A sobering study by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) predicts an unthinkable shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000 doctors by 2034. If underserved populations had fewer barriers to medical care, that shortfall could reach over 180,0…
An excerpt from Lean Out: A Professional Woman’s Guide to Finding Authentic Work-Life Balance. In the third grade, my teacher identified me as a high achiever. Aside from recognition, he “rewarded” me with the opportunity to write an …
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! In this episode, Ann M. Hester, a board-certified internal medicine physician, dives into the perfect storm brewing in the U.S. health care system and what we can do to prepare for it. The …
Medicine is both a business and a profession, with the business aspect being the provision of health care services for a fee and the professional aspect being the delivery of medical care for the patient’s benefit. The business of medicine refers…
A lot has been written about physician burnout, often it is attributed to the administrative burden, with some estimates that U.S. physicians spend an average of 1.84 hours a day completing documentation outside work hours. I’ve felt for some tim…
I retired as a physician at age 70, when COVID-19 came to town and the clinic I was working closed. During these past three years, I have had the luxury of a long view of my career. Every now and then, I feel the urge to pick up my stethoscope again a…
I recently read a story in which a woman named H. Lee, who has muscular dystrophy, details a decade-long struggle to receive adequate cervical cancer screening. Providers have been unable to find her cervix due to the curvature of her spine, examined h…
For over 14 years, the last day of February, a month known for its rare number of days, has been recognized by organizations across the globe as Rare Disease Day. With over 300 million patients worldwide impacted by 7,000+ rare diseases, the day serves…
In the United States, physicians are typically categorized as either academics or private practitioners. However, a case can be made that it is possible to construct a career path that incorporates both professional avenues. I was put in an excellent p…
In residency, we are trained to follow our intuition. In pediatrics, this translates into learning how to recognize a sick kid. Of course, we are taught what to look for on the physical exam and the labs and what protocols to follow, but we are also t…
