The patient experience

A medical home pioneer meets fragmented care as a patient

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

October 10, 2026Oct 10, 2026

For years, I spoke about the importance of coordinated care. Long before the term became fashionable, I helped build what would later become known as a medical home at Minot Air Force Base. The concept was straightforward. Somebody had to own the whole patient. Not just a diagnosis. Not just a specialty. Not just a laboratory value. The whole patient.

At the time, it seemed obvious. It still does. What surprises …

How therapeutic presence helps patients feel felt

Daniel J. Siegel, MD

October 1, 2026Oct 1, 2026

An excerpt from The Mindful Therapist: An Interpersonal Neurobiology Approach to Healing and Wholeness, second edition. Resonance is the coupling of two autonomous processes into a functional whole without losing the essence of each one. When we resonate with another…

An excerpt from The Mindful Therapist: An Interpersonal Neurobiology Approach to Healing and Wholeness, second edition.

Resonance is the coupling of two autonomous processes into a functional whole without losing the essence of each one. When we resonate with another person, we are changed by them but do not lose our essence in the joining. Resonance is not the same as mirroring or imitating. Resonance enables two differentiated elements of …

Patient voices

Why patient-owned health records beat a portal login

Jessica Chalk

October 1, 2026Oct 1, 2026

On KevinMD, patient advocate Monica McEathron wrote about a note in her medical record that labeled her insulin pump a "primary weapon." Her endocrinology team later documented that the insulin correction was appropriate and that the dangerous low came from…

On KevinMD, patient advocate Monica McEathron wrote about a note in her medical record that labeled her insulin pump a “primary weapon.” Her endocrinology team later documented that the insulin correction was appropriate and that the dangerous low came from a device communication failure. The note stayed in her chart anyway, waiting for the next emergency clinician to read it before reading anything else.

I read her piece twice. Then …

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Health technology

Will AI replace doctors? That is the wrong question.

Brandy Zachary, DC

October 1, 2026Oct 1, 2026

For most of my life, I have experienced medicine from both sides of the exam table. As a patient, I spent years on Social Security disability and accumulated diagnoses across specialties. At one point, I had my brain electrocuted twenty times for what ultimately turned out to be an infection. Eventually, a primary immunodeficiency helped explain why so many unrelated things had happened to me.

I went on to train more …

Franklyn R. Gergits, DO, MBA

Diagnostic overshadowing and the war in her throat

September 28, 2026Sep 28, 2026

The referral came from a mental health clinic. A woman had been putting the hose of a handheld vacuum cleaner into her mouth, pushing the nozzle toward the back of her throat, and turning it on. She had done this more than once a day for several days. The clinician who examined her found bruising and abrasions throughout her mouth. She was referred to me because her mouth and throat …

Losing your doctor: the grief no health system notices

Timothy Lesaca, MD

September 25, 2026Sep 25, 2026

There is a small, unreasonable part of us that expects our doctors to stay in one place forever. We know better, of course. We know they grow older, become tired, change jobs, and make plans. Yet the person we bring…

There is a small, unreasonable part of us that expects our doctors to stay in one place forever.

We know better, of course. We know they grow older, become tired, change jobs, and make plans. Yet the person we bring our uncertainty to is not supposed to become another uncertainty. We may notice the gray hair without quite imagining the day when someone else opens the door.

Few relationships ask so much …

Patient voices

Stigmatizing language in medical records harms care

Monica McEathron

September 24, 2026Sep 24, 2026

I have never asked medicine to promise me a cure. I have asked it to help me stay alive long enough to come home to my children. My medical record is not subtle. Recurrent pancreatitis led to sepsis and multi-organ…

I have never asked medicine to promise me a cure. I have asked it to help me stay alive long enough to come home to my children.

My medical record is not subtle. Recurrent pancreatitis led to sepsis and multi-organ failure in 2016, a Whipple procedure in 2017, and a total pancreatectomy in 2021. I now have no functioning pancreas, insulin-deficient type 3c diabetes, severely altered gastrointestinal anatomy, and an inability …

Clinical trial retention starts with a kind conversation

Regina Portnoy

September 10, 2026Sep 10, 2026

Patients may not remember every lab draw, procedure, or study visit. But they will remember how they felt. One of the greatest privileges of working in clinical research for more than twenty years has been meeting extraordinary people. Clinical research…

Patients may not remember every lab draw, procedure, or study visit. But they will remember how they felt.

One of the greatest privileges of working in clinical research for more than twenty years has been meeting extraordinary people. Clinical research is often associated with science, data, and innovation. Those elements are essential. But there is also a deeply human side to this work. Behind every study, treatment, and medical advancement are …

The human side of clinical trials that no data captures

Regina Portnoy

September 6, 2026Sep 6, 2026

There are patients you remember for their diagnosis. And then there are patients you remember for who they were. He was the second kind. Years ago, during my time in oncology clinical research, I met a patient with multiple myeloma.…

There are patients you remember for their diagnosis. And then there are patients you remember for who they were.

He was the second kind.

Years ago, during my time in oncology clinical research, I met a patient with multiple myeloma. At the time, I was working as a supervisor in a hematology-oncology clinical research unit at a large academic research institution, overseeing a team of study coordinators and managing assigned clinical trials. …

How system strain contributes to medical gaslighting in health care

Alan P. Feren, MD

January 20, 2026Jan 20, 2026

Medical gaslighting has become a widely discussed concept in health care. The term is often misunderstood as implying intentional dismissal or manipulation by clinicians. In reality, most encounters that patients later describe as gaslighting do not arise from ill intent.…

Understanding medical gaslighting requires examining the clinical encounter from both sides of the stethoscope, not …

Alan P. Feren, MD & Joyce Griggs

Why health self-advocacy is an essential life skill

October 11, 2025Oct 11, 2025

Money management and career planning are considered life skills (but the skill that shapes health self-advocacy) deserves the same status. Without it, care suffers. My family member was recovering from surgery, facing medication safety concerns, severe anxiety, and the need for constant care. At the same time, I was managing my own records and preventive health. Like so many women, I had become the family’s chief health executive, carrying responsibilities …

The Podcast by KevinMD

Why the “Cap’n Crunch” approach to medicine puts patients at risk [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

October 2, 2025Oct 2, 2025

Patient advocate Timothy Thomas discusses his article "The Cap'n Crunch philosophy of medicine." Timothy shares his personal experiences with gaps in primary care, from learning of his diabetes diagnosis at a Walmart pharmacy instead of through his clinic, to promised…

Listen on Apple Podcasts · Spotify

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Patient advocate Timothy Thomas discusses his article “The Cap’n Crunch philosophy of medicine.” Timothy shares his personal experiences with gaps in primary care, from learning of his diabetes diagnosis at a Walmart pharmacy instead of through his clinic, to promised tests never being ordered, to medication changes delivered without clear …

How collaboration saved my life from a rare disease doctors couldn’t diagnose

Tami Burdick

May 11, 2025May 11, 2025

So what exactly does collaborative health care mean? When we break this down into categories, there are three main approaches, each with a different benefit but ideally sharing the same end goal: to better improve patient outcomes. First, doctor to…

Years ago, I went through one of the biggest health battles of my life after being diagnosed with granulomatous mastitis (GM). …

Clinical research is evolving. Patient involvement is no longer optional.

Stephanie Ernst

April 30, 2025Apr 30, 2025

In January 2025, the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) formally adopted the updated E6(R3) Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines. Annex 1 and the revised 12 principles are already in effect. Annex 2 arrives in July. This is not just regulatory housekeeping. It is a clear message to the research world: Meaningful patient involvement is no longer aspirational. It is expected.

For decades, clinical research positioned patients as participants,

…

Not all patients are on disability

Not all patients are on disability

Benita Talati

February 11, 2024Feb 11, 20242

A recent conversation with a relative inspired me to write this post. She is a physical therapist who often rants about how patients with chronic pain or chronic illness don't work and are just on disability. I know she's far…

A recent conversation with a relative inspired me to write this post. She is a physical therapist who often rants about how patients with chronic pain or chronic illness don’t work and are just on disability. I know she’s far from the only health care provider with the same belief. She and her coworkers spend time ranting and complaining about their patients who don’t work and use the therapy sessions …

Read more…

The endless waves of chronic illness

The endless waves of chronic illness

March 27, 2023Mar 27, 2023

Life keeps buffeting the patient diagnosed with several chronic conditions, like continuous incoming and outgoing mammoth ocean waves flooding over one's body, raising you high up into the air and then sucking you downward, a struggle to keep your head…

Life keeps buffeting the patient diagnosed with several chronic conditions, like continuous incoming and outgoing mammoth ocean waves flooding over one’s body, raising you high up into the air and then sucking you downward, a struggle to keep your head above the water for survival. There is no rest, true calmness, or time to catch your breath.

My time is dictated by scheduling appointments with my doctor, who then lends me …

Read more…

A mundane ultrasound? The emotional weight of diagnostic tests.

January 18, 2023Jan 18, 2023

The word mundane is defined as an occurrence that is very ordinary and, therefore, not interesting. However, what may be mundane for one may be monumental for another, especially if one's health is in question. An ultrasound provides needed information…

An ultrasound provides needed information to trained medical personnel for the evaluation of the health status of an individual. In many situations, it is a means to alert the physician to a potential problem situation for …

Health policy

Why have we let our diseased health care system go untreated?

December 31, 2022Dec 31, 202212

"To serve the art of medicine as it should be served, one must love his fellow man." - William Osler There is sadness in my heart and my mind. With so many advances in the treatment of illnesses of the…

“To serve the art of medicine as it should be served, one must love his fellow man.”
– William Osler

There is sadness in my heart and my mind. With so many advances in the treatment of illnesses of the mind and body, why have we let our diseased health care system go untreated?

Hospitals in rural areas are being closed down and deemed non-profitable, forcing their patients to seek alternatives; those alternatives …

We are lost and forgotten in the immensity, waiting in the shadows

October 17, 2022Oct 17, 2022

We traverse parallel paths, you and I. Paths that intersect during times of stress, loss, and illness. Each of us searching for truth, understanding, and resolution. Our stories need to be heard, but in these trying times, we are but…

We traverse parallel paths, you and I. Paths that intersect during times of stress, loss, and illness. Each of us searching for truth, understanding, and resolution.

Our stories need to be heard, but in these trying times, we are but mere specks in the immensity of the corporate orb of health care which rolls and overpowers all in its path. Its hunger seems not to be satiated, its grasp ever stretching.

The …

Is our health care system based on untruths?