“I don’t know.” That is an answer patients hate to hear. It is also an answer doctors hate to utter, and in truth, many of us fail to say those words when it would be proper to say them. Doctors spent long hours over many years of training, sacrificing…
It’s no secret that America (and indeed a lot of the western world) faces an unhealthy lifestyle crisis. Shocking statistics suggest that over 70 percent of the United States population is overweight or obese (defined as a BMI over 25). The consequenti…
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 59-year-old man is evaluated during a routine examination. He feels well and has no symptoms. Medical history is significant for hypertensi…
I have been fortunate in that I have not had to hospitalize any patients in the past four weeks. This means I have an extra 60 minutes or more to prepare for the workday in my office. The streak ended this weekend when my associate, taking his rotatio…
Thank you all for making 2019 another great year on the KevinMD platform. With over 25 million page views, and 500,000 followers across Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, KevinMD continues to be your leading health care voice. KevinMD was named to Medsca…
The Swedish word for physician is läkare, which literally means healer. That seems a lot more glamorous than the American word physician, which is derived from physic, the old fashioned laxatives that were thought to rid the body of poisons and impurit…
There’s so much negativity out there when it comes to health care, it must be a concern to any young person thinking about entering the field. I certainly spend a lot of time writing about all the challenges we face, and have to hold my hands up to (oc…
The year is 2050. You enter the room, ready to speak with your next patient, a 60-year-old white male with recent episodes of chest pain when he climbs the stairs to his office. Before sitting down to speak with him, a monitor in the room pulls up his …
I’ve noticed a theme in my clinic since I started practicing medicine: when a patient understands what is being said about their care, treatment, and services, they’re more likely to fulfill critical health care responsibilities. No one sho…
In medicine, contrary to common belief, it is not usually enough to know the diagnosis and its best treatment or procedure. Guidelines, checklists, and protocols only go so far when you are treating real people with diverse constitutions for multiple p…
