Category: KevinMD

A solution to reduce defensive medicine

An excerpt from Technology and the Doctor-Patient Relationship. As disturbing as the structure of malpractice insurance is in America, a more significant problem is the defensive style of medical practice it induces. In a large-scale survey done by Jac…

What physicians should do when life gets in the way

There are times in our journey as doctors when life gets in the way.  Well, life got in the way, and I had to go back to the basics and deepen my understanding and connection to my self and my source to easily navigate the curves and the bumps in the r…

MKSAP: 19-year-old man with lightheadedness and nightly fevers

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 19-year-old man is hospitalized with a 6-day history of lightheadedness and nightly fevers. He also reports sore throat, headache, joint an…

What does a cardiologist think of the keto diet?

Being a cardiologist, the most frequent question coming my way for the last few years is “Doc what do you think about the “keto” [ketogenic] diet.” All foods contain both micronutrients and macronutrients that are essential for the body to function opt…

4 essential tips for residency interviews

I have just finished another round of that dreaded process that we call “the interview process.” Without fail, this process has haunted me almost cyclically every 3 to 4 years in the last 11 years of my life. First, there were medical school interviews…

Increasing strictness of gun laws correlates with fewer children killed by guns

Between 2011 and 2015 there were over 21,000 children killed by guns. This recent study in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, further analyzes the question; it compares pediatric firearm fatality rates among the various stat…

Physicians must first establish their life priorities

An excerpt from Career & Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents: The Best Part of Your Journey Is about to Begin. Life is a journey. Where is this journey of life taking you? Do you know? If I asked you where you will be in seven years, coul…

A poem for the pediatrician on a Monday

It’s Monday, I recall as I step into work; “Preparing for battle,” I say with a smirk. Surviving all weekend with a sick kid in tow, the parents’ relief as they waited to show you their child with fever, diarrhea and sneezing, the one who is too hot, t…

How illusions impact how we practice medicine

We can learn a lot about ourselves by looking at, and thinking about, perceptual illusions and our biases. Look at the image above. The classic, Muller-Lyer illusion. We know that the two lines are the same size. But no matter how much we intuitively &…

How compensation can affect physician burnout

Burnout in medicine has reached epidemic proportions. A recent systematic analysis found that the prevalence of burnout was as high as 80.5%. All medical specialties are affected, although prevalence rates of burnout vary widely between specialties. Cl…