percent	45 percent	42 percent	42 percent	50 percent
The word system	9 percent	15 percent	12 percent	13 percent	21 percent

Answers were counted by the same stored expression in every period. Every episode from June 2020 on is transcribed, so each column counts every answer from those years. The 2026 figures run through October 3, 2026.

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About this record

The take-home message corpus by the numbers

The figures below describe the transcribed episodes this page draws on, as of October 3, 2026. They are counts of what the show has published, not survey data about physicians.

Measure	Value
Transcribed episodes, June 2020 to October 2026	2,262
Episodes with a closing take-home answer	2,260
Answers, one per guest	2,419
Answers from episodes published before July 21, 2024	1,606
Named guests	1,686
Guests with more than one appearance	298
Median length of an answer	125 words
Answers that tell the listener to do something	44 percent
Answers containing encouragement	4 percent
Answers addressed to patients	150
Sponsored episodes, counted but not quoted	30
Most frequent guests, co-hosts not ranked	Muhamad Aly Rifai (28); Jessie Mahoney (27); Dennis Hursh (25); Oluyemisi Famuyiwa (17); Janet A. Jokela (16)

How this page was built and how it is updated

Every post in the Podcast category of KevinMD was retrieved and the 2,262 that carry a full transcript were kept. The closing answer is the guest turn after the host’s request for a take-home message; in 41 episodes where the host closed with a different question, it is the guest’s last substantive turn. In 136 episodes with two or three guests, each answer is counted and attributed separately. Guest names are the transcript’s speaker labels, with 23 names that appear in two forms merged by hand; 7 answers labeled by a single name are counted but not quoted, as are the 30 answers from sponsored episodes. Roles are those the host gave in the introduction. Subjects are assigned by words in the answer and the episode title, so an answer can belong to more than one and 16 percent belong to none; the other measures use stored expressions applied to the answer alone. Quotations are verbatim from the transcript. The page is rebuilt from the full archive each month as new episodes are added. The complete episode list is at the podcast archive. Related records: What physicians say: the KevinMD records, Physician burnout: what physicians say, in their own words, and Artificial intelligence: what physicians say, in their own words.

When the page is updated, the date at the top changes, the counts are recomputed, and new guests and answers are added. Nothing is removed unless the original episode is removed. A guest who believes a quotation on this page misrepresents them can write to Kevin Pho and the page will be corrected.

To cite this page: Pho K. Take-home messages: what physicians say when asked to leave one. KevinMD.com. Updated October 3, 2026. https://kevinmd.com/take-home-messages