The Podcast by KevinMD

She loved the job for 20 years. She left anyway. Christine King, certified registered nurse anesthetist, returns to explain what changed in the operating room and what it cost her. This episode is based on her article "Why I left health care after almost 20 years," published on KevinMD. You will hear why decisions about whether a procedure happens started to feel like insurance decisions rather than medical ones. You will hear what workplace violence looks like in an operating room, where the threats came less from patients than from the people she worked alongside. You will hear why those incidents so rarely get reported, and why she thinks the newest generation of physicians is already different. You will hear what the stress did physically, and what eased when she stopped. And you will hear what she would tell a student choosing between nursing and medical school. Press play for the one thing she wishes she had done more of, and why she thinks the people behind her already will. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Many doctors picture themselves practicing until the day they die. Andrea Hayes decided otherwise, and tells you what came next. She is a retired endocrinologist, author, and speaker. This episode is based on her article "From endocrinologist to writer: a doctor's second act," published on KevinMD. You will hear how 30 years in practice, 25 of them independent and five in concierge medicine, ended without a single dramatic exit. She describes the office manager who stole a quarter of a million dollars while she was grieving her father, and how that betrayal pushed her to learn the business side she had ignored. She explains why she now tells physicians to build a plan B, a plan C, and a plan D, and what she found out about publishing after traditional publishers turned her down. She also explains how living with type 1 diabetes since age 15 shaped how she connected with patients. Stay to the end for her case that it is never too late to become someone you did not expect to be. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A pediatrician gave a child vaccines the chart said he needed. The record showing he had already had them was buried in the system. Dennis Hursh is a health law attorney and founder of Physician Agreements Health Law. This episode is based on his article "EMR errors get blamed on physicians, not systems," published on KevinMD. The health system did not fix the record system. It counseled the physician and moved to put her on a corrective action plan for failing to follow its vaccine policy. He explains why she resigned rather than carry that on her record, what a corrective action plan does to you at credentialing for the next five years, and why a non-compete means she will not see those patients again after 40 years in that community. He also walks through the contract language he negotiates: an agreed independent reviewer, and 60 days to fix anything the reviewer finds. Stay to the end for his argument that due process belongs in your contract before anyone accuses you of poor quality care. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A condition named for the ovaries turns out to run through the muscle, the liver, and the pancreas. Insulin is the signal connecting them, and different organs hear it differently. Oluyemisi Famuyiwa, reproductive endocrinologist and founder of the Montgomery Fertility Center, returns to walk through it. This episode is based on her article "How insulin drives polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome," published on KevinMD. You will hear why the pancreas makes more insulin when muscle stops responding, and why the ovary and the liver are still listening when it does. You will hear what that does to androgen levels, and why acne, chin hair, and stubborn weight show up before irregular cycles. You will hear why body weight is a poor guide to who has PCOS, since lean patients carry the same elevated androgens and irregular cycles. And you will hear which tests she orders and why she works this across internal medicine and endocrinology. Press play for the reframe she leaves clinicians with: this is more than the ovary and more than insulin. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Your insurance company says these therapists take your plan. Most of them do not. That is the allegation behind seven class action lawsuits now moving through courts from Massachusetts to California. Attorney Steve Cohen returns to explain what his firm found when it called the names on those lists. This episode is based on his article "Mental health ghost networks are badly hurting patients," published on KevinMD. You will hear what a ghost network is, and why the problem is worst in mental health. You will hear why the listings stay wrong, which has less to do with sloppy record keeping than with what insurers will pay. You will hear which patients get hurt worst, including the ones whose plans carry no out-of-network benefit at all. And you will hear about the provision buried in most policies that requires your insurer to cover an out-of-network therapist when there is no in-network one. Press play for the two steps he tells patients to take in order, get the care first and fight for the reimbursement second. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Physicians stay in jobs they cannot afford to leave. The wellness conversation talks about resilience and meaning, and never about what is in your bank account. Stanley Liu, cardiologist, financial planner, and founder of DocEmpowered, returns with a concept traditional financial planning does not have. This episode is based on his article "Unlocking career flexibility with a Courage Fund," published on KevinMD. You will hear what separates a courage fund from an emergency fund, and why the difference is intent rather than structure. You will hear how to size one in months rather than dollars, and why a big non-compete or a thin local job market calls for a bigger number. You will hear why this is leverage your employer cannot see, since they may know about your mortgage but not your accounts. And you will hear where it belongs against student loans, retirement, and everything else competing for the same dollar. Press play for the one question he asks before any of the math, which has nothing to do with money. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Your genetic test results now arrive on your phone before anyone is available to explain them. So the questions go to an online mom group, or to ChatGPT, and strangers answer first. Stephanie Waggel, physician and founder of Improve Medical Culture, has been watching that happen in real time. This episode is based on her article "Social media told her to abort her Turner syndrome baby," published on KevinMD. You will hear why a screening result is not a confirmation, and what has to happen before anyone knows for certain. You will hear why familiarity, speed, and distrust of institutions pull patients toward voices they have never met. Artificial intelligence gets a hard look too, since it can be convincingly wrong and learns from other artificial intelligence. And the comment sections run from parents who say their daughter is fine to strangers who say you are torturing the baby. Press play for the checks that separate a credentialed medical voice online from a convincing one. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A treatment exists that can cure aggressive lymphoma after chemotherapy has failed. Only about two in ten eligible patients receive it. Manali Kamdar is clinical director of lymphoma services at the University of Colorado Anschutz, and Paolo Strati is an associate professor of lymphoma and myeloma at MD Anderson Cancer Center. This episode is based on their article "CAR-T therapy can cure cancer. Why is it so underused?" published on KevinMD. You will hear what this therapy asks of a patient, from cell collection through the wait for manufacturing to the weeks spent living near a treatment center. They walk through the barriers a stakeholder summit identified, including the two-week payer authorization that runs while the cancer grows, the small number of accredited centers, and the myth that eligibility works like transplant eligibility. Press play to hear why they say a relapse should trigger a referral, and why they measure success by who can deliver this treatment rather than who receives it. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

He counts four wounds in American medicine. Patients rarely bring up the first one, which is what health care costs. Narinder Singh Parhar is a physician with more than three decades in internal medicine, hospital medicine, and intensive care. This episode is based on his article "Health care affordability is now a moral crisis," published on KevinMD. A retired Korean War veteran had Medicare, a supplemental plan, and a lifetime of work behind him. He still could not fill a $500 prescription near the end of the year. Narinder argues that spending has piled up in hospitals, imaging, procedures, and specialty care while primary care and the basic work of keeping people well go underfunded. He is blunt about the profession's part in it, saying physicians were taught to be blind to what care costs. You will hear him walk through the ordinary decisions where that shows up: the generic, the office biopsy, the shoulder MRI. He closes with a take-home for physicians that starts somewhere unexpected, with their own health. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

In South Louisiana, hurricane season is treated like a fifth season of the year. Angela C. Johnson explains what that means for physicians and patients. She is an internal medicine physician and member of the American College of Physicians Board of Regents. This episode is based on her article "Physicians and natural disasters: the fifth season," published on KevinMD. You will hear what care looks like inside a medical shelter, where the exam rooms, the records, and the staffing are gone and the work comes back to a doctor and a patient. She describes who ends up in a shelter, why getting people home is its own problem, and why a community without power, water, or open doctor's offices is not ready to take them back. She also tells you what to bring and what to ask your providers before an evacuation, and why she watches storm intensity as closely as the count. Stay to the end for her case that the differences a storm exposes are the ones to work on between storms. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Most people who get antibiotics for a sinus infection never needed them, and the real problem goes untreated. Franklyn R. Gergits is a board-certified otolaryngologist who sees the patients that three, four, and five rounds of antibiotics did not fix. This episode is based on his article "We prescribe antibiotics for sinusitis without a diagnosis," published on KevinMD. He separates a sinus infection from a cold, allergies, and COVID, and names the ten-day rule he uses before anyone gets a prescription. You will hear why a patient's certainty that the antibiotic worked last time is often wrong, what a normal CAT scan should tell you to look for next, and which conditions turn out to be driving the symptoms when the culture keeps coming back clean. He is direct about the pressure clinicians face to write something, and about what patients can try at home before they call. Press play to hear when an antibiotic is the right call, and what to check first when it is not. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

What if medical AI judges you by how you write instead of what's actually wrong? A health care executive says it already does. Craig Hauben has spent 30 years in health care and the last several years researching AI, and he walks through studies showing that large language models trained on decades of human writing pick up on typos, misspellings, and emotional tone, then quietly route people away from the care they need. Close to 10 percent of the time patients who should have been seen were told not to come in, and women were hit hardest. This episode is based on his article "AI bias in health care reads the writer, not the symptom," published on KevinMD. You will learn why the bias survives even after the obvious warning signs are scrubbed, why ChatGPT-style tools can carry the same blind spots into the exam room, and why trusting the AI too quickly is the real trap. Press play to hear the three questions every clinician should ask before trusting AI with a patient. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Leaving medicine can feel like erasing 20 years of work. What if it isn't a loss at all, but a language problem you can solve? Physician executive Shveta Gupta, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist, joins to unpack why so many doctors quietly fuse their identity with the white coat, and why a change in role can feel like being sent back to zero. This episode is based on her article "Leaving medicine is a translation problem, not a loss," published on KevinMD. You'll hear the six words in a job interview that made her feel her whole career had been erased, why she calls this the "false zero," and how the multidisciplinary rounds and hard family conversations you already lead translate directly into the language of leadership. Along the way she makes the case that you don't need an MBA to do this, and that the healthcare world needs physician leaders whether it knows it or not. You'll come away with a new way to name your worth, and concrete first steps to act on it. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Everyone agrees health care should reward better outcomes at lower cost. So why hasn't it happened? The answer isn't payment models or policy. It comes down to the everyday choices individual clinicians make, and whether anyone can actually see them. Jeanne Cohen, a health care analytics founder and CEO, argues that the value in value-based care lives in the quality of each clinical decision, not the contract structure around it. This episode is based on her article "The real reason value-based care has not delivered," published on KevinMD. You will hear why roughly a quarter of U.S. health care spending traces back to unwarranted variation, how ordering an unnecessary scan exposes patients to harm and pushes organizations out of financial alignment, and why the data infrastructure to fix this finally exists. Cohen also explains where AI can help, where it can't, and why it won't lower costs on its own. If you want to understand what actually stands between the health care system and the outcomes it keeps promising, this conversation names it directly. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Patients now choose doctors the way they shop for everything else, judging your practice online before they walk in. Ashley Gay, a branding expert, argues that a strong brand is not about ego but about earning trust, and that physicians who ignore this are quietly losing patients and talent to competitors who look more polished. This episode is based on her article "Branding a medical practice is not vanity, it is trust," published on KevinMD. You will hear why a logo is not a brand, why owning your website and ranking locally beats showing up for generic medical searches, and where an AI logo generator falls short. You will learn how the whole patient experience shapes your brand, from the first online impression to the phone call to the waiting room, and why private equity already treats this as an edge. Press play to hear why your brand may matter more than your credentials, and where to focus your first dollars. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Social media says to spike your fiber intake as fast as you can. That is where the bloating starts. Lisa Talamini is a registered dietitian nutritionist and senior vice president of clinical solutions at Wondr Health. This episode is based on her article "How to eat more fiber without the bloating," published on KevinMD. You will hear why fibermaxxing with pills, powders, and fortified bars tends to bring gas, bloating, and sometimes diarrhea while delivering few of the nutrients whole food carries. Lisa explains fiberlayering instead, adding one small whole food at a time to meals you already eat, and why water decides whether the fiber you add helps or hurts. You will also hear the roughly 25 grams a day she works from, why the Mediterranean pattern is layering in practice, and how to raise the subject in the few minutes a primary care visit leaves for nutrition. She closes on the red flags to watch for in the next fiber video, and the case for the middle ground over the maximum. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A man told his doctor he was struggling with addiction. The doctor told him this was not something he could help with. Devika Bhushan is a public health physician and a former acting surgeon general of California. This episode is based on her article "How addiction stigma in health care costs lives," co-written with medical student Taylor Moss and published on KevinMD. You will hear what happened when about 500 clinicians read the same patient described two ways, as a substance abuser in one version and as a person with a substance use disorder in the other. Devika explains why fewer than 1 in 5 people with addiction ever get appropriate treatment, why they receive 30 percent less guideline-based care for conditions like heart disease and diabetes, and why life expectancy can run up to almost 24 years shorter. You will also hear which words open doors in addiction care and which close them, plus six things patients and families can do when a clinician will not listen. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

In a lot of towns there is only one health insurer left, and that is starting to show up in patient care. Rita Agarwal is a pediatric anesthesiologist who started asking why colleagues in a specialty she loves are heading for the door. This episode is based on her article "Insurance consolidation is a patient safety problem," published on KevinMD. She explains why anesthesiology went from a top residency choice to the specialty with the highest intent to leave, and what happens to a team when the people in the room have never worked together. You will hear how a single-payer market leaves a hospital with no room to negotiate, why federal Medicaid cuts hit rural and pediatric hospitals hardest, and what it looks like when patients drive hours for care that used to be down the road. She is candid that most physicians, including her, sat out this fight for years. Press play to hear why she thinks this is unsustainable, and what she is asking physicians to do about it. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Ketamine made headlines for the wrong reasons, and people who could be helped by it are staying away. Jim Ellwood is an anesthesiologist who has given ketamine in the operating room and taken it himself for depression that nine medications failed to touch. This episode is based on his article "The truth about ketamine: an anesthesiologist explains drug safety," published on KevinMD. He explains what the research shows about how it works in the brain, and what to ask before you walk into a clinic. You will hear why he compares the panic around ketamine to what happened with propofol and fentanyl, how to find out who is actually writing the prescription at a clinic that advertises to you, and what he tells patients about how long the relief lasts and what it costs. He is candid about the stigma of a physician saying out loud that he has depression. Press play to hear a physician who has used ketamine both ways describe what a safe setting actually looks like. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

You can have five doctors and still have no one actually in charge of your care. That gap is where patients get lost. In this episode, retired surgeon and patient advocate Alan P. Feren walks through a common case where the surgeon, primary care, and specialists each assume someone else is directing the plan, and no one is. This episode is based on his article "Fragmented care needs clinical direction, not more data," published on KevinMD. You will hear why coordination is not the same as clinical direction, how disconnected medical records leave patients to piece their own care together, and why confusion can look like progress from the outside. He also explains where AI can genuinely help patients and where it falls short. Hear the exact questions he says every patient with multiple doctors should be asking. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A resident read a student's personal statement and asked why she didn't just use ChatGPT. The comment landed like a wound. In this episode, certified coach and professor Kathleen Muldoon returns to unpack what a residency personal statement is actually for, and why an algorithm can't do it for you. This episode is based on her article "Why ChatGPT can't write your residency personal statement," published on KevinMD. You will hear why the product was never the essay but the self-knowledge that comes from writing it, how AI tends to average out the distinctive voice and sharp edges that make an applicant feel human, and where a tool like ChatGPT can still help without taking over the whole process. She also weighs whether AI detection tools unfairly flag applicants whose first language isn't English. Hear why she says the real question was never whether AI wrote it, but whether the person still comes through. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

At one university, the share of students receiving disability accommodations rose sevenfold in a decade. Is that progress? In this episode, health care educator and patient advocate Richard A. Lawhern argues that psychiatric overdiagnosis is handicapping the very students it aims to help, and that the research underneath much of modern psychiatry may not hold up. This episode is based on his article "Why psychiatric overdiagnosis fails the students who suffer," published on KevinMD. You will hear why he says a rise in student diagnoses reflects misallocated help rather than real need, how the replication crisis has undercut studies that shaped the field, and why critics like Allen Frances have questioned the expanding reach of the DSM-5. He also lays out where he thinks families harmed by misdiagnosis may have recourse. Hear the case he makes for why the science behind these diagnoses may not hold up, and what he thinks families can do about it. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

After 20 years as a pediatrician, she stopped believing burnout meant she couldn't hack it. The problem was never her. In this episode, pediatrician and physician career development coach Gita Balakumar reframes burnout as a systemic burden wrongly blamed on the individual, and offers a different way to think about it. This episode is based on her article "What physicians and dragonflies share in resilience and agility," published on KevinMD. Drawing on the dragonfly, an insect revered across cultures for transformation and resilience, she explains why the demands of medicine ask physicians to keep evolving. You will hear why self-compassion is a foundation and not a luxury, how career coaching helps physicians name what they actually value, and why the idea that doctors just aren't resilient enough is a fallacy. Hear why she says the most resilient people in medicine still deserve compassion, and that seeking support is a strength, not a failure. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

At 2 a.m., a surgeon needed an answer fast and had no one to ask. So he built the tool himself, with no coding background. In this episode, consultant cardiac anesthesiologist Ahmed Elsonbaty explains how a single bleeding-patient case in the operating room pushed him to create bedside clinical decision-support tools now used by more than 10,000 doctors across 150 countries. This episode is based on his article "I built clinical decision-support tools at the bedside," published on KevinMD. You will hear why he deliberately avoided generative AI so the tools give the same traceable answer every time, how he built everything on published, documented sources, and why he insists the tools help the doctor rather than replace anyone. He also walks through submitting his work for peer review at a major journal. Hear how he did it, and the exact steps he says any physician can follow to build their own. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

When his shifts were cut during the pandemic, he took a telemedicine job to pay the bills and ended up loving it. Suneer Chander is an emergency physician who co-wrote the article "Telemedicine as a career, not a side gig," published on KevinMD. He makes the case that telemedicine is the most impactful public health advance to come out of the pandemic, yet most doctors treat it as weekend income instead of the career patients actually need it to be. You will hear why so few physicians work in it full time, what a day of asynchronous care in sexual health, obesity medicine, and psychiatry really looks like, and the red flags that signal a company using your license rather than respecting it. Chander argues the field needs committed clinical leaders, not moonlighters. You will hear which doctors are the best fit, the red flags to watch for, and how Chander says to weigh an offer beyond the paycheck. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

He was sued for a case he barely remembered, and five years later it pushed him out of medicine. It is not just malpractice. Jordan Grumet is an internal medicine physician and the author of The Healthcare Heist: How Physicians and Patients Can Unite to Transform Health Care. In this conversation he traces how third parties like insurers, pharmaceutical companies, private equity, and malpractice lawyers pull money and agency out of the system and leave doctors and patients worse off. You will hear why most malpractice suits are dropped before court yet still drive billions in defensive medicine, how business entities that never took the Hippocratic Oath end up deciding how medicine is practiced, and why doctors and patients are pushed into feeling like opponents when they are actually the only two real stakeholders. Grumet makes the case that shared storytelling can close the gap between them. You will hear how doctors and patients can start taking power back, and the specific steps Grumet says both can take today. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

An eye surgeon who used to see forty patients a day now sees one to three in a morning, and he has no staff. Oren Fass, a board-certified ophthalmologist and cataract surgeon, has been an employed physician, a practice owner, and an owner who sold to private equity, and he now runs a solo micro practice. This episode is based on his article "The hidden variable in the physician burnout debate," published on KevinMD. You will hear how his agents read incoming faxes, start the scheduling, and apply his billing rules, and why he says this was not feasible three years ago. He is direct about why doctors feel stuck, from the six to twelve month timelines on licenses and insurance panels to the second shift of charting that starts at six in the evening. He also argues that ownership and creativity are the two bets worth making now, and that the salaried job may be the riskier one. You will hear where he thinks the model fits, and where it does not. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control. Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience. Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com. VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

She built a thriving practice in Manhattan and appeared all over the media. Then she walked away, and it was never burnout. Samantha Nazareth is a gastroenterologist and the author of the memoir I Left Anyway: The Life I Was Supposed to Want. In this conversation she describes a deliberate triple exit from her practice, her home, and a ten-year relationship, and the six-week sabbatical that became years of travel. You will hear why she did not wait for retirement or a collapse to ask whether medicine could be all of her. She talks candidly about learning to swim as an adult, rebuilding an identity when your career is no longer the center of it, and sitting with the messy, uncertain in-between that most stories skip. If you have ever wondered what happens after the leap, this is the part no one describes. You will hear why the free fall after the leap is the real work, and what it takes to stay a student when the map runs out. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A teacher came in for migraines and weight loss with a stack of leaky gut test results and a diagnosis that never fixed her. Shiv K. Goel is a board-certified internal medicine and functional medicine physician who argues that leaky gut is not a diagnosis but a physiological response, and that the upstream driver is often chronic stress and a dysregulated cortisol rhythm. This episode is based on his article "Why your leaky gut tests aren't fixing your symptoms," published on KevinMD. You will hear why a normal scope and an IBS label can still leave a patient uncured, why no single permeability test is reliable on its own, and why objective results still matter because they drive patient adherence. He explains why he reaches for sleep, stress reduction, and targeted support over a generic supplement stack, and why you should neither dismiss patients with normal labs nor over-order unvalidated panels. Press play to hear why the fix starts with the story behind the symptoms, not the next panel. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A young patient walks in with ordinary back pain and leaves on a path that can quietly weaken the muscle holding the spine together. Francisco M. Torres is an interventional physiatrist who noticed these patients coming back to him sooner, and traced it to radiofrequency ablation denervating the multifidus, the back's most important stabilizer, until the muscle atrophies and fills with fat. This episode is based on his article "Radiofrequency ablation and the young back pain patient," published on KevinMD. You will hear why insurers began steering these patients toward the procedure, why most of the evidence comes from older patients with degeneration rather than people in their twenties, and why he believes the muscle damage should be spelled out in the consent form. He explains why generic core exercises fall short, how facet injections and targeted rehabilitation offer a lower-risk path, and the exact questions to ask before you agree. Press play to hear the questions worth asking before you let anyone burn a nerve in your back. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

For years, doctors told this pediatrician her pain was fibromyalgia and depression. It was quietly starving her aorta. Victoria Rundus is a board-certified pediatrician who spent four years being misdiagnosed before an ER physician finally listened to her abdomen and heard what everyone else had missed. This episode is based on her article "Diagnostic bias almost cost me my life," published on KevinMD. You will hear how a single label can close the door on everything else, both for the physician treating you and for the patient who starts writing off new symptoms as just the old diagnosis. She explains why the physical exam still matters when labs come back normal, why she felt she was not being heard, and why curiosity and humility belong next to medical knowledge, not beneath it. We usually see horses, but the zebras are real. Press play to hear how a diagnosis can close a door that should stay open, and what it takes to keep looking. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A tech founder used one pediatrician's public advice to train her own AI. Sonal Patel decided doctors should own the tools built on their knowledge instead. Patel is a pediatrician and neonatologist who built and controls her own AI for the fourth trimester. This episode is based on her article "Physicians must shape AI in medicine, not watch it," published on KevinMD. You will hear why she believes the doctor who uses AI, not AI itself, is the real threat to the one who ignores it. She explains how insurers already use AI to deny claims, and how she keeps patients from being sold products they do not need. You will learn why a paid subscription model matters before you experiment, why physician critical thinking cannot be automated away, and why the human connection at the center of medicine is the one thing a machine can never replace. Press play to hear why the doctor who ignores AI is more at risk than the one who uses it, and where to start. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Your doctor may help you live longer, but has likely never asked if intimacy still matters to you. In this episode, Michael Reed, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, certified menopause practitioner, and fellowship-trained cosmetic gynecologic surgeon, explains why so many women are never given the chance to raise sexual health concerns with their physician. You will hear why medicine taught women that these topics are off limits, why doctors trained to fix what is broken often miss what a patient actually wants, and the plain-language questions any clinician can start asking. You will also hear the small, concrete steps Reed recommends, from handing a patient a mirror to understand her own anatomy, to prescribing vaginal estradiol for dryness and recurrent infections, to knowing when to refer. This episode is based on his article "The exam question OB/GYNs were never taught to ask," published on KevinMD. Press play to hear the one question physicians were never taught to ask, and the simple changes that can help women live well, not just longer. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Your blood pressure is fine. Your cholesterol looks great. So why do you still feel exhausted, wired, and unwell? Internal medicine and functional medicine physician Shiv K. Goel returns to explain what standard lab panels miss when chronic stress quietly reshapes the body. This episode is based on his article "Normal labs miss what most patients are living through," published on KevinMD. You will hear how sustained stress ripples through your hormones, gut, and immune system, and why a patient can be genuinely sick while every routine result comes back normal. Shiv walks through the targeted tests he uses, from salivary cortisol to the Dutch test, and is candid that not all of it is covered by insurance or backed by the usual evidence. He also makes the case for listening longer and treating the root cause, with real ways to do it inside a packed schedule. You will come away with practical ways to hear more in a short visit and follow the clues standard labs leave behind. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A medical student offered a professor $1,000 to write their residency essay, and the reason why was not laziness. In this episode, Kathleen Muldoon, a certified coach and medical education professor, shares what she learned when she sat that student down for an honest conversation. You will hear why so many students freeze on the personal statement, why the fear is less about writing and more about who they think they are allowed to be on the page, and how this connects to a kind of burnout that looks less like exhaustion and more like identity erosion. You will also hear why AI cannot solve this, since it blends every applicant into the same voice, and what Muldoon does instead to help students find their own story. This episode is based on her article "The residency personal statement is an identity problem," published on KevinMD. Press play to hear why the essay that decides so many residency spots is really a question about identity, and what students can do about it. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A 30-year-old soldier can have the knees of a 60-year-old. Not from one bad injury, but from carrying a load every single day for years. Family medicine and sports medicine physician Ann Lebeck returns to explain why she came to see soldiers as tactical athletes, and what that means for their bodies. This episode is based on her article "Military sports medicine and the cost of readiness," published on KevinMD. You will hear why young recruits who never played sports kept saying the Army broke them, how early joint damage shows up predictably with years of service, and why a soldier is a year-round athlete for two decades, not a four-year career. Ann shares the program she built that taught running mechanics, strengthening, and even the right shoes, and the results after 1,200 soldiers came through. You will come away seeing soldiers, and every physically demanding job, through the eyes of the doctor who learned to treat the body that carries the load. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Your patients are asking ChatGPT what's wrong with them before they call your office, and getting an answer in seconds. In this episode, Tod Stillson, a board-certified family physician, medical device inventor, and health care entrepreneur, explains how AI chatbots became the new waiting room, and what that means for the doctor who used to be the first call. You will hear why patients turn to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini instead of waiting days for a reply, how AI companies are racing to own the front door of a system that is 20 percent of the economy, and why staying passive hands that ground away. Stillson makes the case that physicians can shape how these tools are governed, through medical advisory roles and digital health committees, so the guidance patients get is accurate. This episode is based on his article "AI chatbots and patient safety need physician design," published on KevinMD. Press play to hear why you are becoming the second opinion, and what you can actually do to stay in the patient journey. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A patient asked for her knee surgery by its brand name. She used the term perfectly. She just had no idea what it actually meant. Orthopedic surgeon Cory Calendine, who does nearly 700 to 800 hip and knee replacements a year, returns to unpack how marketing is quietly reshaping what patients ask for in the exam room. This episode is based on his article "Knee replacement marketing undermines informed consent," published on KevinMD. You will hear why trademarked procedure names now get searched more than the implant companies that make the hardware, how many carry no published data of their own, and why false expectations can genuinely slow recovery. Cory shares how he guides patients who arrive with a name and a wish list, meeting them where they are instead of talking them out of it. You will come away knowing how to separate an honest surgical claim from a marketing one, and the exact questions to ask before you agree to anything. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Two families raise their kids in completely different ways. Both are doing it right. So why do clinicians so often assume one of them is doing something wrong? Najat Fadlalla, a developmental behavioral pediatric fellow, returns to unpack how cultural bias creeps into parent coaching, the first-line, evidence-based approach for children with or at risk of ADHD. This episode is based on her article "How cultural competence transforms modern parent coaching," published on KevinMD. You will hear why so much parenting research draws from a narrow slice of the world, how the same strict parenting can carry very different outcomes depending on the culture around it, and a real clinic exchange where honoring a mother's values worked better than correcting them. You will learn to pause on your first reaction, ask better questions, and honor a family's values while still giving evidence-based advice. You will come away with a practical way to spot your own blind spots and coach families across cultures without pathologizing what is simply different. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A doctor spoke up about problems in his residency, and months later he was walked out in front of his patients. In this episode, Vasilii Khammad, a physician and researcher who came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar, shares what happened after he and fellow residents raised concerns about their training program. You will hear how the feedback against him was anonymous and never documented, how he was pushed toward a psychiatric evaluation he never asked for, and how he was removed with no chance to respond. You will also hear why no lawyer would take his case, and why residents on visas are left almost entirely on their own when a program turns against them. Khammad explains what he wants other international medical graduates to know about their rights. This episode is based on his article "International medical graduates need real protections," published on KevinMD. Press play to hear why the doctors we recruit to train here have so little protection, and what he says you should do about it. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

A nurse survived a violent assault at work, then watched her hospital treat her like a liability, not a victim. In this episode, June Garen, a retired psychiatric and operating room nurse and author, and Carleigh Beriont, a former union organizer who teaches U.S. history and public policy, explain why violence against nurses and doctors gets treated as part of the job. You will hear what actually happens to a health care worker after an assault, why so many facilities do not even track these incidents, and how understaffing and private equity ownership make hospitals more dangerous. This episode is based on their article "Violence against health care workers: the silence must end," published on KevinMD. Beriont lays out the bipartisan legislation and the safe staffing and unionization fights that could change it, and June makes the case for why workers on the front lines have to start speaking up. Press play to understand why the people who take care of us are not safe at work, and what has to change. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

What if burnout is the wrong word for what doctors are actually going through? Gus W. Krucke argues that calling physicians burned out treats a systemic failure as a personal one, and that physicians are not failing, they are grieving a profession that has changed around them. Using a malpractice case over a reversal drug, he shows how doctors are judged in retrospect for decisions made under pressure in the moment, and how that fear drives a culture of self-protection. He draws a sharp line between resilience, which he says blames the physician, and fortitude, the quality he believes every doctor who finished training already has. Krucke is a board-certified internal medicine and emergency medicine physician and a certified hospice medical director. This episode is based on his article "Physician burnout is not the whole diagnosis," published on KevinMD. Press play to hear why protecting your judgment, your presence, and your fortitude matters more than any metric, and why burnout was never the whole diagnosis. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

When a family finds a loved one with a severe bedsore in a nursing home, they often sue. But these cases are rarely decided by the wound itself. They are decided by what the medical record shows. Tracy Liberatore is an attorney and former physician assistant who does expert witness work on these claims, and she explains why a four-step test, not the size of the ulcer, determines whether it is ruled avoidable or unavoidable, and why age and other health problems do not by themselves let a facility off the hook. This episode is based on her article "Unavoidable pressure ulcer claims live and die by the record," published on KevinMD. You will hear how short staffing leads to missed documentation, how a 2023 Supreme Court decision opened a new path for lawsuits against publicly owned nursing homes, and what to record to protect patients and yourself. Press play to hear why the chart, not the wound, decides these cases, and what every nursing home clinician should be documenting. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

If you have acne, irregular periods, and trouble with your weight, the cause may not be three separate problems. It may be one condition affecting your whole body. PCOS, long called polycystic ovary syndrome, was recently proposed for renaming to reflect its hormonal and metabolic roots, and Oluyemisi "Yemi" Famuyiwa explains why the old name sent patients to separate specialists who each treated one symptom and missed the whole picture. Famuyiwa is a double board-certified reproductive endocrinologist, infertility specialist, and obstetrician-gynecologist, and the founder and medical director of Montgomery Fertility Center. This episode is based on her article "Polycystic ovary syndrome is more than ovarian," published on KevinMD. You will hear why the condition affects one in eight women yet is missed most of the time, why the string of pearls on an ultrasound is not what it seems, and what primary care clinicians should watch for. Press play to hear what your scattered symptoms may be pointing to, and why getting the diagnosis right early is what leads to the right treatment. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

You keep getting sinus infections, so you keep getting antibiotics. What if the antibiotics are part of the problem? Franklyn R. Gergits is a board-certified otolaryngologist and fellowship-trained otolaryngic allergist with about 30 years in practice. This episode is based on his article "Recurrent sinus infections leave damage beyond your sinuses," published on KevinMD. He explains why 2025 guidelines shifted from reaching for antibiotics to treating inflammation, and how repeated courses can wipe out your good bacteria, let resistant bugs and biofilms take hold, and leave you feeling reinfected when the real issue is inflammation. You will hear how this can progress to stubborn fungal infections, why he tests with a scope and lab analysis instead of guessing, and what he reaches for first, from high-volume sinus rinses to steroid sprays. He also shares what he wishes primary care physicians would do before writing the next prescription. Press play to learn how to tell a true infection from chronic inflammation, and what to reach for before the next antibiotic. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

The pharma rep with the free lunch is gone. What replaced it is harder to see, and aimed at you and your doctor. Martha Rosenberg is an investigative reporter who has worked at two medical schools and two medical ad agencies, seeing drug marketing from the inside. This episode is based on her article "3 new pharma marketing tactics every physician should know," published on KevinMD. Reporting from a pharma conference, Martha breaks down three tactics drug makers no longer hide. You will hear how AI apps track where a prescriber sits on the "prescription journey," how disease mongering and TikTok influencers turn everyday worries into conditions worth medicating, and how the industry is shifting from "ask your doctor" ads to pop-up and online practices that sell straight to patients and sidestep the FDA. She also flags a Maryland bill that would force disclosure of pharma funding behind patient advocacy groups. Press play to learn how to spot the marketing dressed up as medicine, and why your skepticism is the best defense you have. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

What happens when you ask ChatGPT to study every conversation you have had and tell you who you really are? One medical student did that, and what it told him changed how he sees his future in medicine. Jack Tiller is a medical student in an MD-PhD program, with doctoral work in neuroscience and neurodegeneration. This episode is based on his article "The reluctant achiever: Navigating identity in medical training," published on KevinMD. You will hear why the AI labeled him a reluctant achiever, and how a single line about having many possible lives but only one timeline stopped him cold. Jack explains how board-exam burnout, perfectionism, and an identity built on achievement all came into focus. He talks about exploring careers beyond clinical medicine, from science writing to policy, and about using AI alongside therapy to understand his own thinking. Press play to hear how AI helped one medical student see himself more clearly, and why he is giving himself permission to imagine a life beyond the path he was told to follow. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Your kidney test comes back normal after surgery, so you must have recovered. Except the damage can be hiding in plain sight. John Erbey is an epidemiologist by training and the founder and CEO of Roivios, where he works at the intersection of science and business. This episode is based on his article "When normal creatinine hides post-operative kidney injury," published on KevinMD. He explains why kidney function is dynamic, like the heart, and why the reserve you lose during surgery rarely returns even when creatinine looks fine. You will hear what a JAMA Network Open study found about elevated death and complication risk in the years after a "normal" recovery, why readmissions blamed on heart failure or infection may trace back to the kidney, and why John makes the case for protecting the kidney during the riskiest windows, from cardiac surgery to sepsis, instead of trusting the discharge number. Press play to learn why a normal kidney result can mislead you, and how to protect the kidney before the damage is locked in. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

You feel guilty for calling in sick, taking earned vacation, or setting a boundary at work. What if that guilt was never really yours? Christie Mulholland is a palliative care physician and certified physician development coach. This episode is based on her article "Why your physician guilt may not actually be yours," published on KevinMD. She unpacks what psychoanalyst Laurence Blum called hidden guilt, the kind that often begins in childhood and turns capable kids into compulsive achievers who feel wrong for resting. You will hear how administrators and insurance companies can step into the role an authority figure once held, and why that quietly fuels burnout. Christie also shares how she helps physicians question where the guilt comes from, and the small first steps, from using all your PTO to weighing a part-time role or sabbatical. Press play to learn how to tell whether your guilt is real or inherited, and what to do the next time it shows up. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

When your hospital decides how to use AI, will you be in the room or will you be handed whatever someone else picked? Physicians have done this before, letting insurance and then EMRs reshape medicine before they reacted, and AI is the next force they cannot afford to ignore. Augusta Uwah is a hospitalist, physician advisor, and founder and CEO of ClinEfficiency Pro, where she builds AI tools for hospitals and revenue cycle management. This episode is based on her article "Why physician-led AI adoption is essential for health care," published on KevinMD. You will hear why doctors who stay out risk becoming vulnerable to vendors and sidelined in their own field. You will hear the real difference between casually using ChatGPT and using AI responsibly. And you will hear where to start, from securing your ChatGPT to evaluating vendors, and why being in the room is the difference between leading AI and being handed it. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

When a doctor shows real kindness, does it change how a patient heals? For Randy McNeely, the answer arrived the day his wife was diagnosed with cancer, and the calm, caring doctors who treated her became part of her recovery. Randy McNeely is a motivational speaker known as Captain Kindman, joined by physician advocate and physical therapist Kim Downey, who has survived cancer three times herself. This episode is based on their article "Compassionate health care transforms the patient journey," published on KevinMD. You will hear why a doctor's presence and reassurance can matter as much as the treatment itself. You will hear where AI helps, like a scribe that frees a doctor to spend more time with you, and what no tool can replace. And you will hear Randy's challenge to clinicians to build a kind relationship with themselves first. Press play to hear why the people who cared for them mattered as much as the treatment, and what every clinician can do to bring that kindness back to the bedside. Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story. PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast