Category: KevinMD

A physician who’s always in control

My friends and family used to say that I was born 30 years old.  I get it.  From the time I was young, I was controlled, risk-averse, studious, and polite.  In addition to the fact that I was naturally reserved, I learned over time to do my best not to…

Will the public be able to resist the pitch from 23andMe?

Just because something is legal, doesn’t make it right. Just because we enjoy a right of free speech, doesn’t mean we should be verbally insulting people. Just because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves a treatment or a test, doesn’t mean …

Be careful of assigning the diagnosis of ADHD to young children just entering school

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common diagnosis in children today, and is increasingly a diagnosis assigned to adults, too. ADHD is a real thing, despite some having some skeptics and a few outright denialists; differences in brai…

Celebrate the contributions immigrants make to our health care system

Congratulations to ZDoggMD’s latest, One Sikh, an ode to all the immigrant clinicians who care for our most vulnerable patients.
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Why medical students need more continuity of care training

One of the major challenges of being on medical school rotations is the necessity of changing rotations every four weeks, and how adapting to each new specialty feels like going through the first day of school all over again. I want to share my experie…

Breastfeeding and newborn hospitalization rates: What should be done about it?

An August 2018 paper in Academic Pediatrics found an unsettling conclusion: Breastfed newborns have about double the risk of needing to be hospitalized in their first month of life, compared to babies who were formula-fed. The numbers are solid, and th…

Most physicians don’t realize how easy it is to become debt free

Most don’t realize how easy it is to become debt free. Instead, they envision a horrible drop in lifestyle and great sacrifices that include turning back the clock to medical school days where they were living on peanut butter and ramen. When in fact, …

Would you want to become a doctor again?

There is a lot of grousing in the financial independence community. Especially from those of us above the age of thirty. We look at the young people in this community and shake our head knowingly. We grumble some version of the same slogan. If I only k…

Physicians should stop being afraid of getting audited by the IRS

Not only is an audit unlikely to happen — if it does, it’s rarely a huge deal. Few words inspire such fear in the hearts of Americans as “IRS audit.” But one of the biggest mistakes that taxpayers make is letting fear of the IRS stop them from taking a…

Should we start screening for colon cancer at age 45?

Here’s what most medical experts agree on: People 50 and older should be screened for colon cancer. Here’s what is more controversial: Whether that screening should start, routinely, at age 45. Recently, the American Cancer Society (ACS) recommended th…