Category: KevinMD

Great books make better doctors

After spending much of the first 40 years of my life poring over textbooks and medical journals, I decided to start reading literary fiction. At the time, I had no ulterior motive — only a vague sense that I had been missing something important, a meta…

Don’t judge patients for researching their health issues

It’s difficult to imagine a world now without Google and the internet. It’s also strange to think that most people alive right now received the bulk of their education in the pre-internet era. I remember in the United Kingdom, where I went to medical s…

Physician-assisted suicide is a collaborative process

Who remembers Jack Kevorkian, Doctor Death? He was found guilty in 1998 of second-degree murder. Still, it was because of his advocacy that the terminally ill patient’s right to die by physician-assisted suicide was propelled into the public aren…

“How are you doing?” A simple question with a big impact.

From October 25 to October 29, 2019, more than 10,000 pediatricians from all over the world gathered in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, to attend the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition. As the world’s larg…

Where have all the doctors gone?

As my husband passed the milestone birthday of 40, he thought it would be a good idea to get a physical exam as it had been several years since he saw a physician. Easy task, right? We soon came to find that the landscape of health care had been changi…

The medical profession is struggling to preserve humanity in a cut and paste world

Physicians and nurses deal with the deepest issues of the human condition: life and death. Our profession brings new life into the world and does our best to bring comfort and peace at the journey’s end. It is a profound and emotional experience for me…

Don’t forget to manage your patients’ dignity

Just before I induced anesthesia, he said, “Doc, I want to apologize beforehand. I am incontinent due to a previous surgery so I might wet the sheets.” I told him not to worry and that we understood and that “these things do happen.” …

Doctor by day, law student by night

I am a middle-aged, full-time emergency physician, and part-time law student. Usually, I practice medicine during the day and attend law classes in the evening. Sometimes I have law classes in the afternoon or early evening then work in the emergency d…

MKSAP: 38-year-old woman with primary membranous glomerulopathy

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 38-year-old woman is evaluated during a follow-up visit for primary membranous glomerulopathy. Diagnosis was made by kidney biopsy 4 months…

The health effects of structural racism

In the United States, the health of African-Americans lags behind most other racial minority groups.  Compared to whites, black men and women face higher risks of chronic illness, infection, and injuries.  Taken altogether, the average life span for Af…