Category: KevinMD

Is your persistent cough more than a cold? Understanding micro-choking.

These days, everybody is coughing. The resurgence of COVID, RSV, and flu has overwhelmed emergency rooms and hospitals this early winter. But not all coughs are viral. If you recently visited a family member for the holidays and noticed a persistent co…

The costly divide: tech innovations and global health inequality

“You have various options for this procedure. However, we will only be able to get the best results with the newest artificial lens on the market. Unfortunately, this type of lens is not covered by any insurance provider since it is sold by a sin…

Why the medical community should be invested in understanding chronic wasting disease

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible prion disease seen in the deer family – including mule deer, whitetail deer, elk, and moose – in countries throughout the world. The prion affects nervous system tissue in infected animals. E…

Breaking boundaries in health care: untold stories of triumph and transformation [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Join Kim Downey, a physical therapist, alongside Brittany Lamb, an emergency physician, and Adam Harrison, a physician, lawyer, and leadership coach. Together, they share …

How narrative medicine empowers neurodivergent patients

It’s been said that the challenges neurodiverse people face are the ones that neurotypical people view as easy, and vice versa. It speaks to the hard-wired diversity of cognitive styles and perspectives among different individuals. Neurotypical p…

How Barbie exposes sexism in medicine

A scene in the movie Barbie is all too familiar to female physicians. Ken asks a female physician, “Can I talk to a doctor?” and she replies, “You are talking to a doctor.” He ignores her, then requests her assistance with vario…

From crisis to solution: Overcoming America’s children’s mental health emergency [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! We dive into the urgent state of children’s mental health in America with our guest, Alex Stavros, a health care executive. With over a decade of experience in the i…

The ultimate guide to child dental sedation

Cavities in kids are common, and many children are unable to complete dental work without sedation. Dental anxiety must be balanced with safe and expedient dental treatment. Further information about early childhood caries can be found here. The preval…

Health insurance CEOs face “prior authorization”: a taste of their own medicine?

A fictional monologue. You’ve reached the prior authorization denial appeal line for insurance CEOs. Case number, please. I’m sorry you’ve had to hold for over an hour, but we can’t proceed if we don’t have your case numbe…

The power of empathy: a tale of two prostate biopsies

I’m sitting in a windowless room in the hospital’s urology department waiting for my second prostate biopsy, feeling surprisingly calm and relaxed. It’s a surveillance biopsy. Two years ago, the first one revealed “a few scatter…