When a neurosurgeon tells you she thinks she might want to leave surgery for interior design, you listen closely. Not because it’s outrageous, but because it’s honest. Many physicians carry similar longings. They wonder whether it’s O…
Category: surgery
How New Mexico became a malpractice lawsuit hotspot
Across America, physicians worry about malpractice litigation—but what happens when state policies unintentionally create a malpractice litigation magnet? New Mexico offers a troubling case study every health care provider should know about. Between 20…
Why even the best employees are silently quitting health care
Imagine yourself being miserable at work and you have been thinking about quitting for a long time now, but you are just really good at what you do. Your colleagues approached you when they needed advice and even your patients praised and thanked you a…
How robotics are reshaping the future of vascular procedures
Medicine has always evolved through a blend of scientific rigor and bold innovation. Over the last century, surgical practice has progressed from risky open procedures to highly controlled, minimally invasive interventions. Laparoscopic surgery marked …
Bridging the rural surgical care gap with rotating health care teams
Compared to urban areas, rural communities had a 21 percent higher rate of deaths due to heart disease and a 15 percent higher rate of cancer deaths from 2001 to 2019. The per capita number of general surgeons decreased from 6.4 to 5.2 per 100,000 popu…
If I had to choose: Choosing the patient over the protocol
It was after dinner at The Goring, just the three of us—Ulla, David Chipp, and me. The kind of dinner where the wine lingers longer than the food, and the conversation slips into the quietly personal. David, once Reuters’ correspondent in Peking …
Hope is the lifeline: a deeper look into transplant care
A few months after meeting her during rounds at a dialysis center, an elderly woman gripped my hand and quietly asked, “Do you think I’ll make it in time?” Her voice trembled. She had been silent for weeks, worn down by dialysis and o…
A surgeon’s startling ketamine experience [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! General surgeon Arthur Williams discusses his article “A surgeon’s battle with ketamine-induced hallucinations.” He shares an account from his novel of a…
Normalizing male plastic surgery in Africa
Aloma Isaac Junior, a Nigerian comedian popularly known as Zicsaloma, recently underwent rhinoplasty. This intervention exposed deep-rooted biases about masculinity, beauty, and body autonomy in Africa. Instead of curiosity or support, his decision was…
The hidden financial burdens shaping modern medicine
Imagine this: Two attending surgeons undertake a surgical procedure on a patient. The surgical residents have draped the patient; the surgical tech and the circulating nurse are ready to begin the operation. The surgical attendings enter the OR, scrub …
