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Explore every episode of the podcast The Podcast by KevinMD

Dive into the complete episode list for The Podcast by KevinMD. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.

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TitlePub. DateDuration
Self-care isn't self-indulgence, and burnout isn't only a personal problem27 Oct 202600:16:31

Doctors and nurses are trained to take excellent care of other people's health, and often don't look after their own. Close to half the health care workforce has burnout, and it shows in rounded shoulders, lower back problems, and little time to process a patient's death. Internal medicine and critical care physician Narinder Singh Parhar discusses his KevinMD article "The health care workforce crisis we keep ignoring." With nearly four decades in hospital and ICU medicine, he explains why clinicians treat self-care as self-indulgence and what feeds burnout, from training culture to productivity demands. You'll hear what you can do yourself, from exercise that strengthens your back and hips to regular meals and sleep. He makes the case for asking for protected meal time, seeking mental health support, and banding together with colleagues. Health systems have their part too: appropriate staffing, less unnecessary documentation, AI tools that save physician time, and healthy leadership role models. Stay for the whole plan, from what you can change yourself to what your health system has to do.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With more than 100 million impressions a year and nearly 750,000 followers, subscribers and email recipients across my channels, 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

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Why malpractice lawsuits are rarer but more expensive than ever26 Oct 202600:22:17

Doctors are sued far less often than they were 25 years ago, but the average malpractice payout has never been higher. Robert E. White, Jr., president of The Doctors Company, has spent 58 years in malpractice insurance. This episode is based on his article "Why medical malpractice claims cost more than ever," published on KevinMD. You'll hear why he thinks tort reform and a patient safety push that began in 1999 drove lawsuits down. He explains how nuclear verdicts of $10 million or more raise the average settlement, even though they get settled for less. You'll also learn why insurers now pay on more of the claims that are filed, keeping pressure on premiums. He warns that obstetricians and other high-risk specialists may drop parts of their practice if premiums climb, leaving patients without care. He asks physicians to answer the call when organized medicine pushes for reform. Hear what patients say when asked why they sued, and why more time with them could head off many cases.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With more than 100 million impressions a year and nearly 750,000 followers, subscribers and email recipients across my channels, 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

Active sitting: Why ergonomic chairs and standing desks fail25 Oct 202600:17:47

The office chairs most of us sit in all day have little science behind them, and the popular fixes may not be much better. Turner Osler is a trauma surgeon and epidemiologist. This episode is based on his article "How the benefits of active sitting change desk work," published on KevinMD. You will hear why life table analyses suggest the people who sit the most lose about two years of life, where the 90-90-90 posture came from, and why lumbar support has largely failed. You will hear what goes wrong with kneeling chairs and yoga balls, and why he says standing desks are even worse, citing a 2018 Ontario study of 6,300 people followed for 12 years in which heart disease was doubled in the group that stood. You will also learn how active sitting builds movement into the workday by changing the environment rather than relying on willpower, and what a moving surface could do for people who use a standing desk. Press play for why you do not have to accept the chair you are sitting in.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With more than 100 million impressions a year and nearly 750,000 followers, subscribers and email recipients across my channels, 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

Fired for seeing her own patients: moral injury and life after medicine24 Oct 202600:17:44

A physician was fired by the doctors she had trained, in part because she preferred to see her own patients herself. Moral injury, she argues, does not require 100-hour weeks. Sarah A. Vlach is a physiatrist and sports medicine physician. This episode is based on her article "Moral injury doesn't care how many hours you worked," published on KevinMD. You will hear how her working conditions slowly deteriorated, including nine months without a medical assistant, and why her first response was to knuckle down and work harder. She describes how financial incentives like RVUs now shape decisions in both corporate and private practice, and why she sees a two-track system forming as more clinicians move to cash-based care. She offers advice for new physicians starting out with large loans, and she explains how the Physician Support Line and writing about the experience helped her. Press play to hear what she wishes she had done sooner, and why she has found there is life after being a physician.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. With more than 100 million impressions a year and nearly 750,000 followers, subscribers and email recipients across my channels, 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

Disability claim denied? Your chart notes may be why.23 Oct 202600:24:21

The words you put in a patient's chart can be used to deny their disability claim. A note that says "stable" or "improved" can mean one thing to you and another to the insurer. Jennifer Hess, an ERISA disability attorney and Riemer Hess partner, represents physicians and other professionals in long-term disability claims. This episode is based on her article "Why your patient's disability claim was denied," published on KevinMD. You'll hear why a fixed return-to-work date on a disability form can get benefits cut off, and what to write instead. You'll also learn how to add context to notes about improvement, pain, or depression, and why a short narrative letter can go a long way. Jennifer explains why you can ask insurers to put their questions in writing instead of answering on a surprise call. She also makes the case for checking your own disability policy, since you could one day be on the other side of the table. Hear what to write, what to leave out, and what to read before you sign.

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

Doctors lose hours to admin work that AI or an assistant could do22 Oct 202600:18:37

Many doctors who run their own practices spend hours on work someone else could do. One practice owner who charges $300 an hour was his own receptionist, verifying insurance all night and stepping away from a family dinner to take a patient's call. Central AI and Wing Assistant CEO Karan Kanwar discusses his KevinMD article "The physician opportunity cost nobody puts on a bill." He argues that this time, along with the revenue lost when calls go unanswered, never shows up on a profit and loss statement. You'll hear why practices hesitate, from reluctance to let go of tasks to worries about HIPAA compliance and connecting to the EHR. He walks through the easiest places to start, including phone calls, payer calls, billing and test result questions, and non-clinical questions about medical equipment. He also shares how to judge whether an AI vendor will still be around. Stay for a simple exercise: look at everything you do in a day and decide what you can give away.

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 living will could get you too much care, or too little21 Oct 202600:21:12

When you can't speak for yourself, a living will is supposed to speak for you. Too often, it doesn't. Seventy percent of U.S. adults don't have one, and those who do often keep it in a drawer at home. Emergency physician and MIDEO Health Technologies CEO Ferdinando Mirarchi and attorney Thaddeus Mason Pope discuss their KevinMD article "Why problems with advance directives keep harming patients." You'll learn that 80 percent of physicians equate the mere presence of an advance directive with a do not resuscitate (DNR) order. Mirarchi calls it the lethal glance, a split-second read by a clinician who has never met the patient. The errors go both ways: resuscitating people who never wanted it and failing to resuscitate people who chose full code. They explain how a POLST differs from an advance directive, how professional bias creeps in, and how patient-recorded videos can make your wishes clear in seconds. You'll leave knowing what to set up for yourself and your family now, and why clinicians should stop and ask instead of assuming.

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

Memory loss is not normal aging, and waiting costs the treatment window20 Oct 202600:21:05

Someone tells you their memory is slipping. What you say next can decide whether treatment is still an option for them. Emer MacSweeney is a neuroradiologist and the cofounder and CEO of Re:Cognition Health. This episode is based on her article "Early Alzheimer's diagnosis now decides who gets treated," published on KevinMD. She explains why two licensed treatments work only inside a narrow early window, and why a year spent waiting for an appointment can put a patient past it. You will hear how the three biomarker tests compare, including the blood test that is now widely available, and why she says not to order one unless the patient has symptoms. She also names the early signs she takes seriously: short-term memory trouble, losing words, getting lost in familiar places. If you have ever told someone their memory is just getting older, this conversation explains what that reassurance can cost.

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 diagnosis no one authored can follow your patient from visit to visit19 Oct 202600:16:55

A patient arrives already sure of what is wrong with them. The words they use came from somewhere else. Alan P. Feren is a retired surgeon, health care consultant, and patient advocate. This episode is based on his article "Clinical authorship: the missing principle in medical AI," published on KevinMD. He walks through the three points where artificial intelligence enters a visit: the patient shaping their story beforehand, the clinician leaning on decision support, and the ambient tool interpreting it after. No single step is reckless, he says, and that is the problem, because a diagnosis can travel from encounter to encounter with no one standing behind it. You will hear the questions he asks patients about what fits their experience and what does not, why an ambient note is an interpretation rather than a transcript, and why he puts actual intelligence first. If you sign notes you did not write, this conversation will change what you check first.

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

Not all PTSD is the same, and the difference decides the treatment18 Oct 202600:14:25

Some people process a terrible event over a week or two and move on. Others replay it for years, and their bodies never settle back down. Faust Ruggiero is a clinical psychologist who has treated post-traumatic stress in veterans, first responders, and others for years. This episode is based on his article "Understanding the types of PTSD and how to treat them," published on KevinMD. You will hear how he distinguishes stress that follows a single event from stress built on years of ongoing harm, and why that distinction shapes the treatment plan he writes. He walks through the questions he tells primary care physicians to ask, from flashbacks and interrupted sleep to exaggerated startle, anger, and isolation. He explains when short-term medication is used to bring arousal down far enough for therapy to work. Press play for a plain account of what this condition does to the body and the mind, and why he tells patients it does not have to be permanent.

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

Why the surgical backlog starts with how surgeons are trained17 Oct 202600:22:22

Surgical training still runs on the model it did decades ago. Everything around it has changed. Danny Goel walks you through what that mismatch costs. He is an orthopedic surgeon, and this episode is based on his article "In 2026, the surgical backlog has a training bottleneck," published on KevinMD. You will hear why he counts surgeons themselves as a constraint on capacity, alongside operating rooms, beds, and funding, once residents have shorter hours in the hospital, operating rooms are under pressure to be efficient, and cases move to outpatient centers. He explains why cadaver labs, single-purpose simulators, and industry-funded courses have not closed the gap, and why graduates now add fellowship years on top of residency. He describes the simulation company he co-founded, which puts residents in a virtual operating room where mistakes carry no cost. He also tells patients exactly what to ask a surgeon. Stay to the end for his warning that exposure is not competence.

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SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Heart and brain got the investment; the musculoskeletal system did not16 Oct 202600:14:20

You can learn more from watching a patient walk down the hallway than from the rest of the exam. Most exams happen sitting or lying down. Narinder Singh Parhar is an internal medicine physician and founder of Jeeva Health Systems. This episode is based on his article "Musculoskeletal health may be the foundation of prevention," published on KevinMD. After nearly 40 years in practice, he argues that medicine poured decades of investment into heart and brain prevention while leaving the musculoskeletal system behind. You will hear what a walk down the hallway reveals about cardiopulmonary reserve, fall risk, and confidence, and the two muscle groups he says everyone overlooks. You will also hear his specific activity prescription, including a backward walk that takes under two minutes. Press play for what he wants asked at every visit, and why he thinks patients are watching your health as closely as you watch theirs.

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

Burnout, difficult patients, and the question that changes both15 Oct 202600:20:23

Most patients called difficult have a reason nobody has asked about. Every chart carries labels, and the labels rarely carry the person. Stella Awua-Larbi is a nephrologist who has practiced in the Chicago suburbs for more than 15 years. This episode is based on her article "The person behind the diagnosis every chart hides," published on KevinMD. You will hear how one young patient, labeled noncompliant and difficult, changed the way she reads a chart, and why a patient days out from surgery refused to walk the hallway. You will hear why she treats social history as seriously as the history of present illness, and how asking why usually takes no extra time at all. You will also hear why she separates ordinary fatigue from disliking the work you do. Press play for the two questions she asks when a patient is labeled noncompliant, and what patients say when someone finally asks.

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

AI, standing orders, and the 9 p.m. call medicine still cannot handle14 Oct 202600:20:05

A patient with a urinary tract infection calls at 9 p.m. and gets told to call back in the morning. Frustrated patients default to the emergency room instead. Tod Stillson is a family physician, health care entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of ChatRx. This episode is based on his article "Why medicine is late to asynchronous telehealth," published on KevinMD. You will hear why traditional telemedicine did not close this gap, because it is still appointment-based and still synchronous. You will hear how orchestrated AI agents and standing orders can tee up a low-acuity case so the decision itself takes seconds, why he calls that augmented clinical automation rather than autonomous AI, and what happens when he reviews a prescription the next morning and disagrees with it. You will also hear where he draws the line between this and the marketing funnels that route patients to doctors who rubber-stamp prescriptions. Press play for the case he makes for asynchronous care with a physician still in the loop, and the conditions he says never belong there.

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

Patients on ventilators have things to say, and no way to say them13 Oct 202600:15:05

Only 4 in 10 caregivers say a doctor asked how the patient prefers to communicate. The patients who cannot answer often have the most to report. Chris Ross is a speech-language pathologist and school administrator. This episode is based on her article "Communication access is a patient safety issue," published on KevinMD. She spent 35 years giving nonverbal children a way to be understood, then woke from 12 days on ECMO with a tracheostomy and no way to say anything herself. You will hear what she tried when nobody on the unit knew sign language, what a respiratory therapist tore off a Kleenex box to give her, and why she still wonders whether a communication board would have eased her delirium. You will also hear about the chest tightness she could not report, what her hospital now hangs outside every room, and what she wants clinicians to ask a patient who communicates differently. Press play for what a patient on a ventilator is trying to tell you, and the free tool that lets them.

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

How to be grateful when you are not a grateful person12 Oct 202600:17:51

Gratitude is easy to preach and hard to feel on a bad day. One physician spent a 40-year career learning to practice it on purpose. Scott Abramson is a neurologist and author. This episode is based on his article "A physician's three lessons on gratitude in medicine," published on KevinMD. You will hear the patient in a wheelchair who pointed out that his shoes never wear out, the colleague who still savors every sip of a Coca-Cola because he got one cup a year as a boy in Ghana, and what Paul McCartney's approach to singing Yesterday has to do with explaining the same diagnosis for the thousandth time. You will also hear the tool he calls the positive power of negative thinking, the index card he kept on his office computer, and the sentence his parents' generation repeated about shoes and feet. Press play for three stories that make gratitude feel less like advice and more like something you can practice on your next bad day.

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

Stop calling it burnout: COVID denial and the wounds ER doctors carry11 Oct 202600:19:38

An emergency physician bought a new iPad and found 53 phone numbers he had forgotten were there. Each one was a family he put on a video call to say goodbye before he intubated their loved one. Howie Mell is an emergency physician with a master's degree in public health. This episode is based on his article "COVID trauma in emergency physicians can surface suddenly," published on KevinMD. You will hear why he says he never wanted to be thanked for the work but did not expect to be attacked over it. He explains why he wants the word burnout retired, what he believes physicians are actually carrying, and why he never expected anyone else to say me too. He also describes what happened when he published the piece and his inbox filled with colleagues telling him their own version. He closes with the three things he tells physicians who have been carrying this in silence, starting with what to call 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

Doctors on social media should ask this question first10 Oct 202600:23:42

Your patients can see everything you post. Tali Lando was posting funny videos from her office while two of her young patients lay in the hospital struggling to recover, and it left her torn. She is a pediatric otolaryngologist and airway surgeon. This episode is based on her article "The question doctors on social media should ask first," published on KevinMD. You will hear why she once had to stop posting, what two longtime parents said when she finally asked them directly, and why she calls their answer a selected group rather than a verdict. She explains how a silly video lowers a scared child's fear before an office procedure, how posting pulls her back from burnout, and the three things she tells physicians never to do online. Press play for the question she still has not answered and the limits she sets while she works on 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

Trusting the lab over the patient is the new medical error09 Oct 202600:16:09

The lab says the potassium is critically low. You walk in, and the patient looks completely fine. Duane Penshorn is an emergency physician and author. This episode is based on his article "Automation bias is the new medical error," published on KevinMD. He explains that automation bias got its name from studies of airline pilots, who had seen an alert be correct so many times that they stopped checking whether this one was. You will hear why point-of-care machines never answer "I don't know," and why most errors trace to how the sample was handled rather than to the machine. One clumped platelet count sent a child to the hospital for nothing. He is direct about the fix. If the number does not fit the patient in front of you, order it again, and say so out loud to the radiologist when the scan does not fit either. If you have ever scanned a result for the red flags and moved on, this conversation will make you look twice.

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

Hospice waits on a court order when no family can speak for you08 Oct 202600:17:58

A man is dying. He cannot speak, and no one in his life can say what he would have wanted. Kirsten Engel is a palliative medicine physician, and Medha Tripathi is a health writer and incoming Fulbright research scholar. This episode is based on their article "Guardianship and hospice care fail dying patients," published on KevinMD. They explain what happens when a patient has no family and no health care proxy, and a court appoints a guardian who has never met them. A move to comfort measures then needs a court date that can take weeks, while the hospital works in hours and days. Estimates range from 5 to 25 percent of intensive care patients with no family member or proxy. You will hear what helps now: your state's rules, hospital social workers and ethics committees trained for them, and a proxy named long before anyone needs one. If you have never named one, this conversation explains who decides in your place, and what has to change so the decision comes in time.

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

Signs of depression families miss, and the stigma behind it07 Oct 202600:17:47

Someone you love says they are fine. They still eat, they still go to work, and no one asks a second time. Nneka Oluoha is an internal medicine physician and the author of a novel about a Nigerian immigrant living with depression. This episode is based on her article "The signs of depression a husband almost missed," published on KevinMD. She explains why depression is an illness the entire family carries, and why the people around someone are left with challenges of their own. You will hear why she believes therapy belongs to men and to children, and where the pressure to look strong begins. She found the same stigma in the United States that she grew up around in Nigeria. Her answer is not complicated: more honest conversations, and a willingness to sit and listen when someone cannot say what is wrong. If someone close to you keeps insisting nothing is wrong, this conversation will change what you listen for.

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

Hospitals are replacing bedside ICU doctors with a video screen06 Oct 202600:22:22

A young mother arrived in the intensive care unit sick but improving. Overnight, her care was handed to a telemedicine physician on a video screen. By morning she was beyond saving. Keith Corl is an emergency and critical care medicine physician who has worked in more than 40 community hospitals. This episode is based on his article "Why tele-critical care fails the sickest ICU patients," published on KevinMD. You will hear how remote ICU coverage works in practice, why a physician who beams in arrives without the context that builds at the bedside, and what a split physical exam misses. He walks through the sign-out math behind covering dozens of beds across multiple hospitals. He explains why the 2024 TELESCOPE trial found no reduction in mortality or length of stay, and why the older studies hospitals cite tested adding remote physicians rather than replacing bedside ones. Press play to hear what remote coverage costs the sickest patients, and the standard he says physicians and patients should insist on.

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

Doctors hide their PTSD out of fear for their license05 Oct 202600:19:14

A trauma surgeon spent two decades on call for the worst nights of other people's lives. Then he ran his hospital's pandemic response. Then he could not function. Jeremy Heffner is a trauma surgeon, speaker, and author. This episode is based on his article "Why frontline health care workers get no mental support," published on KevinMD. You will hear how compartmentalizing one case after another works until it does not, and why he was told the system had nothing for him until he was in acute crisis. He describes what he learned about how a board treats a physician who asks for help voluntarily, and the therapy that finally let him talk about a case he had blocked out for years. He explains why untreated trauma often shows up as anger that colleagues read as a character problem. Press play for a direct account of what frontline exposure did to one surgeon, and what he thinks health care owes the people working its front line.

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ICU telemedicine done right is a program, not a doctor on a screen04 Oct 202600:22:21

A patient in intensive care gets worse at 2 a.m., and the hospital has no critical care doctor in the building. Chris Gallagher, a cardiologist and founder of Access TeleCare, has spent 15 years building virtual care programs inside hospitals, and he explains why that gap is so hard to close. This episode is based on his article "Why tele-critical care deserves expansion, not retreat," published on KevinMD. You will hear why the technology can never be allowed to fail, why training doctors to build trust through a screen is its own skill, and how a team-based approach let his group manage cardiac arrests with the doctor not in the hospital. He walks through the hybrid staffing hospitals are using now, with nurse practitioners at the bedside and physicians on video, and answers the charge that telemedicine is a cost-cutting move. He is also direct about the limits of the current evidence. Press play to hear what separates virtual critical care done right from done wrong.

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.

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Why women doctors leave in their forties and what keeps them03 Oct 202600:19:12

Women physicians are walking away from practice in their forties, and not because they stopped loving the work. Dawn Sears is a gastroenterologist of 25 years and the founder of GutGirlMD Consulting, where she coaches physicians and runs Women in Medicine groups. This episode is based on her article "10 ways to keep women physicians from leaving," published on KevinMD. You will hear why the job asks women to carry patient care, child rearing, and elder care at the same time, how the patient portal routes them 25 percent more messages than male physicians in the same practice, and what has genuinely improved over the last decade. Dawn walks through fixes she has watched work, from half call and half weekends for the first six months after a baby to a handful of extra days off for screenings and staff support to triage the inbox. She also shows you how to ask, using a hostage negotiator's playbook and the reframe that brings a skeptical colleague back to the table.

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.

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Loneliness, not weakness, is driving women out of medicine02 Oct 202600:18:51

Medical training hands you a ready-made group of friends. Then it ends, and many women physicians find themselves starting over alone in a new city. Cassie Burton Greenbaum is a pediatric critical care physician and the founder of Off Service Mom Co., a friendship matchmaking service for physician moms. This episode is based on her article "Physician loneliness is driving women out of medicine," published on KevinMD. You will hear why friendships get harder to build once you are the attending, and how a schedule with no pattern to it pulls you away from everyone who works ordinary hours. She explains how chronic loneliness turns into burnout and lost career satisfaction, and how the shame around the word lonely keeps physicians from ever saying it out loud. She describes the six-week pilot she ran with 20 physician moms and what made the matches work. Press play for the specific moves she recommends, starting with the reason that waiting until you feel less busy never works.

This episode is brought to you by ModMed.

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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.

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Diagnosing the data: Applying clinical rigor to AI adoption01 Oct 202600:30:39

Fear of AI is not the problem. Refusing to test it is. Eric Jennings, a board-certified, fellowship-trained ophthalmologist and the senior medical director of ophthalmology at ModMed, argues that hesitancy about AI is a protective clinical instinct, and that the right response is the one physicians are already trained to use: appraise it the way you would appraise a new drug or a new procedure. You will hear the line he draws between cautious skepticism, which asks to see the validation data, and paralysis, which demands a guarantee no technology can give. Eric explains how to read a vendor's training set the way you would read the N on a clinical trial, using the pneumonia algorithm that scored about 93 percent in the lab and then failed in clinic because it had learned to recognize portable X-ray machines rather than pneumonia. He lays out the guardrails to put in place on week one of a pilot, the human and technical signs that a practice moved too fast, and why the administrative side of the office, not the chart, is the safest place to start. This episode is brought to you by ModMed. Find out more at modmed.com. Press play to hear why he believes AI will arrive as an integrated ecosystem rather than one more bolted-on tool, and why the doctors who use it will replace the doctors who refuse it.

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Why more medicine isn't making us healthier30 Sep 202600:15:17

America spends nearly a fifth of its economy on health care, yet chronic disease keeps rising and prevention lags. Narinder Singh Parhar, an internist and intensivist with four decades of experience across outpatient, hospital, and ICU care, argues that American medicine has grown top-heavy, brilliant at acute rescue but neglectful of the everyday habits that keep people well. This episode is based on his article "Why scientific medicine alone is not making us healthier," published on KevinMD. You will hear why splitting the body into specialties can lose sight of the whole person, how a few minutes a day of simple exercise may reduce falls and even ease sleep apnea, and why cutting back on unnecessary medications matters as you age. You will also hear his case for paying and respecting primary care physicians more and letting nurses and therapists help patients build lasting habits. Press play to hear which small, repeatable habits he believes do the most to keep you healthy.

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.

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Amazon and Uber set the bar that primary care is judged against29 Sep 202600:20:08

A car shows up when you click a button and groceries arrive by tonight, but a doctor's appointment takes weeks. Payam Zamani started MY DR NOW while he was still a resident, in a clinic of twelve hundred square feet, and now runs more than eighty of them as founder and chief executive officer. This episode is based on his article "Primary care access is the real problem, not the system," published on KevinMD. You will hear why he says the eight to five scheduled visit exists for the clinic's predictability, not the patient's life, and what changed when his clinics began taking walk-ins every day. He explains how prior authorizations, refills and paperwork were pulled out of the exam room and centralized, and why that made recruiting easier once providers moved to three longer days. He also says the systems copying his extended hours still fail, because the culture was never behind it. You will hear who he counts as his real competition, and why he says the answer is not always more technology.

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.

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Why patients stop trusting doctors who listened to them28 Sep 202600:17:59

A patient says her hip has hurt for a while. Whether she leaves trusting her doctor depends on what happens next. Alan P. Feren, a retired surgeon, health care consultant, and patient advocate, separates active listening, which makes a patient feel heard, from careful listening, which changes the reasoning. This episode is based on his article "Trust in medicine is restored by method, not empathy," published on KevinMD. He says the history alone gets you about seventy-five percent of the diagnosis, and that the step squeezed out of a fifteen-minute visit is the one deciding whether a plan is usable. He talks about patients called non-adherent who cannot afford the medication, cannot reach the appointment, or are working two jobs. He also explains what happens when a patient arrives with a story already shaped by an AI tool, and why the clinician has to stay its author. You will hear the three things he tells busy physicians to establish first, and the questions he tells patients to ask when the answers never come.

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.

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Some relationships work like medicine. Others work like a diagnosis.27 Sep 202600:25:13

A patient came in with weight gain nobody could explain. Every test came back fine. Shiv K. Goel is a board-certified internal medicine and functional medicine physician. This episode is based on his article "How relationships affect health, seen from the exam room," published on KevinMD. He treats the people in a patient's life as part of the same picture as sleep, alcohol, and diet. A difficult supervisor and plain loneliness count as stress the way a marriage does. He is careful to say that a hard relationship does not cause disease. It changes the load the body is carrying, and that load shows up physically. You will hear what he rules out first: thyroid disease, anemia, diabetes, and sleep apnea. You will also hear what a flat cortisol curve tells him about long-running stress, and the questions he asks when nothing turns up. He is not a marriage counselor, and that referral belongs to someone else. He closes with two questions, one for physicians and one for everyone else.

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/

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Food allergies are treated differently, airline by airline26 Sep 202600:22:25

A doctor cracked open an airplane emergency kit and found a sticker saying there was no epinephrine inside. Lianne Mandelbaum, president of No Nut Traveler and airline correspondent for Allergic Living, has spent a decade collecting accounts like it. This episode is based on her article "Epinephrine on airplanes should not depend on the airline," published on KevinMD. You will hear what a proposed federal rule would change, replacing the required medication list with a flexible one and stripping the exemption paperwork that was the only record of which airlines carried nothing. She explains why antihistamines do not belong under an anaphylaxis heading, why one auto-injector is not enough when two passengers react to the same meal, and why nobody knows how often it happens. You will also hear how a food label can look complete, satisfy federal rules, and still omit the allergen. Press play to hear what she is asking people to send the agency before the comment window closes, and the eight cents per at-risk passenger she says the fix would cost.

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/

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Staying salaried may now be the riskier bet for doctors25 Sep 202600:21:10

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/

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Doctors' kids miss them, and the family builds its own fixes24 Sep 202600:19:10

A surgeon's kids FaceTime him from their iPads while he is in the operating room, and he cannot pick up. Alyssa Kressel, a strategic communications professional, has spent more than fifteen years alongside her husband's surgical training. This episode is based on her article "What the children of physicians carry," published on KevinMD. You will hear why the usual advice about adjusting hours does not fit a transplant schedule, and why she puts the weight on the time he is home. She talks about the doctors' wives and surgeons' wives groups that offered solidarity when nobody had a fix, about the resentment she is still working through, and about the bracelets she braided from old scrubs that grew into a stuffed animal with a pocket for notes. She also says what she wishes his residency had offered the people waiting at home. If you are in a health care family, or you train the people in one, this conversation names what the kids carry and what one family built to help them hold 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/

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Why exhaustion can make you see things that aren't there23 Sep 202600:13:09

You drive home after a long shift and see someone standing at the roadside. It turns out to be a sign. Chinelle Miller had that happen more than once, and her first thought was that something was wrong with her. She is a physician and multidisciplinary artist. This episode is based on her article "Why seeing things doesn't mean you're losing your mind," published on KevinMD. You will hear what she found when she looked into it, and how the same experience shows up for other people she talked to. She describes what she was told when she raised it with her own therapist, why the same thing can show up with grief, and how she caught herself trying to pathologize her own experience. She explains why she thinks diagnostic terms have become buzzwords, the questions she tells people to ask themselves, and when the answer is to stop researching and ask someone. Stay to the end for her case that the expert, not the internet, is who gets to say it's normal.

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/

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Making AI work for physicians22 Sep 202600:26:29

Doctors have heard promises about health technology for decades. Now artificial intelligence has to deliver something better than what health care already has. Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager of Oracle Health and Life Sciences and former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, explains where health systems stand with AI today. You will hear why ambient listening became the proof point physicians did not want taken away, and why bolt-on AI tools on older electronic health records could create more burden. Seema lays out the questions to ask before you trust an AI tool, including how it was trained, how it explains its recommendations, and whether a human stays in the loop. She also explains how AI could make value-based care work and which metrics show whether it is paying off. This episode is sponsored by Oracle Health. Find out more at oracle.com/health. Press play to hear where she hopes AI will raise the quality of care and cut administrative cost, and why it only works with the right data.

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Why business pressure and threats ended a career she loved21 Sep 202600:14:38

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/

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Retirement isn't the end of medicine, it's a second act20 Sep 202600:19:14

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/

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Blaming the doctor is cheaper than fixing the record system19 Sep 202600:14:38

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/

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Why acne, chin hair, and irregular cycles are more than an ovary problem18 Sep 202600:16:04

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

Insurance companies are being sued over directories that aren't real17 Sep 202600:19:39

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

Burnout isn't only about autonomy, it's about your bank account16 Sep 202600:19:13

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

Genetic test results, social media advice, and an irreversible choice15 Sep 202600:25:18

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/

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A cure for aggressive lymphoma exists, and most patients never get it14 Sep 202600:21:11

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/

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Doctors were told to be blind to the cost of care13 Sep 202600:14:48

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

Hurricane season is a fifth season, and medicine has to plan for it12 Sep 202600:22:01

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

Antibiotics for sinusitis without a real diagnosis11 Sep 202600:17:46

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.

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Your AI judges patients by how they write, not their symptoms10 Sep 202600:14:39

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 isn't a loss, it's a translation problem09 Sep 202600:20:04

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

Why value-based care hasn't lowered your medical bills08 Sep 202600:19:20

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

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