Here’s some good news for a change about cancer: Cancer mortality — the rate of death from cancer — has fallen substantially over the last four decades. There is also, however, some not-so-good news: Cancer incidence — the rate of cancer diagnoses — ha…
Category: KevinMD
The medical illiteracy epidemic
This past August, I attended the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) District VI meeting in Wisconsin. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Bringing it Back Home,” with a keynote presentation focused on develop…
Will Alzheimer’s disease researchers miss seeing the forest from the trees?
The National Institute of Aging (NIA) just announced $73 million over five years to fund two new research centers. “The Alzheimer Centers for the Discovery of New Medicines are designed to diversify and reinvigorate the Alzheimer’s disease …
How do you celebrate small wins?
If you’re reading this, I have news for you. You are a high achiever. Yes, I mean you. You’ve set lofty goals in your life, and you’ve achieved a level of success others only dream of. This might be in the area of academics, business, or relationships–…
Do you have these 5 risk factors for physician burnout?
Long gone are the days of our parents’ and grandparents’ generations, when you would graduate, join a company or organization, and pretty much stay there for your whole career. Our own personal expectations have changed, and we are fortunate to be livi…
Physicians: Did you ever play the zero percent interest game?
Back in 2001, we paid off our last personal loan, our home mortgage. At that time, we decided to begin investing in real estate with the money that used to go towards digging us out of our personal debt. Our real estate was held in an LLC, and we acqui…
These medical students signed up for rural medicine. What happened to them?
The University of Kansas School of Medicine-Salina opened in 2011 — a one-building campus in the heart of wheat country dedicated to producing the rural doctors the country needs. Now, eight years later, the school’s first graduates are settling into t…
Physicians need moments of reflection throughout their days
“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between them.” – Achilles Charles Debussy Silence is an important part of our everyday lives. Yet, we often don’t consider its critical importance in helping us to reflect on what we’…
How the changing roles of hospitals are isolating physicians
Physicians nearing the end of their careers often mourn the loss of the hospital as it once was — the undisputed center of the health care universe. They remember a time when every community doctor rounded on patients in the morning, and every su…
Vaping likely has dangers that could take years for scientists to even know about
The rise in cases of otherwise healthy young adults who have been hospitalized or even died from vaping-associated lung injury is alarming. Many people don’t know what is contained in these vaping devices, what the reported health effects actually mean…
