Primary Care

Medical mistakes happen and you are still enough

J. C. Sue, DO

Physician

April 8, 2026

One prominent characteristic of medicine is its ability to repeatedly remind you to be humble. There is always something new to learn about it, and in real life patients rarely present exactly as they do in the textbook. On top of that, health care workers commonly feel pressure to be perfect due to the potentially serious consequences of many medical mistakes. Of course, since we are human, we are bound …

Balancing part-time clinical work and motherhood

Jessica L. Jones, MD

Physician

April 8, 2026

It was a typical weekday morning. I woke up at 5:20, started a load of laundry, showered, dressed, unloaded the dishwasher, got the kids breakfast and lunch together, fed the pets, etc. After sending my husband off to work, I got the kids up and ready for the day. Things were going smoothly. I got my kids to school on time, and got into work early enough to go through …

The clinical evidence and reality of peptide therapy

Shiv K. Goel, MD

Meds

April 5, 2026

There is a sentence I have been practicing for two years. I believe peptide therapy works. It sounds simple. It is not simple. In the culture of evidence-based medicine, a culture I was trained in, believe in, and have practiced inside for over two decades, saying you believe something that the evidence has not yet fully validated carries consequences. Raised eyebrows at conferences. The careful distance of colleagues. The quiet …

Why ABIM’s use of Medicare claims data violates physician autonomy

James Rudolph, MD

Physician

April 4, 2026

Most internal medicine physicians assume that when they sit for a board examination, their answers determine one thing: whether they pass. Few realize that their exam performance has been linked to federal Medicare claims data and used in research, without their knowledge or consent.

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has published studies linking board scores to clinical outcomes derived from Medicare claims. ABIM presents these analyses as quality research …

How IDIOT syndrome threatens value-based health care

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

Physician

April 3, 2026

The internet has made patients more informed. It has also made some patients more misled. A small but growing body of medical commentary has used the provocative label “internet-derived information obstruction treatment (IDIOT)” syndrome to describe what happens when people trust online medical content so blindly that they delay care, stop treatment, self-medicate, or resist sound clinical judgment. The term appears in published reviews and commentaries, but it is not …

True metabolic healing requires more than just prescribing expensive peptides [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

April 2, 2026

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

Internal medicine and functional medicine physician Shiv K. Goel discusses the article “Why lifestyle matters more than BPC-157 and semaglutide.” Shiv explains how the modern longevity boom has trained patients to seek …

Why leaving hospital medicine for private practice was worth the risk

Shiv K. Goel, MD

Physician

April 2, 2026

The day I handed in my credentials as medical director, I sat in my car in the parking lot for a long time. I had held that role at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital in San Antonio for years. I had built protocols, chaired committees, mentored residents, and managed crises at hours when the rest of the city slept. I was, by every conventional metric, succeeding. And yet there was …

How clinical reassurance impacts patient communication

Alan P. Feren, MD

Physician

April 2, 2026

In clinical practice, reassurance is both necessary and responsible. When a clinician says “nothing concerning,” it is rarely casual. It reflects a judgment: no immediate danger, no clear evidence of serious disease, no indication for urgent intervention. It is often the appropriate conclusion at that moment in time. But what happens to that statement after the visit ends is less often considered. Because outside the clinical context in which it …

Lifestyle medicine support: Bridging the gap in patient care

Landen Green, DO

Physician

April 2, 2026

As physicians, we rarely disagree about first principles. Nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress, and behavioral patterns sit at the foundation of nearly every chronic disease conversation. We counsel patients on these topics every day, sometimes passionately, sometimes hurriedly, often within the narrow time constraints of a packed clinic schedule.

Yet an uncomfortable gap persists between what we know drives long-term outcomes and what we are realistically able to deliver in routine …

How your clinical notes impact military veterans’ disability benefits

Robin Hoon, RN

Conditions

April 1, 2026

Your patient stops showing up for follow-ups. They are rationing medications you prescribed. They cannot afford the specialist you referred them to.

You assume it is financial stress or insurance issues, but it could simply be due to what is missing from your chart notes, a pattern that is especially common among military veterans navigating disability benefits.

After more than 20 years in clinical practice serving patients with disabilities, including many military …

Pajama time is for fools

Armand Rodriguez, MD

Physician

April 1, 2026

I really tried to have AI come up with an innocuous-sounding title for this piece: “Caring Hearts, Lighter Wallets: The Financial Reality of Primary Care.” But my poor judgment prevailed so I just decided to insult all of my colleagues right from the start. I assure you, for better or worse, that this article is my original opinion although with AI editing for grammar and clarity (but unfortunately not brevity). …

Read more…

Pajama time is for fools

Overcoming physician burnout with a new care model

Jerina Gani, MD, MPH

Physician

April 1, 2026

Many physicians do not talk about this openly, but at some point in their careers, a quiet question begins to surface: Is this really what it is supposed to feel like? After years, often decades, of training, sacrifice, and dedication, all of us as primary care physicians find ourselves in a position that, on paper, looks successful. We are caring for thousands of patients, maintaining full schedules, and carrying immense …

How ethical dilemmas in medicine affect body donation

Francisco M. Torres, MD

Physician

April 1, 2026

Many clinicians recall cases that stand out not for their diagnostic complexity, but for their ethical dilemmas. One such experience involved a long-time patient, a devout Catholic in his 70s, who asked if donating his body to science conflicted with his church’s teachings.

For years, I have displayed a favorite prayer on a poster in my office called “Prayer of the Catholic Physician.” This display gave my patient the opening to …

How to find reliable online health information and avoid medical misinformation

M. Bennet Broner, PhD

Physician

March 31, 2026

Previously, I urged readers to use the internet for information about health conditions, medications, and other medical concerns to help make informed decisions about their care. I must modify this based on an online search experience I had that yielded mostly garbage. If I had not known what to seek, I would have been confused, ended my search prematurely, as I expect most people would have, and learned nothing.

To simplify …

Why we need a new medical specialty to fix corporate medicine

Allan Dobzyniak, MD

Physician

March 31, 2026

Perhaps the time has arrived to view the clinical practice of medicine differently. The practitioners are now broadly identified either as primary care providers or specialists. Specialty care is more easily defined, but whether such care is used appropriately is another question.

Primary care now includes pediatrics, internal medicine, and family practice with an increasing number of physician extenders, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. Primary care has transitioned into something quite …

The hidden costs of diffuse accountability in medical teams

Gus W. Krucke, MD

Physician

March 30, 2026

I have watched the scope-of-practice debate for decades, from call rooms and crowded wards, from intensive care units and emergency departments, and from the deafening quiet that follows a code well run yet not won.

Early in my career, I argued the way many physicians do, with outcome data and workforce projections. Over time, I came to see that those arguments skirt the deeper question: When clinical authority expands, does accountability …

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

Seleipiri Akobo, MD, MPH, MBA

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

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 …

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