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Why weak branding is costing private practices patients and talent Sep 07, 2026

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Patients now choose doctors the way they shop for everything else, judging your practice online before they walk in. Ashley Gay, a branding expert, argues that a strong brand is not about ego but about earning trust, and that physicians who ignore this are quietly losing patients and talent to competitors who look more polished. This episode is based on her article "Branding a medical practice is not vanity, it is trust," published on KevinMD. You will hear why a logo is not a brand, why owning your website and ranking locally beats showing up for generic medical searches, and where an AI logo generator falls short. You will learn how the whole patient experience shapes your brand, from the first online impression to the phone call to the waiting room, and why private equity already treats this as an edge. Press play to hear why your brand may matter more than your credentials, and where to focus your first dollars.

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Bloated from all that fiber? You added it too fast. Sep 06, 2026

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Social media says to spike your fiber intake as fast as you can. That is where the bloating starts. Lisa Talamini is a registered dietitian nutritionist and senior vice president of clinical solutions at Wondr Health. This episode is based on her article "How to eat more fiber without the bloating," published on KevinMD. You will hear why fibermaxxing with pills, powders, and fortified bars tends to bring gas, bloating, and sometimes diarrhea while delivering few of the nutrients whole food carries. Lisa explains fiberlayering instead, adding one small whole food at a time to meals you already eat, and why water decides whether the fiber you add helps or hurts. You will also hear the roughly 25 grams a day she works from, why the Mediterranean pattern is layering in practice, and how to raise the subject in the few minutes a primary care visit leaves for nutrition. She closes on the red flags to watch for in the next fiber video, and the case for the middle ground over the maximum.

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Addiction stigma costs lives, and one word can change that Sep 05, 2026

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A man told his doctor he was struggling with addiction. The doctor told him this was not something he could help with. Devika Bhushan is a public health physician and a former acting surgeon general of California. This episode is based on her article "How addiction stigma in health care costs lives," co-written with medical student Taylor Moss and published on KevinMD. You will hear what happened when about 500 clinicians read the same patient described two ways, as a substance abuser in one version and as a person with a substance use disorder in the other. Devika explains why fewer than 1 in 5 people with addiction ever get appropriate treatment, why they receive 30 percent less guideline-based care for conditions like heart disease and diabetes, and why life expectancy can run up to almost 24 years shorter. You will also hear which words open doors in addiction care and which close them, plus six things patients and families can do when a clinician will not listen.

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Health insurance mergers are why your doctor is leaving Sep 04, 2026

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In a lot of towns there is only one health insurer left, and that is starting to show up in patient care. Rita Agarwal is a pediatric anesthesiologist who started asking why colleagues in a specialty she loves are heading for the door. This episode is based on her article "Insurance consolidation is a patient safety problem," published on KevinMD. She explains why anesthesiology went from a top residency choice to the specialty with the highest intent to leave, and what happens to a team when the people in the room have never worked together. You will hear how a single-payer market leaves a hospital with no room to negotiate, why federal Medicaid cuts hit rural and pediatric hospitals hardest, and what it looks like when patients drive hours for care that used to be down the road. She is candid that most physicians, including her, sat out this fight for years. Press play to hear why she thinks this is unsustainable, and what she is asking physicians to do about it.

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Ketamine for depression: what actually makes it dangerous Sep 03, 2026

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Ketamine made headlines for the wrong reasons, and people who could be helped by it are staying away. Jim Ellwood is an anesthesiologist who has given ketamine in the operating room and taken it himself for depression that nine medications failed to touch. This episode is based on his article "The truth about ketamine: an anesthesiologist explains drug safety," published on KevinMD. He explains what the research shows about how it works in the brain, and what to ask before you walk into a clinic. You will hear why he compares the panic around ketamine to what happened with propofol and fentanyl, how to find out who is actually writing the prescription at a clinic that advertises to you, and what he tells patients about how long the relief lasts and what it costs. He is candid about the stigma of a physician saying out loud that he has depression. Press play to hear a physician who has used ketamine both ways describe what a safe setting actually looks like.

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When you have five doctors and no one is directing your care Sep 02, 2026

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You can have five doctors and still have no one actually in charge of your care. That gap is where patients get lost. In this episode, retired surgeon and patient advocate Alan P. Feren walks through a common case where the surgeon, primary care, and specialists each assume someone else is directing the plan, and no one is. This episode is based on his article "Fragmented care needs clinical direction, not more data," published on KevinMD. You will hear why coordination is not the same as clinical direction, how disconnected medical records leave patients to piece their own care together, and why confusion can look like progress from the outside. He also explains where AI can genuinely help patients and where it falls short. Hear the exact questions he says every patient with multiple doctors should be asking.

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She spent weeks on her personal statement. Then someone asked why she didn't use AI. Sep 01, 2026

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A resident read a student's personal statement and asked why she didn't just use ChatGPT. The comment landed like a wound. In this episode, certified coach and professor Kathleen Muldoon returns to unpack what a residency personal statement is actually for, and why an algorithm can't do it for you. This episode is based on her article "Why ChatGPT can't write your residency personal statement," published on KevinMD. You will hear why the product was never the essay but the self-knowledge that comes from writing it, how AI tends to average out the distinctive voice and sharp edges that make an applicant feel human, and where a tool like ChatGPT can still help without taking over the whole process. She also weighs whether AI detection tools unfairly flag applicants whose first language isn't English. Hear why she says the real question was never whether AI wrote it, but whether the person still comes through.

This episode is brought to you by ModMed.

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Why overdiagnosis is failing the students it claims to help Aug 31, 2026

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At one university, the share of students receiving disability accommodations rose sevenfold in a decade. Is that progress? In this episode, health care educator and patient advocate Richard A. Lawhern argues that psychiatric overdiagnosis is handicapping the very students it aims to help, and that the research underneath much of modern psychiatry may not hold up. This episode is based on his article "Why psychiatric overdiagnosis fails the students who suffer," published on KevinMD. You will hear why he says a rise in student diagnoses reflects misallocated help rather than real need, how the replication crisis has undercut studies that shaped the field, and why critics like Allen Frances have questioned the expanding reach of the DSM-5. He also lays out where he thinks families harmed by misdiagnosis may have recourse. Hear the case he makes for why the science behind these diagnoses may not hold up, and what he thinks families can do about it.

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What a dragonfly teaches physicians about burnout and self-compassion Aug 28, 2026

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After 20 years as a pediatrician, she stopped believing burnout meant she couldn't hack it. The problem was never her. In this episode, pediatrician and physician career development coach Gita Balakumar reframes burnout as a systemic burden wrongly blamed on the individual, and offers a different way to think about it. This episode is based on her article "What physicians and dragonflies share in resilience and agility," published on KevinMD. Drawing on the dragonfly, an insect revered across cultures for transformation and resilience, she explains why the demands of medicine ask physicians to keep evolving. You will hear why self-compassion is a foundation and not a luxury, how career coaching helps physicians name what they actually value, and why the idea that doctors just aren't resilient enough is a fallacy. Hear why she says the most resilient people in medicine still deserve compassion, and that seeking support is a strength, not a failure.

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How a doctor with no coding background built his own bedside AI tools Aug 27, 2026

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At 2 a.m., a surgeon needed an answer fast and had no one to ask. So he built the tool himself, with no coding background. In this episode, consultant cardiac anesthesiologist Ahmed Elsonbaty explains how a single bleeding-patient case in the operating room pushed him to create bedside clinical decision-support tools now used by more than 10,000 doctors across 150 countries. This episode is based on his article "I built clinical decision-support tools at the bedside," published on KevinMD. You will hear why he deliberately avoided generative AI so the tools give the same traceable answer every time, how he built everything on published, documented sources, and why he insists the tools help the doctor rather than replace anyone. He also walks through submitting his work for peer review at a major journal. Hear how he did it, and the exact steps he says any physician can follow to build their own.

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