Category: KevinMD

#Medbikini unmasks bias and forces the retraction of a journal article

#Medbikini started trending on twitter after a scientifically written article published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Vascular Surgery examined social network behavior.  The article entitled, “Prevalence of unprofessional social media content a…

Is now the time for single payer?

With the news that nearly $6 million Americans have lost their employer-sponsored health due to COVID, it is finally time to ask ourselves: is the “American Model” of health care working? The “American Model” is a system of fragmentation: one in which …

What physicians today can learn from the history of surgery [PODCAST]

“Billroth spent long hours dissecting cadavers and planning on surgical interventions. He was able to pioneer abdominal surgery with careful preparation and strict adherence to meticulous antiseptic technique. Animal experimentation and cadaveric…

Coronavirus takes a toll on IMGs: anxieties over USMLE Step 1 becoming pass/fail

The NBME has announced that the USMLE Step 1 exam is changing from graded on a curve to pass/fail no earlier than Jan 1, 2022. This announcement came before the coronavirus pandemic took hold and significantly disrupted pretty much everything, includin…

Should I send my child back to school? A letter to parents.

This is the million-dollar question that I’ve been asked over and over again by distraught parents wanting to do right by their children. Parents want to have their children stay home so they can keep them healthy and safe. At the same time, they are w…

To all who care for patients: Thank you for the many sacrifices you make every day

I recently saw a powerful video about an amazing nurse who is a foster mother to children dying of cancer. She lovingly cared for them no matter the circumstance, the difficulties, or the heartbreak that came with each and every death of one of these p…

The 2020 American Board of Surgery Qualifying Examination: failure, backlash, and response

After many years of training, I have graduated from residency and am now a board-eligible general surgeon.  I was one of more than 1,000 candidates who attempted to take the American Board of Surgery (ABS) Qualifying Examination on July 16, 2020. What …

How coaching prevents and treats physician burnout

Prevention is the best medicine. But when you’re already sick, what you really want is an effective treatment. When the level of contagion is high, and the likelihood of contracting a disease is great, you want to know that there are options available …

How coaching prevents and treats physician burnout

Prevention is the best medicine. But when you’re already sick, what you really want is an effective treatment. When the level of contagion is high, and the likelihood of contracting a disease is great, you want to know that there are options available …

Mindfulness as a diagnostic tool, not a treatment

The ongoing COVID crisis in the U.S. has highlighted our broken heath care system. And with it, has come an opportunity to begin to fix the system. Some touted mindfulness as a panacea pre-COVID – suggesting that if clinicians reframed the situations a…