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The hidden struggles of medically complex homebound patients

Conditions

April 18, 2026

There is a place some patients end up living when they have complex medical illness. It sits somewhere between stable and emergency, and people like me spend a lot of time there. I live with serious medical conditions that keep me mostly homebound and often bedbound. My days revolve around things many people thankfully never have to think about: feeding tubes, medications, blood pressure swings, heart rate problems, and trying …

How regulating clinical empathy prevents physician burnout

Eva Minkoff & Kim Downey, PT

Conditions

April 18, 2026

“When empathy is recognition rather than absorption, it nourishes instead of depletes. It becomes sustainable.” Eva Minkoff shares this thought in our collaborative book, White Coats, Human Hearts, featuring the stories of 11 physicians, two physician spouses, and two patients. Eva has spent her life entrenched in health care, as a chronic patient, physician spouse, and now leadership coach for health care professionals and leaders. Reading those words was an …

Why physical books matter in a social media world

Richard A. Lawhern, PhD

Tech

April 18, 2026

My wife and I recently spent a few days on vacation at a South Carolina beach. We took time to stroll on the sand, take naps, kick back, and read. However, in the last-minute rush to pack for our trip, I managed to leave my Kindle at home. Thus, I began the mental journey that resulted in this article.

My Kindle has been one of the nicest gifts my younger daughter …

How CDC opioid guidelines harmed chronic pain patients

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Conditions

April 18, 2026

The 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, aggressively promoted by former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price and CDC Director Tom Frieden, represents one of the most damaging public health missteps in recent U.S. history. Far from curbing the overdose epidemic, CDC guidelines triggered widespread, preventable suffering among legitimate chronic pain patients while leaving illicit fentanyl, the true driver …

How artificial intelligence documentation hurts patients

Brian Hudes, MD

Tech

April 18, 2026

If you have spent any time with the current generation of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted documentation tools, you have probably noticed something that is difficult to articulate but impossible to ignore. The notes they produce are correct, grammatically, structurally, and medically, and yet they feel wrong. They read like a summary written by someone who has read every clinical textbook ever published but has never stood at a bedside at 2 …

The hidden risks of AI documentation tools in clinical practice

Elizabeth Vainder, MD

Tech

April 18, 2026

Artificial intelligence has already entered the exam room. You may or may not have noticed. In my own practice, I sometimes use an ambient scribe during patient visits. Not for every encounter, but for some. When they work well, they can be incredibly helpful. The system listens to the conversation and generates a draft of the clinical note while the visit is still fresh. It allows me to focus on …

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 GLP-1 medications require expert nutrition guidance

Deanne Brandstetter, MBA, RDN

Meds

April 18, 2026

GLP-1 medications are an effective tool for many people’s weight loss journey, and they have changed the conversation around obesity, diabetes, and chronic disease. For many Americans, these treatment options may offer something that once felt out of reach: real, measurable weight loss and improved metabolic health. But as prescriptions surge and headlines celebrate dramatic transformations, an uncomfortable truth is often overlooked. Medication alone is not enough, and in some …

Why current solutions to physician burnout are failing

Bill Pressey

Conditions

April 18, 2026

After a decade of wellness programs, mindfulness apps, reduced shift lengths, scribes, and employee assistance programs, physician burnout rates are essentially unchanged. The AMA’s 2023 national survey found burnout affecting 45 percent of physicians, nearly identical to where we started. Burnout peaked at 62.8 percent in 2021, the highest ever recorded. Physicians still face double the burnout risk of other American workers. The well-intentioned people running these programs know they …

Clinicians are failing at value-based care because no one taught them the system [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

April 17, 2026

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

What happens when you ask clinicians to hit dozens of quality metrics but never explain why those metrics matter or how to manage them? Kenneth Botelho, founding program director …

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 …

What to expect at your first gynecologic visit

Callia Georgoulis

Conditions

April 17, 2026

For many adolescent girls, the first visit to a gynecologist is surrounded by anxiety, embarrassment, and misinformation. Stories shared among peers, exaggerated portrayals online, and a general lack of education about reproductive health often lead young patients to expect invasive exams or uncomfortable procedures. In reality, the first gynecologic visit is rarely about procedures. Instead, it represents one of the earliest opportunities in medicine to build trust, introduce preventive care, …

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 …

The quiet hospital financial crisis threatening health care

Ganesh Asaithambi, MD, MBA

Conditions

April 17, 2026

During the first months of COVID-19, the threat was unmistakable. Hospitals were stretched to capacity. ICU beds were made wherever space could be found. Frontline staff worked on adrenaline, obligation, and the unspoken recognition that at any second the whole thing could collapse. It was defined by volume that was relentless, tangible, and measurable. But the crisis today is different. It is much quieter. It does not announce itself with …

Why I would never compromise on withdrawing care until I saw it firsthand [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

April 16, 2026

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

What happens when your deepest religious convictions collide with a patient suffering from metastatic cancer and no miracle in sight? Medical student Jonah Rocheeld shares the raw tension between …

How language shapes physician migration and medical training

Omer Ahmed

Education

April 16, 2026

During a conversation between classes one afternoon at my medical school, two classmates were discussing where they planned to train after graduation. One had already mapped out a pathway toward the USMLE and residency in the United States. The other hesitated. His hesitation had little to do with grades, ambition, or even finances. It was language. The first had studied medicine entirely in English; the second mostly in French and …

Closing the execution reliability gap in health care systems

Katherine Owen, RN

Conditions

April 16, 2026

Health care has made extraordinary progress in clinical knowledge. Diagnostic capabilities have advanced, treatments have become more precise, and predictive analytics now help clinicians identify patients at risk for complications or readmissions. Yet despite these advances, health care systems continue to struggle with a familiar challenge: Care plans that look clear inside the hospital often break down once patients return home. Medication instructions are misunderstood. Follow-up steps are delayed. Symptoms …

How pain management solves a refractory headache

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Conditions

April 16, 2026

As a pain management specialist, I see patients every week who feel like they have tried nearly everything. They come to me after months, or even years, of battling chronic or refractory headaches. Their primary care doctor and neurologist have already walked them through the usual first-line options, yet the pain keeps coming back relentlessly. It steals their focus, disrupts their sleep, and robs them of the simple joys in …

Health care investing insights from a venture capital pro

Harsha Moole, MD

Finance

April 16, 2026

A few months ago, a well-connected investor sent me a deal for a surgical device with a proprietary safety feature. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-cleared. Strong intellectual property. Thousands of units sold. Multiple institutional backers across several rounds. The investor who referred it had taken a company to a NASDAQ initial public offering and was putting in his own money.

On paper, this was exactly the kind of deal most …