Category: KevinMD

Corporatization of medicine: Are patients and physicians the losers?

Despite technological and pharmaceutical improvements in the advancement of medicine, many changes that have occurred in the delivery of medicine during my 15 years of private practice in plastic surgery have had detrimental consequences for both patie…

From misdiagnosis to advocacy [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! We join Tami Burdick, a patient advocate and the author of Diagnosis Detective: Curing Granulomatous Mastitis. Tami’s story is one of resilience, empowerment, and th…

A potential discovery of highly fatal SARS coronavirus?

Has a highly fatal SARS coronavirus already been discovered? Maybe yes, but just its report is highly concerning. On January 4, 2024, a letter to the editor was uploaded to a preprint server which gave too few details but described a 100 percent fatal …

Topoisomerase inhibitors and chronic pain

Topoisomerase inhibitors emerged in the American medical landscape in 1971, thanks to the discovery by Dr. Jim Wang of the E. coli omega protein. Topoisomerase I, an enzyme identified by Dr. Wang, plays a crucial role in DNA unwrapping from supercoilin…

The Alaska Air Flight 1282 door blowout and patient safety

Alaska Air Flight 1282 was on a trip from Portland to Ontario, California, on January 5, 2024. Barely six minutes into the flight, passengers heard a loud bang and a whoosh as the door plug in the middle section of the aircraft blew out. An unused exit…

The truth about health care startups: financial sacrifices and emotional toll

The allure of joining a startup as a health care professional is undeniable. With over 70 percent of physicians now employed by health systems and other corporate entities – we often feel like invisible cogs in a machine and feel excluded from an…

Off-label prescriptions, side effects, and lawsuits: Navigating ethical and legal dilemmas

A recent TV advertisement attempted to recruit clients for a class action suit against a pharmaceutical manufacturer (PM) for a medication side effect (SE). The “cause of action” was unstated: was it the side effect’s existence or tha…

Navigating a medical school leave of absence [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! We dive deep into the topic of taking a leave of absence from medical school with Stephanie E. Moss. Stephanie, a medical student who made the decision to take a break bet…

Fostering Black joy in an anti-DEI environment: community, resilience, and equity

As Black History Month draws to a close, it is crucial to recognize the ongoing challenges faced by Black physicians and the importance of fostering diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and belonging in the medical field. National rhetoric condemning DE…

Beyond the oath: the unaddressed challenge of physician impairment

Despite their idealized oath to do no harm, physicians are still human, and as such, mistakes, errors, and the unpredictability of life still occur. Although the stories that grab headlines are of doctors intentionally harming patients, such instances …