Working as a pediatrician offers a unique and unparalleled joy—a privilege shared among those who dedicate their lives to caring for children and supporting families. This summer, while working on a U.S. military base in Germany, I experienced this joy…
February 2017: Second day on service in months, and already I feel wiped. It’s exhausting. I feel that it is meaningful but so draining. And still, I’m not sure that I am even doing a good job. A month later, I came home from a multi-level …
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! We sit down with family physician Emma Hostetter, who shares her deeply personal journey navigating the challenges of parenting a neurodivergent child with ADHD. Emma open…
A physician in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) requires vast medical knowledge along with emotional resilience. I always thought I had a strong sense of compassion for my patients and their families until I had my own baby 1.5 years ago. It co…
When I took the final exam after years of pediatric training, hearing my professors say, “You are now qualified and equipped to manage a pediatric clinic; congratulations” was a deeply touching moment for me. I felt fortunate to experience …
About midway through my pediatric residency program at a well-known children’s hospital on the East Coast in the mid-1990s, I found out what was wrong with me. I told the chief of the pediatric emergency department, a Jewish woman, that I had fin…
I am the combination of two very different worlds—my mother is originally from El Salvador and Catholic, and my father is from Pakistan and Muslim. My parents are original trailblazers in my mind, creating a life together despite the unsure gaze of the…
At the November 2022 Obesity Week in San Diego, it was clear something big was happening. A late-breaking session released results of the STEP TEENS phase IIIa trial, showing 16 percent weight loss in adolescents with obesity treated with once-weekly s…
As I led small group sessions during our medical school’s recent orientation, I was struck by the nervous excitement and hope radiating from our new first-year students. Their enthusiasm was palpable yet tinged with apprehension about the challen…
I remember these words as if it were yesterday. Those memories are etched into my mind forever. I can’t forget them, nor do I want to, because I know that these experiences are not unique to me but happen all too often. When my second child was f…
