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Sarah Bridge, an emergency physician, recounts four years of frontline care in rural New Mexico’s Indian Health Service facilities, where chronic ICU bed shortages, equipment failures and staffing cuts force dangerous patient transfers and improvised treatments. She highlights how historical trauma, especially among Native communities, compounds alcohol‑related disease, suicide and child abuse. Bureaucratic mandates, pay cuts and recent federal policy shifts have deepened resource gaps, leaving hospitals to operate without basic tools like CT scanners. The piece warns that these systemic strains presage a broader national crisis as Medicaid cuts drive more patients to under‑resourced emergency departments.
Recent high‑profile sexual‑abuse scandals, such as the Jeffrey Epstein case, are prompting a wave of trauma reactivation among survivors who had previously kept their experiences hidden. Patients often present with insomnia, irritability, increased alcohol use, or vague anxiety that they...
The American Medical Association is urging clinicians to adopt deprescribing—systematically reviewing and stopping medications that no longer benefit patients. Nearly 70% of adults aged 40‑79 fill a prescription each month, and over 20% take five or more drugs, driving falls,...
The European Journal of Pediatrics retracted the 2024 randomized trial that claimed folinic acid reduced autism symptoms, citing data that did not support its conclusions. The study had been the largest of its kind, influencing clinical recommendations and regulatory guidance....
Value‑based care aims to align reimbursement with patient outcomes, but the data that drives these models rarely reaches clinicians at the point of care. Performance metrics are collected in dashboards and quarterly reports, creating a disconnect between institutional goals and...
Dr. Ronald L. Lindsay recounts how he built a fully operational pediatric medical home at a regional military hospital in just two and a half years, delivering 24/7 care to vulnerable children from worldwide military families. His interdisciplinary developmental‑behavioral clinic...
The article argues that Maintenance of Certification (MOC) has never been proven to improve patient outcomes, despite decades of promotion by the American Board of Internal Medicine and other specialty boards. Observational studies show modest, surrogate‑metric gains, but no randomized...
The article contends that an over‑emphasis on formal assessment in residency programs suppresses residents' natural curiosity and deep reasoning. When attendings prioritize grading over dialogue, trainees like June learn to memorize correct answers rather than explore underlying mechanisms. This performance‑driven...
The article highlights a persistent gender gap in medical care for menstrual health, noting that up to 75% of menstruating individuals experience PMS and 3‑8% suffer from PMDD, yet these conditions remain underdiagnosed and underfunded. A survey of 3,000 Japanese...
Mobile wound‑care providers face tighter Local Coverage Determinations, heightened CMS surveillance, and expanded documentation mandates in 2026. These regulatory shifts narrow reimbursement, limit visit frequency, and force clinicians into defensive practices. The burden disproportionately impacts high‑acuity, home‑bound patients who rely...
A rural Taiwanese patient faced a 20‑day wait for a diagnostic mammogram at a large tertiary hospital, while a community hospital in Taipei provided immediate evaluation and treatment. The article attributes the delay to fragmented administrative structures, global‑budget constraints, and...
Louis‑Hunter Kean, a 34‑year‑old, died in November 2023 after a year of high fevers, organomegaly, and multiple hospitalizations. Although clinicians repeatedly noted “visceral leish” and ordered a PCR, the test was never completed and his travel to Tuscany was buried in...
Mifepristone is banned in 14 states and restricted in another 10, forcing patients to rely on misoprostol‑only regimens. The dual‑drug protocol achieves 95‑98% success with less than 0.5% serious complications, while misoprostol monotherapy raises emergency department visits to 7.9% and...
In Ghana, child mortality has fallen but remains high, with 37 per 1,000 children not reaching age five and neonatal deaths at 21 per 1,000. Malnutrition still affects roughly 17‑18% of under‑five children, while 15,000‑20,000 newborns are born with sickle...
![Sabbaticals Provide a Critical Lifeline for Sustainable Medical Careers [PODCAST]](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://kevinmd.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Podcast-by-KevinMD-WideScreen-3000-px-3-scaled.jpg)
Physicians rarely receive formal sabbaticals, yet burnout data shows they need extended breaks. A 2021 American Journal of Medicine survey found only 51% of medical schools reported any faculty sabbaticals, typically senior white‑male researchers rather than clinicians. Christie Mulholland’s experience...
The article argues that modern medicine’s obsession with cures has sidelined genuine caring, eroding patient trust. It highlights how women experience chronic pain yet often have their symptoms dismissed, and how minority groups remain invisible in clinical research. Evidence shows...
Jason Wilt, an emergency and sports‑medicine physician, recounts his stint at Williams‑Sonoma and how the harsh retail environment taught him to handle difficult patients. He draws parallels between customer aggression and patient hostility, noting that many patients’ frustration stems from...
The medical referral process is plagued by delays, miscommunication, and inappropriate specialist assignments, causing many patients to fall through the cracks. Studies show up to half of specialty referrals are never completed and over a third do not match the...
Physician wellness initiatives—pizza parties, mindfulness apps, and burnout surveys—are increasingly seen as superficial "wellness theater" that fail to address the structural drivers of physician distress. The article argues that burnout is better understood as moral injury arising from time pressure,...
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is now a global health emergency, with the WHO noting up to one‑in‑five infections in parts of Africa are drug‑resistant. While antibiotic misuse is visible, the deeper drivers are social: poverty, overcrowding, and limited clean water fuel...
Immigrant families like the Sureshes are caring for elderly relatives while awaiting Medicaid eligibility, which requires a five‑year waiting period for lawful non‑citizen permanent residents. The father, a remote‑work tech professional, provides full‑time care for his 95‑year‑old mother, incurring high...
![Business Literacy Empowers Physicians to Lead Sustainable Health Systems [PODCAST]](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://hixhlmpcokxhartfkpyi.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/articles/4f44f3669b3c12e1a928e85742e2cb1b.webp)
In a recent KevinMD podcast, family physician Kelly Bain discusses how business literacy is essential for physicians navigating today’s increasingly employed and value‑based health‑care environment. Drawing from her three‑phase career—from rural solo practice to a large multi‑specialty group and finally...
