Videos

"I now say getting divorced was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Through that painful circumstance, I rediscovered me. I learned more about myself and my ability to do hard things than at any point in my life since medical training. I’m not the same person…

Lekha M. Rao is a pediatric neurologist. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "Children cannot afford to wait: We need to all work together to help schools reopen." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/lekha-m-rao) Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with…

"Children cannot afford to wait, especially our youngest learners who have difficulty engaging on a screen. We need to all work together to help schools reopen, especially in low-income communities that are disproportionately suffering and may lack the resources. I stand with the AAP, CDC, European CDC, WHO, and UNICEF…

"Many friends have asked for my perspective on the COVID vaccine. Answering this requires both an explanation of clinical trials and an understanding of what normally slows down pharmaceutical development. Importantly, COVID vaccines are required to go through the same process as every other pharmaceutical. Vaccination is a personal choice,…

"One of the best solutions to rising obesity and non-communicable disease rates lie in primary care. Medical professionals can influence the U.S. food system indirectly through demand and collective purchasing power by educating their patients to choose and purchase healthier options. Merely improving nutrition education succeeds in shifting people’s thinking…

"I have closed my practice, but I have no plans to retire at the age of 52. I have started the journey to become a high school science teacher. There are frequent internet postings and blogs by physicians with strategies to retire young. I suspect that many of us, not…

"The good news is that imposter syndrome can be quieted with increased awareness and replacing negative internal messages with positive ones. In our work together, I helped Sheila identify the voices, understand the positive role the voices fill (and there is always a positive or protective role), and find specific…

"In the world of medicine, inordinate stress is instead accepted as just part of the job. If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen- or see a therapist on your own time and dime. I strongly believe that traditional therapy and psychiatry are vital and valuable disciplines-…

"As a young girl, I’d stand on my tiptoes, craning my neck to watch her sweep cerulean eye shadow across lids and smear foundation on sunken cheeks. While my high school friends resorted to secondhand eye shadow instruction from the pages of Teen magazine, I learned by watching my mom…

"I just started laughing. It was early on Monday morning during our COVID surge. I couldn’t help myself. Phones were not on yet, but I already had triage COVID calls. “Put on your roller skates” was all I was thinking. I questioned my laughter. The day and a life of…

"As a professional woman who most identifies as a physician more than any other title, I know that I run the risk of losing myself to this disease. I am not ignorant to the risk. I understand that my identity is supposed to be separate from my achievements and that…

"Research conducted by the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI), a nonprofit research organization in New York, defines the three pillars of executive presence (EP) as gravitas, communication, and image. Stated differently, EP reflects how you act, how you speak, and how you look. CTI concluded that when people are perceived…

"It is still extremely early in the Bitcoin story. This is due to the same network effect that Facebook, Amazon, and Apple have had as adoption of new technologies rapidly expand and are adopted by society. Bitcoin has passed its 'tipping point.' Converting some of your money to Bitcoin now…

"I am grateful that I work in a small rural hospital that is like a family. I am grateful that my organization has done everything in its power to protect us… but I hope we can do better. I hope medical workers have enough left within them to give their…

"Let’s meet in the middle and listen to what’s happening in communities. All across U.S. communities, there are pockets of promise and programs focused on family interventions, behavior change, and health disparities, but there are many obstacles to true change. Currently, the work relies on visionary champions within a community,…

"When you’re applying to medical school, it’s remarkable how much four years or more of intense work can come down to one single day. The medical school interview is high stakes: studies have found that interview performance is the most important factor in admissions decisions. While your MCAT score and…

"Despite forces not within our control, namely the thoughts and actions of others, headway has been made in my local practice area: the decline in mortality, the advances in clinical knowledge about the pathophysiology, more efficient testing, more PPE, an uprooting and great revealing of the need for prioritization of…

"At the start of the pandemic when hospitals were overrun, testing and PPE were scarce, and unknowns about COVID-19 transmission abound, such restrictions were reasonable, perhaps even essential. But we have made progress since then; most hospitals test most if not all admitted patients for COVID-19; most Americans own a…

"A scientific achievement can never have success on its own unless if it has acceptance in the social context by the masses. I think that the concerns brought forward by the vaccine-doubters cannot be dismissed as ignorance, and it is hard to convince people. As a physician, it is not…

Vaccine hesitancy can have a negative impact on rollout. A striking example comes from long-term care facilities. Approximately 78 percent of residents received a vaccine. In contrast, only 37 percent of staff members agreed to be vaccinated. Reasons for refusal include: * perceived rapidity of vaccine development * inadequate information…

"The rapid change-over to telemedicine in March of 2020 brought predictable challenges to health care at large and substance use disorder treatment in particular: patients without the skill set to navigate HIPAA-compliant apps, phones with too little smarts to handle video conferencing, lack of connectivity in rural and economically depressed…

"While behavioral health integration (BHI) has been a long-standing conversation in collaborative care or health’s team-based approach, it hasn’t always been clearly defined and rarely means more than referring a patient in need to a specialist. The biggest shift over the past twenty years has simply been recognizing just how…

"When we think about holistic medicine, many assume that it requires human-to-human touch points and, therefore, doesn’t lend itself well to technology and innovations such as artificial intelligence. In fact, holistic medicine and whole-person care advocates often view technology as manufactured or impersonal and therefore dismiss its utility for health…

"I would encourage you to see amazing women on social media for who they are in the future. Maybe figure out where they have been and what they are working toward. Maybe even figure out how ways to help each other solve the problems this country faces. Instead of looking…