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Surviving ventricular tachycardia: What I learned as a patient

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:00:37 +0000

What happens when the doctor becomes the patient? Is there anything learned or reinforced? For me, it was a life-changing experience both personally and professionally when I became the patient. My story began on New Year’s Eve. I had been feeling dizzy associated with some chest pain and was scheduled to have a stress echo

How a hidden genetic mutation creates a severe pediatric anesthesia risk

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:00:05 +0000

Imagine a healthy eight-year-old boy going under general anesthesia for a routine procedure. His preanesthetic workup is unremarkable. His family history raises no flags. He receives sevoflurane, the most commonly used inhaled anesthetic in pediatric practice worldwide, and he does not wake up the same. This is not a theoretical scenario. It has happened to

A physician’s poem on burnout and end-of-life care

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 11:00:52 +0000

They tell us doctors to practice self-care, as if grief were a muscle that loosens with stretching. But no one teaches how to set down a conversation about dying and pick up the rhythm of living. At the end of the work day, the questions still echo, How much time do I have? What would

How the opioid superagonist DFNZ challenges pain medicine

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 23:00:08 +0000

A publication in Nature in April 2026 reports that N-desethyl-fluornitrazene (DFNZ), a modified nitazene and µ-opioid receptor (MOR) superagonist, produced potent analgesia in rodents with less respiratory depression, weaker dopamine-linked reward signaling, lower withdrawal burden, and no clear tolerance or MOR downregulation. The study challenges the usual assumption that very high MOR efficacy must inevitably

Artificial intelligence in surgery: Balancing precision with clinical wisdom

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:00:41 +0000

In the operating room, precision has never been greater. Modern surgery now relies on navigation systems, artificial intelligence, robotic assistance, digital planning platforms, and predictive analytics capable of modeling outcomes before the first incision is made. For the first time in medical history, technology allows surgeons to simulate procedures, optimize implant positioning, and reduce technical

Confronting the reality of bullying in medicine today

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 17:00:56 +0000

I still remember the first time I saw what bullying in medicine could do to a physician in training. It was not loud at first. It was not always obvious. It came wrapped in authority, tone, pressure, and the quiet threat that a career could be damaged by people in power. A resident nearing her

Living with numbness after mastectomy: the unseen impact on survivorship

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:00:07 +0000

For years, I have heard breast cancer survivors share a common refrain: “I expected to lose my breasts. I did not expect to lose the ability to feel.” Yet in exam rooms across the country, persistent numbness after mastectomy remains underdiscussed and poorly understood in routine care. It is often framed as an inevitable side

The clinical evidence and reality of peptide therapy

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 13:00:30 +0000

There is a sentence I have been practicing for two years. I believe peptide therapy works. It sounds simple. It is not simple. In the culture of evidence-based medicine, a culture I was trained in, believe in, and have practiced inside for over two decades, saying you believe something that the evidence has not yet

The physician-in-triage model and rapid evaluation in emergency medicine

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 11:00:34 +0000

Most emergency departments feel perpetually behind. The waiting room fills, ambulances stack, and staff move quickly yet still feel behind. The reflex explanation everyone gives is capacity. We need more beds, more rooms, more space. That explanation is intuitive. It is also often incomplete. In many departments, nothing meaningful happens after triage until a patient

Why bariatric patients struggle with protein and how to fix it

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 19:00:58 +0000

I have treated over 10,000 bariatric patients across my career, and if there is one issue that comes up more than almost anything else, it is protein. Specifically, patients not getting enough of it. The research confirms what I see every day in practice. According to a continuing education review published in Bariatric Times, as

Why ABIM’s use of Medicare claims data violates physician autonomy

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:00:40 +0000

Most internal medicine physicians assume that when they sit for a board examination, their answers determine one thing: whether they pass. Few realize that their exam performance has been linked to federal Medicare claims data and used in research, without their knowledge or consent. The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has published studies linking

Iranian physicians in 2026: a testament to medical courage

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 11:00:34 +0000

The stethoscope has always been more than a tool for auscultation; it is a physical bond between two human beings that no government has the authority to sever. In early 2026, as the Iranian regime launched a brutal crackdown on its own citizens, we witnessed the most extreme test of this bond. When the state

Why hospital systems fail to notice the human behind the bill [PODCAST]

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 23:00:00 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Patient advocate Eric Goldfarb discusses the article “How a pregnancy test on a male patient revealed health care flaws.” Eric shares the absurd and heartbreaking story of finding a pregnancy test charge on his 88 year old father’s final hospital bill.

A patient’s poem on invisible illness and trauma-informed care

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:00:44 +0000

You tell me it is all in my head. As though my head were a small room where false alarms ring for sport, like I have no better way to spend my time and life. You hold films up to the light, of bones and blood, nothing cracked or out of place, or a catastrophe

How a minor dry cough amplifies caregiver burden in home health care

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 17:00:16 +0000

A dry cough can be one of the most misleading symptoms in medicine. At home, it can dominate the emotional climate of an entire household. It interrupts sleep, breaks conversations, unsettles meals, and keeps caregivers in a state of low-grade vigilance. It appears in cold air, at the beginning of a speech, during the first

How to treat sacroiliac joint pain effectively today

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 17:00:05 +0000

If you have nagging pain deep in your lower back or one buttock that never seems to settle, you are not alone. Many people chase answers through discs, nerves, or muscles, yet the real source turns out to be the sacroiliac (SI) joint. This connection between the base of your spine and your pelvis is

Why clinicians fail at writing expert reports

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 16:00:19 +0000

I want to tell you something attorneys already know but will never say to your face. When your expert report lands in their inbox and they read it, I mean really read it, they know within the first two paragraphs whether they are calling you again. Not after the case. Right then. And if the

Why clinicians fail at writing expert reports originally appeared in KevinMD.com.

Leucovorin for autism: Why physicians must protect hope from hype

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 15:00:10 +0000

In September 2025, The Atlantic reported on a frenzy surrounding leucovorin, a folate derivative long used in oncology and rheumatology. Families desperate for answers were suddenly told it might be a miracle therapy for autism. Waitlists stretched years, clinics were overwhelmed, and hope surged. The problem was not just scientific, it was political. When President

Driving medical education reform through intellectual honesty

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:00:33 +0000

We are nearing the end of the academic year, and I recently found myself standing in front of a room of first-year medical students offering what I called “observations.” Not punishments. Not a lecture. Observations. And an invitation. Because what I had been seeing was concerning: academic dishonesty, inappropriate use of artificial intelligence (AI), emotional

How IDIOT syndrome threatens value-based health care

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 13:00:20 +0000

The internet has made patients more informed. It has also made some patients more misled. A small but growing body of medical commentary has used the provocative label “internet-derived information obstruction treatment (IDIOT)” syndrome to describe what happens when people trust online medical content so blindly that they delay care, stop treatment, self-medicate, or resist