Primary Care

Overcoming moral injury in medicine: a Doctor’s Day reflection

Physician

March 30, 2026

The white coat has always been a symbol of a sacred trust, a commitment to “do no harm.” But as we approach Doctor’s Day 2026, many of us find ourselves grappling with a different kind of harm. It is not a physical wound, nor is it the “burnout” often cited in corporate wellness modules. It is the moral injury of us.

In our daily practice, we increasingly find ourselves at the …

A poem of gratitude for narrative medicine on Doctor’s Day

Michele Luckenbaugh

Conditions and Diseases

March 30, 2026

You stood in the quiet spaces
where fear gathers its weight,
in exam rooms humming with doubt,
in moments when breath was forced
and time seemed unwilling
to promise tomorrow.

You were there.

Not only with stethoscope and chart,
not only with the knowledge of medicine,
but with something far rarer:
a presence that did not rush,
a listening that did not measure itself
against the ticking of a clock.

I remember how you listened to the story,
as if each word mattered,
because to …

The death of medical swagger: How physician status has changed

Paul Dranichnikov, MD, PhD

Physician

March 27, 2026

Fifty years ago, being a doctor was like being a cross between a wizard and a rock star. People would whisper in awe when you walked by: “There goes Dr. High-and-Mighty, saving lives and curing everything from a runny nose to a broken heart!” My dad used to tell me stories about how he would get waved past security, cut to the front of lines, score doctor discounts, and park …

Why clinical medicine is harder than flying a plane

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

March 27, 2026

People often say doctors should perform like flight or rescue teams. The comparison sounds flattering. It is also incomplete. Pilots, ship captains, firefighters, coastguards, and rescue teams all work in high-stakes environments. They train hard. They lead under pressure. They make critical decisions with lives at risk. Medicine shares that gravity. But the real-world challenge of clinical medicine is often more complex, less controlled, and more exposed to uncertainties than …

Physician burnout: a poem on the unseen weight of medicine

Michele Luckenbaugh

Conditions and Diseases

March 26, 2026

You took an oath not to be a machine,
not to be a ledger of codes and signatures,
not to be a pair of hands
moving briskly from room to room
as if compassion could be measured in 15-minute increments.

You took an oath to listen for the tremor beneath a voice,
to feel for the pulse that falters under your fingertips,
to stand between suffering hope and say,
“I will try.”

But somewhere between the stethoscope and the …

Why your patient’s disability claim was denied

Jennifer Hess, JD

Conditions and Diseases

March 26, 2026

Sooner or later, most physicians encounter this moment. A patient arrives at an appointment carrying a thick envelope of disability insurance forms. They look uncomfortable when they ask the question.

“Can you help me fill these out?”

For many clinicians, the request lands at the worst possible time. The waiting room is full. The schedule is already behind. And the forms themselves are long, repetitive, and often confusing. Still, you try to …

Do no harm: Why physician burnout requires bottom-up reform

Desiree Francis, MD

Physician

March 24, 2026

Before there were health care systems, insurance companies, or electronic medical records, there was the healer, a person embedded within the community, accountable not only for technical competence but for character.

My medical training outside the United States, while competitive and rigorous, remained service-oriented and community-based. Medicine historically was grounded in cultivated human qualities: humility, accountability, reverence for life, respect, and relational presence. Healing was not limited to scheduled interventions; it …

AI in health care: Why artificial intelligence cannot replace human empathy

Ryan McCarthy, MD

Physician

March 23, 2026

If you trust the titans of industry, and I do not, we are led to believe that, just around the proverbial corner, the equivalent of C-3PO will arrive to improve health care. How wonderful!

You might remember the fussy, shiny droid, the golden companion of R2-D2 in the Star Wars films. Fluent in over six million forms of communication, C-3PO bubbled with personality, …

The clash between defensive medicine and value-based health care

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

March 22, 2026

Defensive medicine grows where fear rules. Value-based health care grows where judgment, trust, and outcomes matter. That is the clash now facing many doctors. On paper, health systems say they want high-value care, better outcomes, lower waste, and patient-centered decisions. In real life, many doctors practice in an environment shaped by needless complaints, crushing legal defense costs, underfunded services, regulator overreach, and instant reputational damage through online and social media. …

Why physicians get stuck in productive and numbing cycles

Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH

Physician

March 21, 2026

I had a mini epiphany recently. I realized there are three basic categories of time:

Productive: many work tasks (but not all), completing a task at home, achieving a specific personal or professional goal.
Non-productive and enriching: sleep, physical activity, being fully present with friends and family, learning something new.
Non-productive, non-enriching, and pleasurable: Netflix bingeing, drinking another glass of wine, zoning out, going down a social media rabbit hole, …
Read more…

Why physicians get stuck in productive and numbing cycles

The controversy over Maintenance of Certification for grandfathered physicians

Bernard Leo Remakus, MD

Physician

March 21, 2026

I received a lifetime certification from the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) in 1983. Since then, I have not participated in any of the Board’s “Maintenance of Certification” (MOC) programs.

I have taken the continuation of my medical education seriously, and have performed more than the number of hours required for my state licensure, professional liability insurability, and AMA continuing education recognition awards. Additionally, I have taught medical students and …

Why physicians must lead payment tariff negotiations

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

March 18, 2026

Many physicians see fee schedules, payment rates, billing codes, and pension negotiations as administrative work best left to a few elected representatives, policy experts, or government staff. However, these physician payment tariff negotiations shape how care is delivered, how practices remain viable, how new services are recognized, and how the profession sustains itself over time. They involve fee codes, billing rules, payment rates, service descriptions, pensions, compensation models, and allocation …

Primary care compensation models: Why wRVUs are obsolete

Yul Ejnes, MD

Physician

March 18, 2026

It is time to dethrone the office visit as the king of primary care physician compensation and how the work of a primary care physician is defined.

Several months ago, a reporter asked me how many patients I see in a typical day. I told her that the question should not be how many patients I see each day, but how many patients I take care of each day, a number …

Why physicians are absorbing risk, not leading

Gus W. Krucke, MD

Physician

March 17, 2026

Physicians are often described as leaders of the health care team. The language shifts, quarterback, captain, final decision-maker, but the implication is constant: someone is clearly in charge. At the bedside, the reality feels more complicated.

In every functioning system, there is a final point of responsibility, the person who answers when outcomes are poor. In medicine, that person remains the physician. We sign the charts. We carry the malpractice risk. …

The hidden cost of ignoring public health infrastructure

Lujain Mattar

Medical Education

March 15, 2026

Modern health care works tirelessly to treat illness and save lives, yet it often intervenes after disease has already taken hold. The system prioritizes acute treatment over prevention, despite overwhelming evidence that early intervention and public health strategies save more lives, earlier, and at far lower cost. While dramatic rescues capture attention, the quieter work that could prevent disease is often underappreciated, leaving patients and communities to face preventable health …

Overcoming dental anxiety for better oral health care

Kaushal Shah, DMD

Conditions and Diseases

March 15, 2026

Dental anxiety remains one of the most common yet overlooked barriers to oral health care. Despite advances in modern dentistry (painless techniques, improved anesthetics, and patient-centered care), millions of people continue to delay or completely avoid dental visits because of fear. The consequences extend far beyond oral health; untreated dental disease can significantly affect overall health, confidence, and quality of life. For many patients, dental anxiety begins early in life. …

Dual physician marriage: stories of love and partnership in medicine

Deborah Shlian, MD, MBA and Joel Shlian, MD, MBA

Physician

March 15, 2026

An excerpt from Lessons Learned: Stories from Dual Physician Marriages, published by the American Association for Physician Leadership (AAPL), is available in print and eBook at Amazon and the AAPL bookstore.

How do two people build a strong marriage while both are practicing physicians? Medicine is demanding, and marriage can be too. Plenty has been written about how those pressures can strain relationships, but far less …

Improving tobacco treatment in clinical practice

Edward Anselm, MD

Conditions and Diseases

March 14, 2026

Modern medicine can transplant organs, cure hepatitis C, and deploy artificial intelligence to read radiology scans. Yet one of the most effective life-saving interventions in clinical medicine, treatment for tobacco dependence, is still delivered inconsistently. More than 28 million Americans continue to smoke cigarettes. Evidence-based treatments are widely available, inexpensive, and highly cost-effective. But across health systems, physicians rarely deliver them in a systematic way. By every measure, physicians are …

The lost art of connection: Why medicine needs to slow down

Dean Robosa, MD

Physician

March 14, 2026

I called my old professor the other day to ask a very specific question about the Geriatric Depression Scale and expressed to him a big frustration on my end on how we are no longer able to perform such complex assessments among our patients, especially in primary care. During residency, we are taught to take thorough histories and perform physical exams by the book, but in reality, it is very …

Why “just relaxing” fails when your nervous system is stuck in survival mode [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 13, 2026

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

Occupational medicine physician and life coach Claudine Holt discusses her article “Nervous system dysregulation vs. stress: Why ‘just relaxing’ doesn’t work.” Claudine challenges the common advice to treat burnout with self-care like …

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