“Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly.” – Thomas Edison The escalating challenge of waste in U.S. medicine The U.S. health care system…
Category: Public Health & Policy
Health care reform requires better access and quality: dialysis as an example
Having spent two years in Oxford as a Marshall Scholar in the mid-1970s, I came back to medical school believing in a national health service—i.e., Medicare for all. But I learned firsthand that a monopoly can provide access without ensuring quality. W…
Voting as a physician: How my parents’ story inspired me to advocate
My parents, both physicians, embody the American story. After completing medical school in Iran, they were recruited to the U.S. in 1968 to fill the gap left by doctors sent to Vietnam. Building a life from the ground up, they became pillars of their p…
Voting as a physician: How my parents’ story inspired me to advocate
My parents, both physicians, embody the American story. After completing medical school in Iran, they were recruited to the U.S. in 1968 to fill the gap left by doctors sent to Vietnam. Building a life from the ground up, they became pillars of their p…
How financial incentives transform health care [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! We sit down with Taylor J. Christensen, an internal medicine physician and health policy researcher, to discuss his health care incentives framework. Taylor explains how r…
A prescription from the next generation of doctors: Vote early
As future medical professionals, we see the real-life consequences of political decisions in emergency rooms, hospitals, and clinics. Despite a growing recognition that voting is directly linked to better health outcomes, however, health professionals …
The duty of health system boards to prioritize organizational culture, workforce development, and career pathways
Recently, I interviewed Dr. David Morris, a physician in Ireland and CEO of Verity Barrington, along with Geoffrey Roche, director of workforce development for Siemens Healthineers. Our conversation focused on successes in health care in both Ireland a…
How food marketing to kids is harming their health and what we can do [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Join Manuel Arango, the director of Health Policy & Advocacy at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. We dive into the pressing issue of food marketing to childre…
We can prevent another Apalachee High School, if we have the courage to act
Hearing about the school shooting last week at Apalachee High School in Georgia, I couldn’t imagine the gut-wrenching pain that the victims and the local community felt as yet another mass shooting tore apart families. The tragedy reminded me tha…
Why doctors must take charge to save our failing health care system
I recently wrote an article about the problems with our broken health care system, ending with a call for doctors to help develop solutions. In follow-up, here are some possible solutions to consider before the system self-implodes. There is concern th…
