The Podcast by KevinMD

Premedical student Samah Khan discusses her article "The crisis of physician shortages globally." Samah draws a powerful parallel between the medical exodus in Pakistan and the doctor deserts of California's Central Valley, revealing how structural neglect drives providers away from the communities that need them most. She explores the root causes of this brain drain, from low wages to limited residency spots, and argues that healt...

We have a special sponsored episode from MagMutual. We welcome William Kanich. He's an emergency physician and currently the executive chairperson of MagMutual Insurance Company. We explore how physicians can navigate unexpected medical outcomes while preserving trust with their patients. Through Dr. Kanich's clinical and leadership experience, the conversation examines common challenges, practical approaches, and the role of struc...

Health care executive Jason Griffin discusses his article "The digital divide in rural health care." Jason explains how rural providers in the U.S. face critical infrastructure failures and staffing shortages that threaten their ability to serve communities. He explores why standard one-size-fits-all technological solutions often fail these hospitals and advocates for a collaborative model that prioritizes long-term strategic partn...

Physician executive Christina Johns discusses her article "Modernizing health care with AI and workflow." Christina explains how clinicians in the U.S. are facing unprecedented burnout due to administrative burdens that detract from patient care. She explores how artificial intelligence can serve as a supportive tool rather than a replacement by streamlining documentation and coding tasks to allow for more meaningful doctor-patient...

Emergency physician Kenneth Ro discusses his article "Why midlife men feel unanchored and exhausted." Kenneth explains why men between 40 and 60 often visit clinics requesting hormone testing when they are actually suffering from a profound loss of identity and purpose. He distinguishes being unanchored from clinical depression and highlights how successful professionals like executives and veterans often face a silent crisis that ...

Board-certified pediatrician and certified coach Jessie Mahoney discusses her article "The burden of the eldest daughter." Jessie explores the unique psychological weight carried by firstborn women who are taught early on to hold everything together at the cost of their own well-being. She connects this childhood role to the high rates of burnout among women in health care where hyper-preparedness and self-sacrifice are rewarded un...

Internal medicine and pulmonary physician Bharat Desai discusses his article "How Acthar Gel became a $250,000 drug." Bharat shares the shocking moment he realized an obsolete pituitary extract from 1952 was being sold for the price of a house. He explains how pharmaceutical companies exploited regulatory loopholes to reclassify a cheap animal derivative as a specialty biologic and effectively monopolize the market despite the exis...

Certified coach and professor Kathleen Muldoon and co-founder of Ryan House and Children's Respite Homes of America Jonathan Cottor discuss the article "The need for pediatric respite care." Kathleen shares the personal story of raising her son Gideon who lives with over 42 medical diagnoses and explain why the family had to move across the country to find safety. They highlight the critical difference between taking a break and su...

Orthopedic surgeon Kevin J. Campbell discusses his article "Health care is having its Yahoo moment." Kevin explains how the current medical system is stuck in an obsolete pipeline model similar to early internet directories where human gatekeepers create dangerous delays in communication. He introduces the concept of delayed relevance where patient questions about fever or swelling lose value if answered days later and advocates fo...

Psychotherapist and patient advocate Sara Rands discusses her article "Early-onset breast cancer: a survivor's story." Sara shares her harrowing journey of finding a lump at age 32 despite having no family history and receiving a stage 3C diagnosis. She highlights the terrifying reality that mammograms often miss tumors in dense tissue and challenges the medical community to address why young women are frequently dismissed or misdi...

CEO, president, and founder of the Clinician Burnout Foundation Jodie Green and physician advocate and physical therapist Kim Downey discuss their article "Why wellness programs fail health care." Jodie and Kim explain why traditional wellness initiatives often add to the burden rather than relieving it for exhausted medical professionals. They introduce the concept of the quicksand effect where meaningful help becomes impossible t...

Orthopedic surgeon Yoshihiro Katsuura, medical student Mark Polemidiotis, and premedical student Cyrus Nasr discuss their article, "Why young people need to care about bone health now." Yoshihiro, Mark, and Cyrus explain that osteoporosis is not just an old person's disease but a result of peak bone mass missed during youth. They use the powerful metaphor of a "retirement account" to describe skeletal metabolism, where deposits mus...

Palliative care physician and certified physician development coach Christie Mulholland discusses her article, "Reclaiming physician agency in a broken system." She shares her personal story of leaving a prestigious academic position after realizing that "being a good doctor" was impossible within the constraints of corporate health care. Christie explains how for-profit entities now control seventy-eight percent of hospices, leadi...

Psychiatrist Farid Sabet-Sharghi discusses his article, "The psychological trauma of polarization." Farid explains how the human psyche is evolutionarily wired for connection, making the current climate of hostility and division deeply traumatic. He connects the panic and anxiety seen in his clinic to the reactivation of childhood wounds, where global discord mimics the volatility of a troubled family system. The discussion highlig...

Interventional physiatrist Francisco M. Torres discusses his article, "A doctor's own prostate cancer recovery." He shares his vulnerable story of undergoing a robot-assisted radical prostatectomy and the unexpected shame and "erosion of dignity" caused by severe urinary incontinence. Francisco explains how his medical assumption that anatomical knowledge would ensure a fast recovery was wrong, and how pelvic floor physical therapy...

Vascular surgeon Xzabia Caliste discusses her article, "The silent disease causing 400 amputations daily." She shares the heartbreaking personal story of witnessing both her aunt and uncle lose their limbs to peripheral artery disease (PAD), a preventable condition that causes over 400 amputations every day in the U.S. Xzabia explains how PAD restricts blood flow and why symptoms like leg pain or non-healing wounds are often danger...

Pediatric endocrinologist Shara Bialo discusses her article, "Why type 1 diabetes screening should be part of back-to-school." She highlights that back-to-school visits are a critical window to screen for type 1 diabetes (T1D), a disease where sixty-two percent of new cases currently result in life-threatening hospitalizations. Shara shares her personal perspective as both a doctor and a mother with T1D, addressing the guilt and st...

Double board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist Erica Bove discusses her article, "Why do high-quality IVF embryos fail." Erica explores the heartbreaking reality of recurrent implantation failure, challenging the assumption that it is a rare phenomenon. She analyzes the physical factors often missed in standard studies, such as chronic endometritis, silent endometriosis, a...

Physician advocate and physical therapist Kim Downey and counselor Shari Morin-Degel discuss their article, "Why burnout prevention starts with leadership." Shari shares her personal journey from a trauma-exposed mental health professional to a burned-out leader who initially expected her team to just "push through." The conversation highlights how she reached a breaking point and realized that true recovery requires more than just...