Category: KevinMD

Reclaiming the future of health care

A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD. Although I work for the American College of Physicians, I’m writing this as a general internist who has practiced both primary care and hospital-based medicine for over 25 year…

COVID-19 coronavirus needs apolitical truth-telling

She is 11, a fifth-grader, as prepubescent as nature allows, and utterly terrified. She hasn’t eaten normally for nearly a month, her mother reports.  She sleeps poorly, reports nightmares, and cleans her hands so obsessively that she is literally blee…

A physician in the venture capital world

Most physicians have spent decades training for the day that they see their first patient or perform their first surgery. This extended time involved to become a physician does not leave a lot of spare time in college or medical school for most physici…

Why doctors should get political

I became a physician to help people. So isn’t fighting for issues that help protect my patients such as racial equality, LGBTQ rights, gender pay equity, access to health care, and education all part of patient care? Don’t my patients want …

Health insurer: I want my 8 hours and 6 minutes back

February is a short month. Even this year with leap day. So short. Maybe that is why I am so mad at what Company X did to me. My health insurance company stole eight hours and six minutes from me in February. I will never get it back. This is my story …

The accuracy of COVID-19 tests

The current COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted the availability and the results of medical diagnostic tests.  As a physician, I treat the results of lab tests like I treat movie recommendations from a friend – I am always skeptical.  For the movies, I n…

Essential clinician commentary on COVID-19 coronavirus from the KevinMD community

Trusted clinician commentary on COVID-19 coronavirus from the KevinMD community. Continuously updated. The idiot’s guide to coronavirus from an emergency physician COVID-19: Why I’m very concerned I’m an infectious disease doctor and I’m in quarantine …

We can’t deny death, even if it’s a colleague

Does care fall short or go higher when the patient is one of our own? It depends on who you ask: We, the medical team, believe we try hard for everyone, but go the extra mile when it’s one of our own. Perhaps to family/outsiders, we’re not …

A previously healthy clinician, now critically ill with COVID-19

A New Jersey physician assistant who was the state’s first COVID-19 patient is speaking out from his hospital bed, calling his illness “severe” and raising concerns about his treatment. James Cai, a 32-year-old non-smoker with no othe…

I’m an infectious disease doctor and I’m in quarantine

Last week, I saw a patient who may have contracted COVID-19. The patient had come into the emergency department overnight due to respiratory distress and overseas travel history. While his clinical picture and history were cause for concern, due to lim…