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Jan 12, 2025 | 
kevinmd.com | Toni Brayer |Jean Paul Brutus |David Moskowitz |George Mathew
I’ve taken a little writing break as I turned off news to preserve my mental health after the election. As 2024 limps to a close, I look forward to a fresh start in 2025 with a few of my own crystal ball predictions of what’s to come in American health care. Accessing primary care will continue to be a challenge, not just in rural communities but in big cities too.
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Aug 8, 2024 | 
vineleavespress.com | Toni Brayer
When I was a girl, it would have been nice if my world had been nicer to girls. Back then, if you got praised it was for being unobtrusive and doing your domestic chores. For staying inside the box where you belonged. Your mother’s highest compliment was, “Aren’t you a good little housewife!” Punishments were harsh and rewards were demeaning. If you weren’t a pretty child, you’d hear the grown-ups worrying about it.
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Jul 26, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | Toni Brayer |Peter Ubel |Eric Tian |Molly Walker
I tried to get a personal appointment at a large prestigious academic outpatient service. The website had a “contact us” link, which directed me to a very prolonged questionnaire wanting to know details (mainly financial) that practically included turning over my firstborn child.
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May 31, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | Toni Brayer |Jaimie Cavanaugh |Daryl James |Pat Wetzel
The news is rife with articles about younger people getting cancer, heart attacks, high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, and arthritis. We used to think of these as diseases of aging, but now we are finding high blood pressure and atherosclerosis in people as young as 20. The guidelines for colon cancer screening have been lowered to age 45 for people at normal risk. Experts can’t explain why this is happening.
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Feb 24, 2024 | 
newsbreak.com | Toni Brayer
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Feb 24, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | Toni Brayer |Cindy Thompson |Michael McGuire |G. Richard Olds
I’m in a global private physician Facebook group, and I learn a great deal about health care, both good and bad, from other doctors. Because it is private, doctors share a lot of personal practice issues as well as challenging cases from which we all learn. The physician who posted this message from her hospital employer gave permission for me to use it, and hundreds of comments encouraged this post. This missive from her for-profit hospital was presented at a staff meeting.
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Feb 16, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | Toni Brayer |Gary Call |Julie Craig |Toni Bernhard
I started my day today (ironically, Martin Luther King Day) reading another tragic story about a young Black mother who hemorrhaged to death after giving birth in a large public hospital in Brooklyn. Statistics tell a shocking story. The maternal death rate increased by 79 percent from 2018 to 2021. Women of color had even worse numbers, with the maternal mortality rate among Black women increasing from 37 per 100,000 in 2018 to almost 70 per 100,000 in 2021.
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Oct 2, 2023 | 
marinij.com | Toni Brayer
I hear the heavy clang of locks closing on the iron gates as I enter San Quentin California State Prison. When I’m there I follow the rules: No jeans, no cellphones, no red or blue, no white T-shirts, no camo, no large jewelry, no personal items except car keys, paper and pen. But at the end of my time, I get to walk out. I’m a weekly volunteer teacher at San Quentin, helping prisoners learn literacy and reading comprehension in preparation to get a GED.
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Feb 2, 2023 | 
kevinmd.com | Toni Brayer |Steven Siegel |Peter Spence |George Mathew
Surveys show that people are pretty unhappy with the state of health care in the United States these days. Insurance is way too expensive, and co-pays and cost-sharing are out of control, with patients paying the bulk of office visits out of their own pockets. Staffing shortages mean fewer people answer phones, and finding a primary care doctor open to new patients is darn near impossible in my neck of the woods. Every physician I know is suffering from overwork and feels under-appreciated.
