KevinMD.com

Navigating medical training and residency as a female plastic surgeon

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 13:00:36 +0000

An excerpt from The DNA of a Doctor: How Upbringing, Culture, and Unbridled Ambition Curates Achievement. Having the support of male colleagues and mentors was not new to me. I could not have gotten through plastic surgery residency without my male co-residents. Being the only woman in my class and the classes I was sandwiched

Why cooking for better health makes dietary changes easier

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 11:00:51 +0000

Recently, my mother was told by her doctors that her high blood pressure was a concern and that she needed to make dietary changes and eat foods lower in sodium. Seemed simple. To my mother, what was clear was the need for significant dietary change to stay below 2,300 mg of sodium, the recommended limit

How blood-based brain biomarkers predict Alzheimer’s progression

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 21:00:15 +0000

As someone who has spent decades peering into skulls and pondering the fragile machinery inside, I have seen firsthand how our gray matter can falter under the weight of time, stress, and poor habits. But here is the exciting part: Science is handing us tools to fight back. In this post, we will dive into

Overcoming the fear of health care AI in data abstraction

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 19:00:19 +0000

Technology can be intimidating, especially when you do not fully understand how it works. There is also a fear that technology will start taking over and people will lose their jobs. I was one of those people who feared technology, and I kept hearing how artificial intelligence (AI) would take over health care jobs and

Why local care matters for peripheral arterial disease

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 17:00:22 +0000

When asked by the surgery department chair as a medical student why I wanted to treat vascular patients, my response was to be useful, useful to people with a challenging systemic disease that often results in stroke, amputation, and death. Often, wounds that have not healed for months on a foot or a hand, or

Medicare practice expense cuts will hurt patients

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 16:00:44 +0000

Recent federal cuts to how Medicare pays physicians are likely to deliver significant negative consequences to independent medical practices. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) final rule for the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule imposes a dramatic reduction in payment rates for medical services performed in hospital settings by independent clinicians. The payment

The urgent need for AI mental health regulation after Tumbler Ridge

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 13:00:54 +0000

The community of Tumbler Ridge, B.C. is living through an unimaginable grief. As we mourn with them, we are right to ask what we can learn from this tragedy. Much of the public conversation has focused on OpenAI: Why did the company not warn police when its systems flagged Jesse Van Rootselaar’s account for violent

13.1 reasons running a half marathon beats practicing medicine

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 11:00:42 +0000

This past weekend, I completed the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon, a 13.1-mile course running across the Brooklyn Bridge, through the streets of New York, through Times Square and Central Park, finally finishing upright and with both shoes still on. In the 48 hours since crossing the line, I have reflected deeply on the experience

His mother-in-law heard “cancer,” went home, and was dead within a year [PODCAST]

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 23:00:56 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! What happens when a doctor closes the chart but the patient leaves without understanding what was actually said? Retired surgeon, independent physician, health care consultant, and patient advocate Alan P. Feren describes what he calls “unfinishedness,” the gap between administrative closure

Why health care fraud detection requires payment integrity alignment

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:00:39 +0000

In one health care organization, a provider was reviewed and cleared through routine payment integrity processes. Months later, that same provider became the subject of a fraud investigation, based on patterns that had been present all along. Both reviews were technically correct within their scope. But together, they revealed something more concerning: The system itself

The hidden dangers of dental sedation and dental anesthesia in kids

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 19:00:26 +0000

A healthy, 4-year-old girl was brought to the pediatric dental office for treatment of several cavities. The parents were told their child would be given medication to help her “sleep” through the procedure. Easier and quicker than going to a hospital, office-based dental sedation was presented as a safe, routine option for children. After the

What a tiny dog taught me about the nervous system

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 17:00:26 +0000

Bree is an 11 1/2 year-old, 4.2-pound micro mutt who once lived on the streets of Long Beach. She eventually wound up at Long Beach Animal Care Services, where she sat in a crowded cold cement kennel with no bed, no blanket, no toys, and one very sick basset hound with parvovirus. Every dog in

5 patterns behind health care startups that fail

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 16:00:24 +0000

Most health care startups don’t fail because the technology is bad. They fail because of mistakes that happen long before the product ever reaches a clinical setting. After seven years of evaluating health care companies as a physician-scientist turned venture investor (and making over 20 investments across digital health, biotech, medical devices, and therapeutics), I’ve

Rethinking nutrition policy on ultra-processed food

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 15:00:38 +0000

For more than a decade, the phrase “ultra-processed food” has functioned as nutritional shorthand for danger, a dietary villain blamed for rising rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. The public message has been simple: If it is ultra-processed, avoid it. But science is rarely that simple. My colleagues and I recently reviewed the growing

Preparing for Medicaid cuts and the imperial health boomerang

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:00:22 +0000

I first met Ramon in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when I was moonlighting in local ERs and assisting wherever needed. New Orleans has a long-standing historical and economic connection to Honduras, primarily through the banana trade and shipping routes linking Honduran ports to New Orleans. These routes facilitated both commerce and migration between the

Why accountability in medicine must guide health care AI

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:00:23 +0000

Late at night, after basketball games or practices, with the physical exhaustion of the court still settling in, I often find myself staring at my laptop. I am watching how long it takes to complete something that has nothing to do with sports, or even actual patient care. It is documentation. Coding. Forms. Insurance language

Silence at the chessboard changed how I talk to patients [PODCAST]

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 23:00:43 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! When is the most powerful thing a medical student can do in a patient’s room simply to stop talking? Medical students Jay Pendyala and Jonathan Berg draw on years of competitive chess to explain how the game quietly trains skills that

Why experiential consent is replacing traditional medical consent forms

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 21:00:10 +0000

Imagine sitting in a witness box while a plaintiff attorney holds up your drafted, 15th-grade surgical consent form. You know the patient signed it. You know you spent 10 minutes explaining the risks. But then the attorney asks the patient: “When the doctor warned you about positive dysphotopsia, did you know it meant you wouldn’t

Why career pivots are a valid path in medical training

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 19:00:11 +0000

The medical students I work with are already starting to close doors. They are in their twenties, still in training, and they are already narrowing, already deciding which parts of themselves fit inside the life they are building toward. I recognize it because I did the same thing. I just did not realize it until

How to treat chronic pain and depression together

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 17:00:51 +0000

As a physician who has spent years managing patients with persistent pain, I often encounter the same frustrating cycle. A patient arrives with unrelenting back pain that has lasted for months. They describe not just physical discomfort but a deepening sense of hopelessness, fatigue, and withdrawal from life. Is the pain causing the depression, or