Recent polls show a majority of Americans support Medicare for all, but few seem to realize that no other system in the world operates like the current single-payer proposals in Congress. I addressed the concept of single-payer health care, with Cuba’…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. Of all medical specialties, perhaps the most difficult to understand is internal medicine. While the name suggests that those who practice internal medicine focus primarily…
A professor recently romanticized my idea of clinical reasoning as he began our session by saying, “When you’re a physician, you’re a detective.” He elaborated: “Every fact you have, every piece of evidence you have, must …
During the 25 years I’ve been a transplant doctor, I’ve cared for hundreds of patients who received lung transplants. I’m now worried about the growing number of people who will need this lifesaving procedure in the future but who won’t have enough tra…
Pain and suffering together is a universal language. It is unspoken, one that a person of any age feels when they see a loved one die, or when someone sees another human being suffer when nothing more medically can be done. I once saw a Vietnam War vet…
Spoiler alert: Plot points of the movie “Joker” are revealed in the following piece. “Joker” opened to a mix of rave reviews and criticism on October 2, 2019, amid fears of mass-shootings at theaters in the U.S. This left law en…
Flu vaccination prevents millions of flu-related illnesses and deaths annually, but vaccination rates are low for many reasons. During the 2018-2019 flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about 45% of U.S. adults recei…
Addressed to Dr. Lynes, the note sat menacingly in my inbox like a distress signal ominously blinking on a battered ocean coast. “Mr. Smith wants you to read the note before his preop, the nurse said harmlessly.” A premonition that day, just one more i…
A featured article titled “Death by A Thousand Clicks” addressed some of the serious problems and challenges we still face in the “digitization” of health care. As an early adopter of EHR since 2003 and a self-avowed “tech…
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 65-year-old man is evaluated during a visit to establish care. He is interested in colorectal cancer screening; however, he adamantly refus…
