Physician

How corporate health care ruined the medical profession

Physician

April 27, 2026

In the golden days of practicing medicine, the hospitals’ boards were composed of community leaders acting on behalf of the hospitals to raise funds, negotiate insurance contracts, screen and supervise the performance of the key employees, and interact with the government. They used their passion and influence to facilitate the delivery of health care to the communities they served. Most of these board members were volunteers or philanthropists. A few …

The true crime community is radicalizing kids online

Physician

April 26, 2026

As physicians who regularly work with pediatric patients, and experts in counter-terrorism, we know firsthand the dangers that online radicalization poses to youth. Nihilistic violent extremism (NVE), which glorifies violence for the sake of violence, is on the rise globally. Many of these decentralized online networks, such as the 764 Network, specifically target children for recruitment. 764 has seen a sharp increase in popularity, and has become the …

Navigating medical training and residency as a female plastic surgeon

Smita Ramanadham, MD

Physician

April 26, 2026

An excerpt from The DNA of a Doctor: How Upbringing, Culture, and Unbridled Ambition Curates Achievement.

Having the support of male colleagues and mentors was not new to me. I could not have gotten through plastic surgery residency without my male co-residents. Being the only woman in my class and the classes I was sandwiched between could be daunting. My male co-residents were a blessing, they looked after me, and …

13.1 reasons running a half marathon beats practicing medicine

John Wei, MD

Physician

April 25, 2026

This past weekend, I completed the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon, a 13.1-mile course running across the Brooklyn Bridge, through the streets of New York, through Times Square and Central Park, finally finishing upright and with both shoes still on. In the 48 hours since crossing the line, I have reflected deeply on the experience and arrived at one inescapable conclusion: It was still better than going to work. Please …

Why experiential consent is replacing traditional medical consent forms

Ron Tongbai, MD

Physician

April 23, 2026

Imagine sitting in a witness box while a plaintiff attorney holds up your drafted, 15th-grade surgical consent form. You know the patient signed it. You know you spent 10 minutes explaining the risks. But then the attorney asks the patient: “When the doctor warned you about positive dysphotopsia, did you know it meant you wouldn’t be able to drive your grandchildren home at night?” The patient cries. The jury glares …

Why career pivots are a valid path in medical training

Whitney Black, MD

Physician

April 23, 2026

The medical students I work with are already starting to close doors. They are in their twenties, still in training, and they are already narrowing, already deciding which parts of themselves fit inside the life they are building toward. I recognize it because I did the same thing. I just did not realize it until much later. And no one told me there was another way to look at it. …

Why early detection technology and precision medicine are failing patients

Julie Chen, MD

Physician

April 23, 2026

The tools to detect serious disease years before symptoms appear already exist. What we are waiting on is a health care system structured to use them. Early in my career in primary care, I watched patients with vague symptoms and normal lab results get dismissed as anxious or mildly depressed. While some were, others were experiencing the very earliest stages of disease. Signals that more advanced diagnostics would have caught, …

Physician autonomy is not separate from patient care

Corinne Sundar Rao, MD

Physician

April 22, 2026

Recently, I came across the Charter of the Soignés (“those being cared for”) by French physician and writer Martin Winckler from The School of Caregivers (2019).

This is not a legal document, but an ethical framework. It outlines 10 principles centered on dignity, autonomy, and the humanity of the patient.

The first nine principles focus on what we would hope our patients experience. The recognition that a person is more than a …

Bridging the gap between a chronic disease diagnosis and treatment

Donald Kushner, MD

Physician

April 21, 2026

Early in my career, I saved a man’s life, and he was not pleased. Mr. H came to see me for knee pain. With my training still fresh, I moved through a standard review of systems. When I asked about cardiac symptoms, he mentioned that for several weeks, walking more than a block caused chest pain that resolved with rest. The knee was forgotten. I explained the cardiac risk, ordered …

When shared decision making gives way to medical paternalism

DeAnna Pollock, MD

Physician

April 21, 2026

“Why haven’t they scheduled your dad for his feeding tube placement? They just want another family conference.” I sighed and told my mother we may have to fight. The physicians caring for my father seemed ready to overrule her decision, even though she held his medical power of attorney. When I spoke with an intern, I explained that our family had not changed our mind about the course of treatment. …

Medical expert testimony vs. advocacy in the courtroom

Howard Smith, MD

Physician

April 20, 2026

In Opinions, which is section 9.7.1 of the American Medical Association (AMA) Code of Medical Ethics, a physician serving as an expert witness has a duty to act as an objective, independent professional whose opinions are based on science, and not act as an advocate whose opinions win lawsuits. The question, which I now raise, is: “Are opinions expressed by a medical expert, which have 95 percent confidence (the …

Leaving clinical practice for medical advocacy and purpose

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

April 20, 2026

Two days after Christmas, I walked into a store and saw Easter Cadbury Eggs already on the shelves. Not a single mattress sale for Presidents’ Day in sight. Just a clean leap from tinsel to tulips, as if the world had quietly decided to skip the expected steps and sprint ahead. It struck me because that is exactly what my life feels like right now. For decades, I lived inside …

Trusting clinical intuition to spot an atypical heart attack

Anonymous

Physician

April 19, 2026

An excerpt from Those Shoes: A Physician’s Reckoning with Life, Death and the Medical Machine.

The nurse caught me before I walked in the room, “This next patient says he knows you.” I looked in the room and saw Jim, the gate guard in my neighborhood. “What’s he here for?” “Back pain,” she said, with a look I recognized. “You know what he wants.” I knew what she meant. Back …

The human side of medicine in quiet clinical moments

Devina Maya Wadhwa, MD

Physician

April 19, 2026

From the outside, medicine is often imagined as a profession defined by urgency and dramatic turning points. People picture emergency rooms where rapid decisions determine outcomes, life-saving interventions performed under pressure, and moments when a physician’s action decisively alters the course of illness. These moments certainly exist, and they remain some of the most visible parts of medical practice, but they represent only a small fraction of what most physicians …

How credentialing and culture impact physician mental health

Namit Choksi, MD, MBA, MPH, MPP

Physician

April 18, 2026

It is 3 a.m. and you are wide awake, not because of your overnight shift or a surgery you are prepping for, but because the stress you have been carrying for months will not let you sleep. You know you need help. You also know you probably will not ask for it. Somewhere in the back of your mind, a fear: that a mental health diagnosis could surface in your …

Why listening is the core of patient-centered care

Claudy Bonne Année, MD

Physician

April 17, 2026

In today’s fast-paced health care environment, many clinicians face overwhelming demands: packed schedules, electronic documentation, administrative pressures, and institutional productivity targets. While these pressures are real, an alarming concern has emerged in clinical practice. Patients increasingly feel that their voices are not being heard. They report that their providers seem distracted, rushed, or focused on screens rather than on the human being sitting in front of them. As a clinician …

Why relationship-centered care matters in medicine

John Wei, MD

Physician

April 17, 2026

I started volunteering on Saturday mornings out of a feeling of restlessness. Having been in primary care for several years, I was looking for something new, to break from routine, and to feel like I was doing real good. Which is how I ended up at our medical student-run free clinic, and have been blessed with an opportunity that has grown into a primary passion of mine. We see mostly …

How one doctor navigated orthopedic residency while pregnant

Christen Russo, MD

Physician

April 15, 2026

The Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society (RJOS) Dr. Jessi Block Courage Award is awarded annually to an RJOS member who demonstrates strength and integrity in the face of everyday obstacles. The definition of courage is “the ability to do something that frightens one” and “strength in the face of pain or grief.” Courage is a conscious choice and a willingness to confront a difficult situation. As health care professionals, we become …

A humorous parody of medical specialties and the modern patient

Sidney J. Winawer, MD

Physician

April 14, 2026

Prologue

As a practicing gastroenterologist for more than 50 years, now emeritus, I was privileged to have had colleagues with expertise in many specialties to whom I could refer patients. Since my career began, the constellation of these specialists has increased considerably. Patients often find themselves moving from one “ologist” to another, each very skilled but focused on a particular organ system. From the patient’s perspective, maneuvering through the complexities of …

Surviving a hospital blizzard as a physician on call

George F. Smith, MD

Physician

April 13, 2026

The recent record snowstorm in New England got me all in a deep wintery nostalgia. I contacted my friends back in Boston who have been living there for well over 40 years to get their perspectives, and it brought back memories of living on the East Coast and surviving the seemingly interminable long winters there before I moved to California in the late 1980s. Most prominently in my memory is …

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