Category: Public Health & Policy

Breaking free from restrictive covenants to combat burnout

Hospitals have the duty to ensure that their physicians are professionally content, both physically and mentally to provide the highest quality of care. But they also have a responsibility to prevent physicians from leaving work for competing instituti…

Empowering Black nurses for lasting change [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! Join us for an enlightening episode as we sit down with Kashica J. Webber-Ritchey, an assistant professor of nursing, to discuss the pressing issue of equity in health care, particularly fo…

The revolutionary Kaiser-Geisinger deal: How health care giants are reshaping the industry and empowering patients

Health care’s most recent billion-dollar deal took the industry by surprise, leaving medical experts and hospital leaders grappling to comprehend its implications. In case you missed it, California-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospital…

Is chaos in health care leading us towards socialized medicine? How physician burnout is a catalyst.

A recurring theme expressed by many contributors and commentators to KevinMD is physician burnout. It is generally accepted that chaos causes burnout. There is no shortage of chaos in the practice of medicine: emotional, physical, personal, professiona…

Unveiling the intricate link between housing costs and health care

While housing costs have escalated, health care costs have not been left behind. According to the National Health Expenditure Account (NHEA), health care spending grew 4.6 percent in 2019, reaching $3.8 trillion or $11,582 per person. The correlation b…

Uncovering the truth about racial health inequities in America: a book review

When I started my intern year, that is my first year of training in medical residency, I noticed something peculiar about the epidemiology of disease in our hospital. The Black patients on the medical wards would often present with the morbidity of the…

The hidden factor in physician burnout: How the climate crisis is contributing to the erosion of well-being

Anyone who practiced medicine in the past decade will be well acquainted with the myriad discussions about epidemic of burnout and the eroding of well-being among health care providers that has accelerated with the pandemic. With 63 percent of physicia…

Why HIPAA is failing and what you need to know to protect your data [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! Join us in this episode as we discuss the limitations of HIPAA and U.S. law in protecting health information privacy with our guest, Brian R. Jackson. As a pathologist, Brian provides a uni…

Why affirmative action is crucial for health equity and social justice in medicine

Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are among the higher ed institutions involved in a U.S. Supreme Court battle over affirmative action that is expected to be decided this spring or summer. As a former appellate defender in the…

The untold story of Hispanic/Latino health: Why subgroup data matters

In 2000, the question, “Is this person Spanish/Hispanic/Latino?” emerged on the U.S. census, grouping these populations for the first time on a national scale. Prior to this, there was no consistent or comprehensive way to collect data on t…