KevinMD.com

An excerpt from The Doctors Guide to Real Estate Investing for Busy Professionals. I left my 20-year general surgical practice at age 51, only 12 years after buying my first apartment complex. By then, my real estate investments were producing more passive income than I was spending. I no longer ...

Read more...

There was a time when drug reps fed us lunch and gave us an endless supply of pens, pads, and even umbrellas all emblazoned with their newest drugs. They explained why their drug was better than their competitors’ and what it would offer to our patients. I still have my Zantac umbrella in the trunk of my car for rain emergencies. Although it was somewhat annoying, it did keep us somewhat ...

Read more...

I am going to make a prediction here. No matter who we elect in 2020, Bernie or Trump or anything in between, Medicare for all is not going to happen in America. One can run an electrifying campaign on the promise of Medicare for all, or indignantly against it, but this is pure theater on both sides. I don’t know if God can make a rock so big and heavy ...

Read more...

Here’s some good news for a change about cancer: Cancer mortality — the rate of death from cancer — has fallen substantially over the last four decades. There is also, however, some not-so-good news: Cancer incidence — the rate of cancer diagnoses — has been rising. This doesn’t reflect increasing dangers in our environment, but a danger in ...

Read more...

This past August, I attended the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) District VI meeting in Wisconsin. The theme of this year's meeting was "Bringing it Back Home," with a keynote presentation focused on developing the emotional habits to influence others and "embody the inner attitude of a leader." After a day of much self-reflection, I decided to stop by the poster presentations during a break between the major talks. ...

Read more...

My wife is a teacher. Her passion is helping the Bart Simpsons of the education system. This past year the school district in the rural area where we live tasked her with the job of opening the community’s first alternative education school. Imagine taking 60 of some of the hardest kids in the area and creating a school just for them, so they have an opportunity to feel success, thrive, and ...

Read more...

The National Institute of Aging (NIA) just announced $73 million over five years to fund two new research centers. "The Alzheimer Centers for the Discovery of New Medicines are designed to diversify and reinvigorate the Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline," says the NIA online. The AlzForum.org has more details, quoting researchers saying they will change the direction away from amyloid-beta and tau (the presumed ...

Read more...

It’s hard to describe the feelings I had when I received my first letter of intent to sue. I think I went through the Kubler-Ross stages of grief — denial at first, of course. This denial didn’t last long since the letter was clearly addressed to me — first, middle, and last name. Anger was almost immediate … I was immediately upset at the deceased patient’s family who were bringing the ...

Read more...

The Skeptical Cardiologist was recently greeted by headlines announcing that an international panel of 14 unbiased researchers had concluded that it was OK for humans to continue eating red meat and processed meat at current levels. The startling news was a reversal of what the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society have ...

Read more...

If you’re reading this, I have news for you. You are a high achiever. Yes, I mean you. You’ve set lofty goals in your life, and you’ve achieved a level of success others only dream of. This might be in the area of academics, business, or relationships–and for some of you, all of the above. You’ve accomplished big things. But I have a question for you. When was the last time you celebrated something small? Really, ...

Read more...

Long gone are the days of our parents’ and grandparents’ generations, when you would graduate, join a company or organization, and pretty much stay there for your whole career. Our own personal expectations have changed, and we are fortunate to be living in a time (and country) where we do not need to feel beholden to any one employer, or feel stuck in a job we are unhappy with. Obviously ...

Read more...

Back in 2001, we paid off our last personal loan, our home mortgage. At that time, we decided to begin investing in real estate with the money that used to go towards digging us out of our personal debt. Our real estate was held in an LLC, and we acquired loans to purchase these properties. In fact, most of our real estate was purchased with 100% financing. In 2002, the credit ...

Read more...

The University of Kansas School of Medicine-Salina opened in 2011 — a one-building campus in the heart of wheat country dedicated to producing the rural doctors the country needs. Now, eight years later, the school’s first graduates are settling into their chosen practices — and locales. And those choices are cause for both hope and despair. Of the eight graduates, just three chose to go where the shortages are most evident. Two ...

Read more...

While it would be ideal if all of our decisions in medicine were based on clear and definitive data, that isn’t the case, for most of what we face with our patients. Data is open to interpretation, studies can always be criticized, and the results are not always clear. Still, as clinicians we must help our ...

Read more...

"The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between them." - Achilles Charles Debussy Silence is an important part of our everyday lives. Yet, we often don’t consider its critical importance in helping us to reflect on what we’re doing. This is especially important in medicine where we’re so busy sometimes that we forget that what we say and do actually has huge implications on people’s lives. This is even ...

Read more...

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 30-year-old man is evaluated for ongoing symptoms of dysphagia. He was previously diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis on upper endoscopy and has completed an 8-week course of swallowed aerosolized fluticasone, which did not alleviate his symptoms. He takes no other medications. On physical examination, vital signs are normal; BMI is ...

Read more...

Physicians nearing the end of their careers often mourn the loss of the hospital as it once was -- the undisputed center of the health care universe. They remember a time when every community doctor rounded on patients in the morning, and every surgery was performed in one of the hospital’s main operating rooms.

The rise in cases of otherwise healthy young adults who have been hospitalized or even died from vaping-associated lung injury is alarming. Many people don’t know what is contained in these vaping devices, what the reported health effects actually mean, and, most importantly, why all of this developed so quickly, considering that e-cigarettes have only been popular for fewer than ten years. Vaping describes the process of inhaling aerosols ...

Read more...

The United States is currently facing the largest measles outbreak in three decades, with more than 1,200 cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control. The spread of that disease is a mere symptom of one of the most dangerous pandemics of our time: misinformation. Social media transformed the information age, kicking it into overdrive. Now everyone has a platform to push natural remedy products or cast doubt on pharmaceuticals and ...

Read more...