I am a family physician by training, and I thank God every day for that foundation. About a decade ago, I transitioned to emergency medicine, thinking I’d left primary care behind. Back then, primary care problems—hypertension, diabetes, routine …
Category: KevinMD
How a family caregiver saved my life during a rare medical crisis
Americans heard a lot this campaign season about family caregivers. The federal government is making progress, but more needs to be done. I know about the importance of family caregiving; I’m alive today because a family caregiver advocated for m…
Why older adults are skipping doctor visits and how we can change it [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Join us as we explore the challenges of health care non-compliance among older adults with gerontologist Michael Pessman. We discuss the underlying factors driving resista…
Why practicing medicine is both like and unlike practicing law
The question is whether practicing medicine is like or unlike practicing law. Only those in distress come in search of physicians and lawyers. Thus, their clients need healing as well as protection from the ills in their innate systems or in the system…
Navigating the world of artificial intelligence in health care
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly dominant topic in the daily news. From banking to birding, personalized marketing to publishing, and smart homes to sports, AI is permeating all aspects of society. In medicine and health care, we…
Pay for performance and shared savings are good, but they’re not the solution
Think about every health care reform effort we’ve been working on for the last decade or two, including accountable care organizations (ACOs) and the value-based purchasing models from CMS. The vast majority of them use one or both of the followi…
Losing control of how the health care system treats patients
Particularly over the last 10 to 20 years, medical care has been vertically integrated so that many of us—most of us—are now working for larger health conglomerates. As part of this transition, more and more of our management is professional, with MBAs…
Strategies for patient-centered and employee-focused care
This article is sponsored by NRC Health. In the evolving landscape of health care, our consumers, patients, and workforce are undergoing significant demographic changes. At the heart of these changes are generational differences in attitudes, beliefs, …
Reviving the emotional flatline: Addressing burnout in health care professionals
As an emergency room physician with over 20 years of experience, I’ve faced countless moments of emotional intensity—saving lives, delivering difficult news, and navigating the chaos of a health care system stretched to its limits. Yet, it wasn&#…
A clarion call about medical malpractice to leaders in health care
There are one million physicians practicing medicine in the United States. No medical intervention they recommend is immune from a complication. The exact number of complications is unknown. Some are medical errors inherent to the intervention, while o…
