Most new cancer treatments haven’t been proven to help patients live longer or feel better. Instead, they delay the growth of tumors — which may be faster to measure but doesn’t necessarily indicate a tangible benefit for patients. But you wouldn’t gra…
Category Archive: KevinMD
What would an optimal government-run health care system look like?
The Healthcare Incentives Framework helps show how to fix incentives in health care systems. It starts by enumerating the five jobs we expect a health care system to do for us and then identifies which parties in the health care system (providers or in…
There’s no place like labor and delivery for the holidays
It’s that time of year when the weather outside is growing colder, the evenings seem to kick off way too early in the day, and the decorations around town remind all of us all of the fast-approaching holiday season. But for many of us obstetricians, th…
Can rural health care be saved?
There are many disparities in health care. Black mothers have a much higher rate of maternal death than do white women. All women are less likely to get guideline-advised cardiac care than do men. Among the many such examples, perhaps the hardest dispa…
There is a profound lack of self-esteem in the medical profession
I have noticed a profound lack of self-esteem in our profession. I am concerned. Concerned for us, and for our patients. We are the most noble of professions. However, we have compromised our morals, values, ethics, and virtues. We are now living, oper…
Why abortion care is women’s health care
On January 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade established a woman’s fundamental right to abortion nationwide. Roe v. Wade should not be overruled because women having universal access to abortion services means women have the right to choose what is best for their …
What challenges do you see yourself facing as a doctor?
“What challenges do you see yourself facing as a doctor?” I’m sitting in a suit, facing a young Asian woman with black, round glasses across a desk. On the desk in front of her is an iPad, and she sits cross-legged, hands resting on her legs. I’m in my…
The unintended consequences of #MeToo in medical education
Harvard Medical School student Chloe Li typically dressed in scrubs or an efficient, professional outfit as she went about learning to care for patients in the intense, year-long clerkship program where I teach. For her capstone presentation on graduat…
A physician joins TikTok to talk sex education
I am a 38-year-old board-certified OB/GYN. I have been married to my husband for 12 years. I am the mom of two young boys. I drive a Subaru. In short, I am the complete opposite of the demographic that rules TikTok. Never heard of TikTok? It’s OK – unt…
When physicians deviate from evidence-based medicine
From time to time, patients ask my advice on colonic hydrotherapy, vigorous sessions of enemas that aim to cleanse the body of toxins that are reputed to cause a variety of ailments. The logic sounds plausible to interested patients. Over time, toxins …
