Category: Conditions

MKSAP: 26-year-old man with back pain

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 26-year-old man is evaluated during a follow-up visit after presenting to an urgent care clinic for back pain 1 week ago. Laboratory studie…

The coronavirus cost that no one can count

On December 31, 2019, the world changed as we knew it, but the future implications for the United States were not apparent at the time. On that day, the World Health Organization (WHO) China Country Office was informed of new cases of “pneumonia …

COVID-19: Test medical students, accelerate the Match, and let us graduate early to join the fight

As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) makes its way across the country and globe, I have been thinking about how we fourth-year medical students fit into the picture.  Not quite out one door, yet not quite in the other, our liminal perspective is liable …

A plea from an emergency physician on the front lines

Our lives are quickly changing. Schools are closing; sports are being canceled; people are working from home, Disneyland is closing, toilet paper is in short supply. We are about to hit a real struggle with our health care system. We are about to hit a…

Prevent the spread of COVID-19 with telemdicine

I am a board-certified internal medicine physician practicing in a small outpatient clinic with a highly reputable academic organization in the greater Boston area.  Regarding COVID-19, I am not panicked, but I am concerned– concerned for our pat…

Prevent the spread of COVID-19 with telemdicine

I am a board-certified internal medicine physician practicing in a small outpatient clinic with a highly reputable academic organization in the greater Boston area.  Regarding COVID-19, I am not panicked, but I am concerned– concerned for our pat…

An ER physician’s advice to the general public: How to flatten the curve

Some advice as an emergency physician, daughter, mother, and concerned citizen. Help keep older relatives and neighbors self-quarantined at home. Same goes for those of any age who are immune-compromised (cancer-patients, on immune-suppressant meds for…

COVID-19 coronavirus needs apolitical truth-telling

She is 11, a fifth-grader, as prepubescent as nature allows, and utterly terrified. She hasn’t eaten normally for nearly a month, her mother reports.  She sleeps poorly, reports nightmares, and cleans her hands so obsessively that she is literally blee…

The accuracy of COVID-19 tests

The current COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted the availability and the results of medical diagnostic tests.  As a physician, I treat the results of lab tests like I treat movie recommendations from a friend – I am always skeptical.  For the movies, I n…

Essential clinician commentary on COVID-19 coronavirus from the KevinMD community

Trusted clinician commentary on COVID-19 coronavirus from the KevinMD community. Continuously updated. The idiot’s guide to coronavirus from an emergency physician COVID-19: Why I’m very concerned I’m an infectious disease doctor and I’m in quarantine …