A tall, thin, down-glancing man slumped in a chair in the corner of the exam room. His gray-haired wife sat primly next to him. They were here with their adult wheelchair-bound daughter. For the past two decades, the daughter had been under their const…
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! “‘Doctor, it’s taken so long to get this appointment with you!’ This is the opening line of so many medical visits, and I find myself constantly apologizing to my patients…
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! “It is uncomfortable to be publically vulnerable with my story. I wish the statistics and research were enough to change the field of medicine for patients and physicians. I want peop…
“Where does it hurt?” As a child, I can remember this ubiquitous question being frequently asked of me. Having grown up on a farm, there was always some trouble for me to get into. A common hazard was my older sister’s 26-inch bicycle…
If we are going to take on the challenge of improving communication and related behavior, a.k.a. “soft” skills among health care professionals, we should be realistic. As nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals, we are keenly a…
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! “Guess what? The mouth is attached to the rest of the body. And though dentistry and medicine are typically separated from the very beginning of professional training, they are irrevo…
I’ve just passed the 15-year milestone of practicing family medicine in a small farm town in the Midwest. Knowing my patients and their multi-generational families deeply and enjoying their trust is a major part of my job satisfaction. Unfortunat…
Violence against health care workers has escalated to unprecedented levels in the last decade. The pandemic seems to have accelerated outbursts against health care providers online, in print, and in person. A man from Tulsa, Oklahoma, recently angry ov…
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! “I think we all have an inclination—at least from time to time—to judge others. No matter how experienced, compassionate, and professional we are as physicians, we’re still human. I c…
I worked in rural Kentucky for 20 years, all of it in poverty clinics. I suspect I got to know my patients better than someone working in a specialty clinic in a big city. The challenges and rewards of doctoring are unique to each specialty. But these …
