Category: KevinMD

How we can help our veterans die in peace

The World War II veteran, now in his 90s and receiving hospice for end-of-life care, was playing military anthems on his harmonica for fellow veterans. But the next minute, reliving the horrors of combat, he grew agitated and started to cry.  “Oh, all …

Including the patient perspective on tumor boards

I am a firm believer that medicine is best practiced as a team, with the one undergoing treatment at the center participating fully. It’s a belief embedded in the multidisciplinary care model. I have been fortunate to have been exposed to multidiscipli…

The barriers to patients choosing higher-value providers and insurers

Next in a series. I have developed a framework, which I call the Healthcare Incentives Framework, that helps me understand health care systems. It outlines the jobs we expect a health care system to do for us and identifies which parties in the health …

How race plays a role in palliative care

“Black life remains unexpected.” I have been mulling over these words written by Ibram X. Kendi, in The Atlantic. This followed his piece exploring the “anniversary” of slavery in 2019. He experiences this 400-year marker both with hope and concern giv…

Maybe being a physician was just not enough

Do you ever see other people in their careers and think to yourself, “Maybe I could do that?” I am a board-certified pediatric physician with over 25 years of experience in private practice, and I recently decided to try my hand at acting. …

Why physicians should never try to time the market

I read a Facebook post asking what people were doing about a recent market drop. As much as I watch the market (very rarely), I didn’t know the market had dropped until I read that comment. This question was raised on a site that is constantly teaching…

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…