First in a series. Way back as a business strategy undergrad and then as a medical student, I developed a framework for understanding health care systems. I call it the Healthcare Incentives Framework, and I believe it clarifies the big-picture compone…
Category: KevinMD
When we ignore a child’s preventable suffering, we lose a piece of our humanity
Sometimes an image captures the heart of a nation by putting a face on a human crisis. The one of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 2-year-old daughter Valeria lying face down in the Rio Grande after drowning was powerful. Their family had been …
The pale, very sick girl in the emergency department
An excerpt from A Mistake: A Novel. “Hello there,” Elizabeth said, leaning over the girl, smiling. “Hello. Hello Lisa.” The girl looked up at her accusingly. “My name is Elizabeth Taylor. Please call me Liz. I’m the consultant surgeon, and this is my r…
A neurologist explains why delaying school start time is important
Do teenagers know how to sleep? If you’re the parent of a teen, you might be laughing to yourself. That’s all they know how to do. In truth, teens (and their parents) might not know enough about how to sleep, when to sleep, and why. California recently…
A neurologist explains why delaying school start time is important
Do teenagers know how to sleep? If you’re the parent of a teen, you might be laughing to yourself. That’s all they know how to do. In truth, teens (and their parents) might not know enough about how to sleep, when to sleep, and why. California recently…
The gold standard of evaluating real estate investments
An excerpt from The Doctors Guide to Real Estate Investing for Busy Professionals. Cash flow is the only method I use to determine the value of the property to me and is my decision-making tool. This is how I determine the price I’m willing to p…
The Resident and Fellow Bill of Rights
Last June, I became a freshly-minted young doctor, bright-eyed, and enthusiastic about heading off to my dream residency program. By August, I found myself crossing the street on my way home, wondering if I had made a horrible mistake that could have h…
We must hold the government accountable for the health of the most vulnerable
898. This is the number of cases of mumps that occurred in migrant detention camps in a 12-month period between September 2018 and August 2019. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), 84% of the migrants who contracted the illness did so whi…
Applying for residency? Read this first.
Residency application season has begun! When I was applying last year, I spent a lot of time thinking not just about what programs I wanted to go to, where I wanted to live and how best to answer “Where do you see yourself in five years?” —…
Moral injury from a primary care perspective
The backbone of a great health care system is its primary care task force. From Singapore to France, elite health care systems rely on these cerebral doctors to provide preventive, urgent, and acute care along with chronic disease management. Primary c…
