KevinMD.com

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

Recently, a rocket company went public on the Nasdaq, and by the time the bell closed, its founder had become the first person in history worth a trillion dollars. I read about it on a borrowed phone outside the pediatric…

I’m not writing this out of anger. I want to say that clearly. I …

Health Technology

AI should elevate clinical judgment, not replace it

Matt Hasan, PhD

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

Artificial intelligence is forcing medicine to make a choice that has received surprisingly little attention. Should AI be designed to replace increasing portions of clinical judgment? Or should it be designed to elevate it? Much of today's discussion assumes these…

Unfortunately, the momentum today is largely toward replacement. We read almost daily …

Health Policy

Kentucky’s abortion ban has no rape and incest exceptions

Taylor Scott

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

In 2019, Kentucky lawmakers passed the Human Life Protection Act (2019 HB 148), a law designed to take effect if Roe v. Wade were overturned. On June 24, 2022, following the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that law went into effect, banning abortion in nearly all circumstances. Today, the only exception permitted is for serious medical risk to the pregnant patient. There are no exceptions for rape …

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Podcast

Why women doctors get sick and blame themselves for it [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

Women doctors joke about being cursed with every complication, but what if the job itself is quietly damaging their health? Jessie Mahoney, a pediatrician and certified coach, returns to share her own story of pregnancy complications, an ICU stay, and…

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Health Technology

What generative AI in health care makes newly possible

Dipu Patel, DMSc, MPAS, PA-C

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

When I served as chair of the Board of Registration for Physician Assistants in Massachusetts, every decision carried a weight that extended far beyond the immediate case in front of us. Whether we were reviewing a licensing violation, addressing unprofessional conduct, or weighing in on a practice standard, we were always, whether we named it or not, making decisions about what kind of profession we wanted PA practice to be …

Conditions and Diseases

High-functioning codependency is quietly draining doctors

Sarah Bergakker, CRNA

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

A colleague recently recommended licensed clinical social worker Terri Cole's book Too Much after seeing a quote I shared on social media about no longer accommodating people who refuse to take responsibility for their own emotional work. Her timing was…

A colleague recently recommended licensed clinical social worker Terri Cole’s book Too Much after seeing a quote I shared on social media about no longer accommodating people who refuse to take responsibility for their own emotional work. Her timing was remarkable.

As I read, I felt as though Cole had somehow studied the way I lived for much of my life. I recognized the constant monitoring of other people’s emotions, …

Physician Finance

Run a payer panel audit before renewal season

GetPracticeHelp

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

Most independent practices renew payer contracts the same way they sign them: the renewal letter arrives, the practice manager forwards it to the physician owner, and either someone signs it or no one does. The contracts that escape renegotiation for three or four cycles are the ones quietly anchoring 20 to 35 percent of commercial volume at fee schedules that lag the practice’s best contract by 15 to 25 percent.

The …

Physician

Why scientific dissent is a test of institutional trust

Tiffiny Black, DM, MBA, MPA

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

Recently, controversy emerged at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) annual meeting after several researchers were removed for distributing copies of an editorial concerning proposed federal funding cuts to biomedical research. The incident generated debate across the medical community. Some viewed the removal as an appropriate enforcement of conference policies and codes of conduct. Others questioned whether restricting the distribution of scientific perspectives at a professional meeting risks undermining the very …

Health Policy

Physician moral injury, not burnout, is the real wound

Cassandra Craig & Toby Terwilliger, MD

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

"Have you seen The Pitt?" This question has become commonplace; patients want to know if it is realistic, colleagues want to compare reactions, and many of us find ourselves dissecting the commentary on an imperfect health care system captured in…

“Have you seen The Pitt?”

This question has become commonplace; patients want to know if it is realistic, colleagues want to compare reactions, and many of us find ourselves dissecting the commentary on an imperfect health care system captured in weekly, one-hour installments that mirror physicians’ everyday reality.

The show does many things well: It is medically accurate, faithfully depicts interdisciplinary teamwork, and reveals the humanity and vulnerability of health care …

Conditions and Diseases

Why the digital rectal exam fails prostate cancer screening

Paul Dranichnikov, MD, PhD

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

For decades, the digital rectal exam (DRE), the traditional "finger test," has been a routine component of prostate screening. It is quick, inexpensive, and engrained in medical culture. But the question is no longer whether we can do it. It…

For decades, the digital rectal exam (DRE), the traditional “finger test,” has been a routine component of prostate screening. It is quick, inexpensive, and engrained in medical culture. But the question is no longer whether we can do it. It is whether we should. With PSA testing, advanced imaging, and refined risk stratification, routine DRE in asymptomatic men is increasingly indefensible.

Low sensitivity and limited value

Recent studies show that DRE has …

Conditions and Diseases

The harm reduction debate isn’t exchange or nothing

Del Carter, MD

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

Needle exchange programs are one of the most well-known, and subsequently most controversial, forms of harm reduction in addiction medicine. These programs provide clean needles and/or syringes for drug users, often in exchange for used needles, in efforts to curb the unsanitary reuse of needles and subsequently decrease the spread of infectious diseases such as hepatitis and HIV. Needle exchange programs, on their own, have been shown to decrease …

Conditions and Diseases

The PCOS diagnosis gap medical schools must close

Aislinn Jones

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

"Guess what? I have PCOS," was not what I expected to hear over the phone when catching up with a college friend the summer before my second year of medical school. Even more puzzling to me was the story of…

“Guess what? I have PCOS,” was not what I expected to hear over the phone when catching up with a college friend the summer before my second year of medical school. Even more puzzling to me was the story of how she got her diagnosis. She relayed the saga of an intrauterine device placement gone wrong, infection-induced psychosis, and severe menstrual bleeding and pain. Following an extensive workup, she was …

Physician

What quiet leadership looks like in a broken system

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

I did not encounter Norman Schwarzkopf's leadership doctrine until long after I had already been living it. When I finally read his words about sweat, preparation, and the courage to act despite uncertainty, I felt an immediate jolt of recognition.…

I did not encounter Norman Schwarzkopf’s leadership doctrine until long after I had already been living it. When I finally read his words about sweat, preparation, and the courage to act despite uncertainty, I felt an immediate jolt of recognition. It wasn’t admiration. It was recognition. I realized I had been following the same principles instinctively throughout my medical and institutional life, especially in the moments when leadership and command …

Conditions and Diseases

Why medication access fails even the best-case patient

Alexandro Vasquez, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

A medication was recommended to me a week ago. It still has not reached me. I prescribe medications for a living. I know where an order can stall: awaiting a signature, sent but never received, delayed by an authorization, or…

None of that has moved my prescription. There is no one covering the service, so it …

Conditions and Diseases

When fragmented care misses pancreatic enzyme insufficiency

Sheila Crow, PhD

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

I spent thirty years in academic medicine as a dean for faculty affairs and development, training physicians to be not just clinically competent but genuinely patient-centered and thorough. I believed in the system I helped build. I still do, mostly. But I am also a patient. And as a patient, the system failed me for fifteen years, not through negligence, but through something quieter and harder to fix.

Fragmentation.

The history

In 2005 …

Conditions and Diseases

What bull riding taught me about sports medicine gaps

Ann Lebeck, MD

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

It was our first night at a bull riding event, Shoot Out Arena in Tombstone, Arizona, an August night, and I had no idea yet what any of this actually looked like up close. We were sitting beside the chutes…

It was our first night at a bull riding event, Shoot Out Arena in Tombstone, Arizona, an August night, and I had no idea yet what any of this actually looked like up close.

We were sitting beside the chutes in the VIP section. The rider gave the nod, the gate swung open, and the clock started. Bull and rider came out together …

Physician

The case for family physicians in emergency medicine

Angela Rodgers, MD & Wray Anthony Gerard, MD

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

Picture a health system where family medicine and emergency medicine physicians work together as true partners within the same emergency department. Both specialties share responsibility for the same patients by providing comprehensive and coordinated care. This is probably how the…

Although this collaborative approach may seem new to some, it has been …

Physician

Reclaiming physician career meaning before you retire

Ben Reinking, MD

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

I remember medical school orientation clearly. I was excited, nervous, confident, and full of self-doubt, all of it wrapped up in a kind of nervous energy. I had a clear vision of what my life would look like. I would finish medical school, complete residency, and practice primary care back in my hometown. The white coat they draped over me at the ceremony did not sit comfortably on my shoulders, …

Health Technology

Can AI at the bedside finally ease clinician burnout?

Dr. Avinash Kumar Gupta

July 19, 2026Jul 19, 2026

A recent paradigm shift in software engineering, where developers build complex applications using pure natural language, intuition, and high-level architectural oversight rather than writing manual syntax, unlocked a radical new relationship between humans and machines. It is time for clinical medicine to experience its equivalent. We propose a clinical care model in which a physician directs a multimodal AI assistant in real time at the patient’s bedside through speech, vision, …

Physician

Why doctors need to be in the marketing room

AIR Physician Academy & Pranay Parikh, MD

July 18, 2026Jul 18, 2026

A patient came to me worried she was going to lose twenty-five pounds in the next month. Even on tirzepatide, what would make her think that? She'd only lost five pounds in the first two months. She said the marketing…

A patient came to me worried she was going to lose twenty-five pounds in the next month.

Even on tirzepatide, what would make her think that? She’d only lost five pounds in the first two months.

She said the marketing that brought her in had promised her thirty pounds in three months.

So I explained the truth: the body does not save up its losses and then spend them in a lump sum. …

Real physician voices, twice a week

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