Surgery

Why protein timing after bariatric surgery matters

Conditions and Diseases

May 30, 2026

I have noticed something interesting. Most patients become obsessed with how much protein they eat. They track every gram. They compare protein shakes. They know their daily target by heart. But very few pay attention to when they are eating that protein.

This creates a problem I see regularly in practice. Patients come into my office convinced they are doing everything right because they reached their daily protein goal. Yet they …

What aviation safety can teach surgery about culture

Colin G. Knight, MD

Physician

May 30, 2026

I spent four years as an Air Force flight surgeon before I finished surgery residency, and the safety culture I learned on the flight line still shapes how I run an operating room. Aviation learned long ago that the smartest person in the room is sometimes the most dangerous one. Surgery is learning the same lesson, but we are not there yet.

My path to becoming a surgeon was unusual. I …

Doctor patient trust cannot be automated

Archan Khandekar, MD

Physician

May 25, 2026

He is an engineer from Guatemala, in his sixties. The Spanish accent has gone mostly quiet after decades in the States, but not entirely. Six months ago I did a radical prostatectomy on him. Localized disease, favorable risk, I spared the nerves. It went the way you hope these things go.

Today, sitting across from me in my clinic, his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is 0.05. Which, if you are not in …

How a medical investigation drives physician burnout

Jean Paul Brutus, MD

Physician

May 21, 2026

A physician receives the letter. It is short, formal, and absolute. A complaint has been filed. An investigation is underway. In that moment, something shifts. Not just professionally, but personally. The identity built over years of training, sacrifice, and responsibility suddenly feels fragile. Every decision, every note, every outcome is now seen through a different lens. What follows is rarely discussed. Not in training. Not in hospital corridors. Not even …

How to improve protein absorption after gastric bypass

Kevin Huffman, DO

Conditions and Diseases

May 20, 2026

I have spent over two decades treating bariatric patients, and one of the most frustrating clinical situations I encounter is this: A patient sitting across from me who has done everything right. They are hitting 75 grams of protein a day. They are tracking every gram. They are bringing their food logs to every appointment. And they are still losing hair, losing muscle, and showing up with low labs.

In my …

How anal health education helps detect anal cancer

Talar Tejirian, MD

Conditions and Diseases

May 19, 2026

10 years ago, I met a local news health reporter at my cousin’s house. By then, I had been a general surgery attending for almost a decade and was shocked by the lack of public health education about anal health care issues. I had also amassed a particularly busy proctology clinic over the years, seeing patient after patient who had suffered for extended periods, afraid to see a doctor and …

Patient involvement transforms modern clinical research

Niharika Singh

Conditions and Diseases

May 17, 2026

In medicine, patients are often seen as recipients of care rather than contributors to it. But their lived experiences bring something data alone cannot: context, meaning, and truth. Early in my exposure to clinical research, I understood it primarily through a quantitative lens. Outcomes were measured in numbers: complication rates, recovery times, and statistical significance. These metrics are essential, but they do not always capture what matters most to patients. …

Physician burnout is a heavy burden for many healers

Moses Kim, MD

Physician

May 11, 2026

I am a former vascular surgeon, and I left the field in 2020 at the height of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to burnout. And though I had not been well for some years, I was able to find myself again and rediscover my passion for music. In the end, my health and my family became my priority, so currently I work in a more stable outpatient clinical setting.

I started …

How mobile surgical units improve rural surgical access

Pranav Ayyappan

Health Policy

May 5, 2026

Travel time to get to an operating room (OR) has increased since 2010. In 2020, 44 percent of rural adults traveled for 60 minutes or longer to get to a place to receive surgery compared to approximately 37 percent in 2010.

Longer travel to receive surgery results in delayed treatment. Delayed treatment causes the development of more complicated cases, higher complication rates, and poorer outcomes for those who receive …

Surviving cystic fibrosis: a double lung transplant journey

Rebecca Poole and Raymond Poole

Conditions and Diseases

April 29, 2026

I was eight months old when I was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a genetic illness that slowly damages the lungs and can affect digestion and other organs. My parents quickly learned the rhythms of it all: treatments, medications, and constant vigilance.

But here is the part people do not always expect: I still got to be a kid. I rode horses. I ran cross country. I went to college. I fell …

How corporate health care ruined the medical profession

Edmond Cabbabe, MD

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 …

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 …

Why local care matters for peripheral arterial disease

Devin Zarkowsky, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 25, 2026

When asked by the surgery department chair as a medical student why I wanted to treat vascular patients, my response was to be useful, useful to people with a challenging systemic disease that often results in stroke, amputation, and death. Often, wounds that have not healed for months on a foot or a hand, or persistent leg pain provoked by walking or simply laying in bed are subtle indicators that …

How xenotransplantation could finally solve organ shortages

Rafael S. Garcia-Cortes, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 21, 2026

13 Americans will die today waiting for an organ transplant. That is a sobering line. Despite remarkable advances in transplantation medicine, the United States still cannot supply enough organs to meet demand. In 2024 alone, more than 3,400 Americans remained on the heart transplant waitlist while thousands more waited for kidneys, livers, and lungs. Yet a potential solution already exists, one that may soon move from research labs to operating …

Overcoming resource constraints in American medicine

Brooke Buckley, MD, MBA

Physician

March 31, 2026

For much of modern American medicine, we operated with an unspoken assumption: Resources would expand to meet demand. If complexity grew, we added specialists. If volume increased, we built. If margins tightened, we layered new reimbursement strategies. That operating model now feels more like an illusion.

Workforce shortages, supply chain instability, climate disruption, and rising costs have made constraint structural rather than episodic. We are practicing in a globally interdependent system …

Institutional distrust in health care: Why a doctor lost faith

Joshua Mirrer, MD

Physician

March 24, 2026

Faith implies trust: confidence in an idea, a system, or a set of principles. In religion, it often requires adherence to divine authority, shaped by interpretation and tradition. Over time, those traditions can harden into dogma, discouraging curiosity and resisting ideas that challenge the prevailing worldview. This is not unique to religion. Any system that depends on belief risks the same fate.

When contradictions within a belief system become impossible to …

The sensing gap: Why medical AI misses critical diagnoses

John C. Ferguson, MD

Conditions and Diseases

March 9, 2026

The patient walked into the ER obtunded, breathing deep and fast, blood sugar over 400. Classic diabetic ketoacidosis. She had been symptomatic for three days.

Three days earlier, she had asked ChatGPT about her symptoms: excessive thirst, frequent urination, fatigue. The AI told her it was “probably related to dehydration and stress” and recommended increasing fluid intake and rest. It suggested calling her doctor “if symptoms don’t improve in a few …

The hidden toll of physician regulatory investigations

Jean Paul Brutus, MD

Physician

February 28, 2026

I have spent my career believing in systems. As physicians, we are trained to trust oversight. We are taught that regulatory bodies exist to protect patients, maintain standards, and intervene when care falls below acceptable levels. We are taught that if we act ethically, document carefully, and prioritize patients, the system will ultimately be fair. What we are not trained for is what happens when that power becomes opaque.

Over the …

From glucose to vascular health: the future of diabetes care

Palma Shaw, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 25, 2026

Historically, diabetes management focused on blood glucose control and preventing severe complications such as neuropathy and amputation. Over the past two decades, this limited view has proven insufficient for long-term health. Many now emphasize risk factor management, lifestyle changes, and early screening instead of crisis response.

The vascular health risk of a diabetes surge

Diabetes is an epidemic: In the last decade alone, the number of adults living with the disease globally …

The vascular surgeon shortage: Why amputations are rising

Daniel Torrent, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 24, 2026

Steven couldn’t remember when he first noticed the spot on his toe, only that it began as a blister a few weeks earlier. He finally saw his doctor, but only when the entire toe had turned black. His doctor referred him to me, but he missed the appointment because the drive was 90 minutes, and he couldn’t take the day off work.

Two weeks later, half of his foot was dead, …

Surgery

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts