The school cafeteria could save American medicine

Policy
April 27, 2025

I grew up in Pickens, South Carolina—a small, poor Appalachian town burdened by health struggles.

In school, I saw food insecurity long before I had the vocabulary for it. Classmates ate honey buns and chips for breakfast, and lunch trays held processed food, pre-packaged meat, and syrupy fruit. For many, it was their only meal of the day.

Years later, while shadowing physicians in nursing homes and hospitals, I began to hear …

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The school cafeteria could save American medicine

Addressing the crisis in rural health care access and outcomes [PODCAST]

Podcast
April 26, 2025
YouTube video

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Internal medicine physician Edward Hoffer discusses his article, “Can rural health care be saved?” He outlines the significant health care disparities facing rural communities, including higher death rates from major diseases, increased …

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Addressing the crisis in rural health care access and outcomes [PODCAST]

Native communities deserve better: the truth about Pine Ridge health care

Policy
April 26, 2025

Driving through South Dakota after visiting the Badlands, I entered the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. As a medical student at GCSOM in Scranton, PA, I rarely see Native American communities. I was shocked by the poverty and neglect. How had I never heard of Pine Ridge?

Pine Ridge Reservation was established as a prison camp before a deadly massacre.

Pine Ridge Reservation was established in 1889 as Camp 334 for …

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Native communities deserve better: the truth about Pine Ridge health care

When grief hits all at once: a morning of heartbreak and love

Physician
April 26, 2025

This beautiful Saturday morning began like many other mornings with a heart full of love and hope. Gentle rays of sunlight filtered through the windows. Their warm glow whispered hope and promise of another good day. This morning, like many others, I woke up early. But little did I know the day would bring a flood of emotions for which I was unprepared. Indeed, as the morning unfolded, my spirit …

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When grief hits all at once: a morning of heartbreak and love

Small acts of kindness can change someone’s world

Education
April 26, 2025

So much of the world is centered around looking out for ourselves. We get caught up in our own problems, our own routines, and sometimes, we forget to stop and think about what someone else might be going through. It’s easy to do—we’re all busy, all trying to figure things out. But when we step outside of our own lives, even just for a moment, we start to see the …

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Small acts of kindness can change someone’s world

Buying into a medical practice: key legal and financial checks for physicians [PODCAST]

Podcast
April 25, 2025
YouTube video

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Health care attorney Dennis Hursh discusses his article, “What every physician should know before buying into a medical practice.” He emphasizes that while receiving an offer to buy into a practice is …

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Buying into a medical practice: key legal and financial checks for physicians [PODCAST]

Why Medicaid is failing Black children despite record spending

Physician
April 25, 2025

I’ve been listening to Viola Davis’s memoir, Finding Me, and it’s been sitting heavy on my mind. She vividly describes how being both Black and poor isn’t just a struggle—it’s a one-two punch that shaped every aspect of her life. It’s not just about lacking resources; it’s about being trapped in a system that was never designed to let you win.

That message keeps hitting me because I’ve …

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Why Medicaid is failing Black children despite record spending

When a friend’s mother became my patient and changed my life

Physician
April 25, 2025

One of my friends from school studied with me in 9th grade. She was exceptionally pretty, the kind of beauty that stood out. She was the only daughter and had a younger brother. She got married at a relatively young age and had one son. After her marriage, she moved to another city. She lived in a joint family and had many responsibilities, managing a lot of issues on her …

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When a friend’s mother became my patient and changed my life

Why ADHD isn’t just a childhood disorder and what that means for adults

Conditions
April 25, 2025

Current studies identify the negative impacts of failing to diagnose and treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which contributes to well-described impairment, morbidity, and mortality. Timely diagnosis, acceptance, and treatment do, in fact, improve outcomes. Benefits include a decrease in negative impacts on self-esteem, depression and other mood disorders, substance use disorders, suicidality, motor vehicle crashes, and criminality. These consequences result from easy distractibility and impulsiveness, which can be damaging …

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Why ADHD isn’t just a childhood disorder and what that means for adults

Customer relationship management tools to beat physician burnout and regain practice control [PODCAST]

Podcast
April 24, 2025
YouTube video

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Child psychiatrist and entrepreneur Marissa Caudill discusses her article, “How a customer relationship management tool (CRM) can help physicians regain control and beat burnout.” She argues that a significant driver of physician …

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Customer relationship management tools to beat physician burnout and regain practice control [PODCAST]

Rural hospitals are vanishing—and lives are vanishing with them

Physician
April 24, 2025

I’m a family medicine-trained doctor working in a rural ER. I drive 90 minutes to get there, and I do it because if I don’t, no one will. The county I serve has seen its nearest hospital close. The OB unit is long gone. Specialist referrals are hit or miss. And the patients? They’re sick. Sicker than they should be. Because when access to health care disappears, what follows is …

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Rural hospitals are vanishing—and lives are vanishing with them

Third-party litigation funding threatens access to health care

Policy
April 24, 2025

The Doctors Company

Verdicts in excess of $10 million, or even $25 million, are no longer rare occurrences in medical malpractice litigation. Though most of these awards are handed down by empathetic juries concerned for an injured plaintiff, 40 percent of the award or more may go to pay attorney fees and other investors in the lawsuit. Third-party litigation funding (TPLF), …

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Third-party litigation funding threatens access to health care

Fat guy in a little coat: Preventing childhood obesity

Conditions
April 24, 2025

Childhood obesity is not just about kids outgrowing their clothes faster than their parents can buy them— it’s a growing public health crisis. If we don’t step in now, the next generation might need bigger coats and even bigger health care budgets. Today, approximately one in five children and adolescents in the U.S. have obesity. The annual medical expenses related to childhood obesity in the U.S. is estimated …

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Fat guy in a little coat: Preventing childhood obesity

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Taking a break from medicine: a physician assistant’s journey from burnout to world travel [PODCAST]

Podcast
April 23, 2025
YouTube video

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Physician assistant David Olson discusses his article, “Taking a break from medicine: a journey to rediscover joy and purpose.” He describes feeling trapped in an unhealthy, borderline abusive relationship with medicine, citing …

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Taking a break from medicine: a physician assistant’s journey from burnout to world travel [PODCAST]

Gen Z is already transforming mental health care—are we listening?

Conditions
April 23, 2025

In a clinic in India, I once watched a young mother wait for hours to be seen, clutching her child and a paper folder filled with years of handwritten notes. There was no digital health record, no streamlined triage system—just patience, resilience, and the unspoken expectation that care would eventually come.

That moment has stayed with me—not because it was unique, but because it was far too common. It reminded me …

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Gen Z is already transforming mental health care—are we listening?

Why nurses are the true heroes of my 25-year medical journey

Physician
April 23, 2025

Since my training days in the Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency at Ohio State University Medical Center and Columbus Children’s Hospital (1996–2000), to my days in private practice (2000–2008), to my days practicing as a hospitalist physician (2008–present), I’ve had the great fortune of working with, collaborating with, learning from, and befriending many nurses who roam this Earth and, especially, my surrounding community. With those thoughts in mind, I …

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Why nurses are the true heroes of my 25-year medical journey

What independent bookstores and private practice doctors teach us about human connection

Physician
April 23, 2025

An excerpt from Narrative Medicine: New and Selected Essays.

One of my adult daughters recently reminded me of a cherished memory. When she was about four years old, we spent a few hours together at a small, independently owned bookstore. I selected books straight off the shelves and read to her, and later we joined a circle of children and parents to …

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What independent bookstores and private practice doctors teach us about human connection

How fake news about transgender mice is hurting real patients

Policy
April 23, 2025

Poisoned puppies, rats on cocaine, transgender mice: these might sound like the beginning of a bizarre joke, but they’re at the center of growing political attacks on medical and scientific research. Senator Ted Cruz calls it the “woke nonsense” of the Biden administration’s “far-left ideology,” and Donald Trump has amplified the message, using a primetime congressional address to claim researchers are attempting to turn mice transgender. In a House committee …

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How fake news about transgender mice is hurting real patients

The preceptor paradox: PAs get the nod while NPs are sidelined

Education
April 23, 2025

Let’s talk about a trend I’m seeing—and honestly, I can’t stay quiet about it anymore.

Across the country, more and more NP programs are telling highly experienced family nurse practitioners (FNPs) working in acute care settings that they can’t precept ACNP (Acute Care Nurse Practitioner) students. Meanwhile, those very same programs are approving Physician Assistants to precept ACNP students in those exact same roles.

I’m all for collaboration, and I respect the …

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The preceptor paradox: PAs get the nod while NPs are sidelined

Within the white walls of silence

Conditions
April 23, 2025

Silence is a prison that locks away the truth,
hiding it in the shadows of life.

Words yearn to be spoken,
but are instead swallowed whole.
It’s a safer alternative
than facing an empty void.

Your gaze is directed elsewhere,
avoiding the person who sits
before you … one who is waiting for
compassion that never arrives.

So, the spaces between words
grow longer and
the disconnect becomes stronger.

Words exchanged fall flat,
drowned out by the ticking clock
and the clicking of a keyboard
as …

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Within the white walls of silence

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