In the wake of Tyre Nichols’s murder, I find myself wanting to hold onto my Black son a little tighter. He is 7. Young enough to still be deemed cute by some, but old enough to not be given as much grace for simply “being a kid” by ot…
Category: Public Health & Policy
Patients lose when states block independent doctors
Patients win when independent doctors open shop. More choice means improved service and lower costs for everyone. Yet states often intervene to shut down health care competition. Virginia regulators blocked Maryland-based radiologist Mark Monteferrante…
The silencing of gun violence research: a decades-long campaign
Violence, in particular, firearm violence, has been a specter of American culture for decades, and its impact on public health has been shrouded in the shadows for nearly as long, thanks to political lobbying by gun manufacturers. An NPR article entitl…
How direct primary care can revolutionize health care [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! The U.S. health care system ranks poorly among high-income countries, but the direct primary care (DPC) model offers a potential solution. In this model, primary care providers are paid a c…
Canada has a universal health care system. But does it really?
Maybe one day, our universal health care system represented the values of Canadians, but certainly not anymore. American friends, you may know us for our drinking age and “free health care.” Still, unfortunately, our health care system no l…
3 shocking health care statistics for 2023
As the New Year begins, a trio of health care statistics cast an intense and unflattering light on a nation in crisis. These figures, all of them unimaginable just a generation ago, set the stage for a financial reckoning in 2023 and beyond. Shocking s…
Primary care colonialism: the impact of profit-driven health care on communities
An excerpt from On Medicine as Colonialism. For about seventeen years, from 1991 until 2008, I lived in little Scituate, Rhode Island, where I practiced family medicine, and for about eleven of those seventeen years, I practiced out of the basement of …
The future of health care is virtual: a nurse’s perspective
This time, it’s my family. My work takes me all over the U.S., consulting on the implementation of virtual care to get the most appropriate level of care to the patients who need it. I work with teams to develop better workflows and to get more e…
The future of health care is virtual: a nurse’s perspective
This time, it’s my family. My work takes me all over the U.S., consulting on the implementation of virtual care to get the most appropriate level of care to the patients who need it. I work with teams to develop better workflows and to get more e…
It’s time to ditch cultural competence
A pregnant Somali woman was determined to have a vaginal delivery. Unfortunately, labor wasn’t progressing as expected, and the health care team recommended a c-section. The patient declined the recommendation and said it’s in God’s h…
