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3 weeks ago | 
kevinmd.com | Francisco Torres |Leonard Wang |Michele Luckenbaugh |Carol Ewig
Recently, I found myself in need of surgery, a situation I had not faced in many years. The vulnerability I experienced as a patient was more intense than I ever anticipated. Despite my role as a doctor who often considers patients’ emotional well-being, I felt this. This experience brought me face-to-face with the emotional challenges that patients face in a new way. This perspective is crucial for all health care professionals to understand fully.
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2 months ago | 
kevinmd.com | Blake Walker |Akshat Jain |Michael McGuire |Leonard Wang
Most provider groups are not optimized to manage patient billing, and it’s breaking the bank. The problem often starts with the EHR systems that they have adopted, which are designed with insurance reimbursement as the priority, not the patient experience in mind. For decades, providers operated in a world where the vast majority of their revenue came from insurance reimbursements. For most provider groups, patient billing was an afterthought.
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2 months ago | 
kevinmd.com | Leonard Wang |Esther Covington |Carol Ewig |Denise Reich
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!Family physician Pamela Buchanan discusses her article, “How poor communication is killing patients and burning out doctors,” exploring the devastating impact of unclear or avoided conversations in health care. Pamela shares firsthand experiences from the emergency room, where patients often arrive not just for treatment but for clarity about their diagnoses and prognoses.
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2 months ago | 
kevinmd.com | Pamela Buchanan |Leonard Wang |Heather Hansen |Austin Miller
I have wanted to be a doctor since I was 12 years old. I revered my pediatrician, Dr. Helen Nash, who was a giant in our community. Growing up poor in St. Louis, it was rare to see a Black doctor. Seeing Dr. Nash—owning her own practice, helping people, and commanding deep respect—was inspiring. She was an advocate for health care in the African American community, and whenever she spoke, I listened. I remember her pointing to me and saying, “You can do whatever you want.
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2 months ago | 
kevinmd.com | Gene Uzawa Dorio |Brian A. Primack |Casey Paul Schukow |Leonard Wang
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated medical communication as patients and doctors utilized computer technology to manage health care that was not available a decade ago. Hospitals and doctors maintain online medical records that enable patients to access personal information about ongoing issues. “Portals” allow users to view lab tests, imaging results, pathology reports, and progress notes.
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Jan 31, 2025 | 
kevinmd.com | Michael McGuire |Leonard Wang |Erin Paterson
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!In this episode, psychiatrist Chika Oriuwa discusses her KevinMD article, “How a psychiatrist rebuilt trust with a patient in crisis.” She also reflects on her book Unlike the Rest: A Doctor’s Story, sharing an emotionally charged encounter with a patient in crisis. Chika explores the challenges of racial bias in psychiatry and the power of empathy in rebuilding trust.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
kevinmd.com | Allie Poles |Denise Reich |Michael McGuire |Leonard Wang
This article is sponsored by Stryker Oral Care. Hospital-acquired pneumonia remains one of the most common—and deadly—infections patients face during hospitalization. Yet, while significant progress has been made in reducing ventilator-associated pneumonia, its lesser-known counterpart, non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (NVHAP), continues to quietly harm patients, often escaping attention altogether.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | G. Richard Olds |Leonard Wang |Paul Hofmann |Hafsa Shamim
If you ask aspiring doctors, “Why do you want to become a doctor?” they often reply, “I want to help people” or “I want to save people.”The intention to help is commendable, but many careers work toward protecting and supporting us. It is much easier to view doctors as “knights in shining armor,” “heroes,” or “saviors.” In some cultures, they may even be seen as deities. This perception can sometimes unintentionally lead doctors to have a superiority complex.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | Akshat Jain |Michael McGuire |Leonard Wang |Erin Paterson
The withdrawal of Oxbryta (voxelotor) from global markets, announced by Pfizer after a recent data review revealed a rise in deaths and complications, has left sickle cell disease (SCD) patients in a precarious situation. The sudden nature of the announcement caught the patient and physician community off guard, as there was no prewarning. For an already narrow world of options available to people with sickle cell disease, this came as a devastating blow.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | Sunaura Taylor |Leonard Wang |Emily Hagen |Arianne Grand-Gassaway
An excerpt from Disabled Ecologies. The multicolored poisonous waste disposed of by Hughes Aircraft Company was never just TCE, the most infamous ingredient. It was always a toxic soup: dozens of volatile organic compounds and heavy metals, contaminants with names like dichloroethylene, chromium, cadmium, and benzene. The chemicals were used in the early 1950s in the manufacture and cleaning of missiles that would travel thousands of miles overseas to maim and kill people during the Korean War.
