Category: primary care

Language is a barrier for many patients. Let’s change that.

My role as a care coordinator for a local mobile health clinic — the mobile outreach clinic (MOC) — comes with responsibilities seldomly awarded to an undergraduate, 20-year old, volunteer student. MOC is unique in that it not only provides free, low-b…

What I learned from stepping away from medicine for a year [PODCAST]

“Before COVID-19, I left the practice of medicine for what would turn out to become an entire year. While away, I found a new way of seeing our hearts and bodies as humans in the medical profession, allowing me to return. Here are five lessons I …

What is a positive that has come from the pandemic?

I had a crazy thought. Each time I walked into a room to see a patient, I would ask them a question that would be more in line with this blog than with the usual “Where does it hurt?” and “What’s wrong with you?” taught in medical school. Remember that…

Don’t be the patient that says these words [PODCAST]

“Don’t be the patient that says: ‘Doc, just tell me what to do …’ Instead, you should ask for information to empower yourself to make decisions about your healing process. Framing questions around the clinician’s experience is always …

Are you a healer or a widget?

In the “Show-Me State” of Missouri, physicians receive their licenses from the Board of Registration for the Healing Arts. Seriously!  This quaint term harkens back to a time when newly minted doctors had a relatively easy time realizing their desire t…

What makes you cry? Better yet, why not cry?

I rarely cried growing up. The time I remember most, I was twelve. I was pitching in the semifinals of the Tennessee State Dixie Youth Baseball tournament to qualify for its equivalent of the Little League World Series. In the first inning, I gave up a…

4 questions that made me become a health coach

I love science. I enjoy studying the human body and its amazing ability to adapt, heal, and restore. I love critical thinking, problem-solving, and forward progress, but the practice of medicine is not a science experiment. In medicine, I manage people…

365 shows later: The Podcast by KevinMD’s most popular episodes

It’s been such an inspiring journey for The Podcast by KevinMD! I started the show one year ago, on June 1, 2020. I didn’t know what to expect, who would want to be on the show, or who would listen. Heck, I didn’t know the first thing…

The mission of medicine: not just a job

The mission of medicine is to heal the sick.  When cure is elusive, it is to relieve distress, and always to comfort.  All of us who became physicians had our reasons, but we had to have a genuine interest and ability in science, and an appreciation of…

A physician’s opinion on second opinions

In medicine, there are those patients that know they have a morbid underlying diagnosis, and no doctor can convince them otherwise. And there are also those that know they are perfectly well and need no treatment, and no doctor can convince them otherw…