Kevin Pho, M.D.

The health care system is failing to listen to the people who actually run it. Let's change that. Most medical media is either highly technical specialty education or corporate PR. But what about the daily reality? What about the lived experiences of the doctors, nurses, and patients wrestling with a broken system right now? That is why I created The Podcast by KevinMD. It is the web's only daily medical podcast. 15 minutes a day, 7 days a week. We do not just interview famous guests. We pull from a massive network of frontline workers to discuss the real issues: AI in clinical practice, the economics of primary care, physician burnout, and deeply personal patient stories. If you want fast, human, clinician-facing insight into the culture of medicine, this is your new daily habit. Stop scrolling and start listening to the voices that matter. How to subscribe is in the comments. 👇 #MedTwitter #Healthcare #DigitalHealth #Nursing #MedEd #HealthPolicy #KevinMD #PhysicianBurnout

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/can…

Ambient AI scribes are the biggest breakthrough in clinical documentation in a decade. They will absolutely cure the charting backlog. But they will introduce a much more dangerous form of physician burnout. Dr. Dike Drummond explains the incoming crisis. Right now, clinical documentation acts as a natural speed limit. It physically stops you from seeing 40 patients a day. Keystrokes are the bottleneck. When an AI scribe cuts your charting time by 50 percent, your employer will immediately realize they can increase your patient volume for pure profit. We are going to trade a typing limitation for a brain limitation. Doctors will face overwhelming decision fatigue and compassion fatigue. You can only handle so many complex medical histories back to back without a pause. The advice? Be an early adopter of AI tools. But be prepared to set hard boundaries with the C suite before the volume expectations spiral out of control. Episode is in the comments. #HealthTech #PhysicianBurnout #MedicalAI

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why…

We are prescribing powerful weight loss drugs without measuring the most important metric: muscle mass. Physical therapist Maureen McBeth has tested the body composition of countless patients who lost 50 pounds on GLP-1s. The results? Dangerously low skeletal muscle and exceptionally high body fat. The scale says they are healthy. Their bodies say they are depleted. When we lose weight too fast without dosed strength training and adequate protein, we destroy our metabolic engine. BMI is not adequate to measure this. The standard bathroom scale can actually be dangerous if it tricks you into starving yourself when fluid levels fluctuate. GLP-1s are a phenomenal medical tool. But they need guardrails. Patients need proper objective measurements, exercise prescriptions, and nutritional support. Stop letting the drug do all the work. Episode is in the comments. #MedTwitter #GLP1 #PhysicalTherapy #MetabolicHealth

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why…

The medical system thrives on your imposter syndrome. It is not a personal failing. It is a feature of your training. From medical school onward, physicians are conditioned to view uncertainty as dangerous. We are trained to find exactly how we do not belong. If you do not know the answer, you are supposed to hide it and study until you do. This constant hypervigilance forces doctors to overwork, second guess decisions, and never say no. The system benefits from this endless anxiety right up until the point of burnout. In a recent episode of The Podcast by KevinMD, Dr. Jessie Mahoney explains why we must stop blaming individuals for systemic conditioning. We need to replace a culture of shame and guilt with one of curiosity and self compassion. Episode is in the comments. #MedTwitter #ImposterSyndrome #PhysicianWellness #MedicalCulture

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/an-…

Healthcare is the only industry where you can be assaulted on the job and still be expected to finish your shift. Emergency nurse Kristen Cline has spent 20 years on the front lines. In a recent conversation on The Podcast by KevinMD, she highlighted a terrifying reality about the modern ER. The crisis is not just about long wait times. It is a structural collapse. Hospitals run at max capacity. ERs are holding inpatients for weeks because rehab centers are closing. New nurses are facing a severe training gap. Worst of all, hospital associations are actively lobbying against safety protections like metal detectors and visible security because they are deemed too expensive. The top down solutions are failing. If healthcare is going to survive, the change has to come from the ground up. Frontline workers have to set hard boundaries and demand a safe practice environment. Episode is in the comments. #MedTwitter #Nursing #HealthcareCrisis #KevinMD

Listen and subscribe: kevinmdpodcast.com/follow/

The health care system is failing to listen to the people who actually run it. Let's change that. Most medical media is either highly technical specialty education or corporate PR. But what about the daily reality? What about the lived experiences of the doctors, nurses, and patients wrestling with a broken system right now? That is why I created The Podcast by KevinMD. It is the web's only daily medical podcast. 15 minutes a day, 7 days a week. We do not just interview famous guests. We pull from a massive network of frontline workers to discuss the real issues: AI in clinical practice, the economics of primary care, physician burnout, and deeply personal patient stories. If you want fast, human, clinician-facing insight into the culture of medicine, this is your new daily habit. Stop scrolling and start listening to the voices that matter. How to subscribe is in the comments. 👇 #MedTwitter #Healthcare #DigitalHealth #Nursing #MedEd #HealthPolicy #KevinMD #PhysicianBurnout

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-f…

It takes the human brain two years to fully recover from burnout. Yet many physicians are in denial, assuming their absolute exhaustion is just normal. Dr. Tomi Mitchell hit her absolute limit. She was running a massive medical center, raising two toddlers, and absorbing the daily trauma of a broken healthcare system. She stopped laughing. She stopped dancing. The title of doctor made her cringe. Then came the final catalyst. Her newborn baby was hospitalized, oxygen levels dropping, and the medical staff brushed off her concerns. She submitted a 90 day notice and stepped away. Her exit was so disruptive it was discussed in parliament the very next day. In her episode on The Podcast by KevinMD, she shares a hard truth that every medical professional needs to hear. You have a choice in how you live and work, and you must prioritize the relationships that actually matter. Episode is in the comments. #PhysicianBurnout #MedTwitter #Healthcare

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cri…

A 100 percent patient satisfaction score does not always mean you are a great doctor. Sometimes it just means you are a people pleaser. Physicians are conditioned to panic over negative feedback. One bad review can trigger a complete nervous system meltdown, causing sleepless nights and intense self doubt. Pediatrician Dr. Jessie Mahoney explains that this fear is baked into our training. We were taught early on that if we were not liked, our careers were in danger. But the reality of good medicine means setting boundaries. It means denying inappropriate antibiotic requests. It means saying no. When we accept that good medicine will inevitably upset some people, we can stop catastrophizing. The next time you get a complaint, take a pause, regulate your breathing, and ask yourself: "Did I act with integrity?" Episode is in the comments. #MedTwitter #Healthcare #PhysicianWellness

#ad Finding cancer early is step one. Step two is not stopping until you know the exact molecular profile. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the US, yet our screening adoption rate for eligible patients sits at a dismal 18 percent. Dr. Lee James, SVP of oncology medical affairs at @EliLillyandCo , joined a recent sponsored episode of the podcast to discuss this critical gap. We are fighting stigma, medical distrust, and limited awareness. But the science is advancing rapidly. Cancer is a disease of the genome. Today, nearly 70 percent of people with non-small cell lung cancer carry actionable biomarkers. If we can screen patients early and use comprehensive genomic profiling, the five year survival rate for patients matched with appropriate targeted treatments can exceed 80 percent. The science offers hope, but we have to get people in the door first. Direct or private messages may be shared with Lilly and 3rd parties to meet legal or regulatory requirements. Lilly.com/privacy. Listen to the episode: kevinmd.com/2026/03/why-ea… #LillyPartner #LungCancer #PrecisionMedicine #Oncology

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thi…

Value-based care was supposed to save healthcare. In some cases, it created a new incentive: getting rid of the sickest patients. In a recent episode of The Podcast by KevinMD, Dr. Jonathan Bushman reveals the dark side of healthcare analytics. He shares the story of a young physician whose management removed patients with high A1Cs from her panel to secure a contract bonus. We have to stop mislabeling this as burnout. Burnout implies the doctor is the problem. Moral injury recognizes that the system is broken. Physicians are trained to heal, then told to show up and shut up by systems that view patients as transactional data points. Dr. Bushman breaks down the irony of non-profit health systems chasing metrics, the reality of value-based contracts, and how Direct Primary Care restores physician autonomy. Episode is in the comments. #ValueBasedCare #MoralInjury #MedTwitter #HealthIT

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ins…

Medical residents are the backbone of the hospital system. They are also its favorite punching bag. We expect them to work 80 hour weeks. We expect them to accept low pay. But we also force them to endure systemic disrespect, microaggressions, and outright bullying from the very staff they work alongside. In a classic episode of The Podcast by KevinMD, surgery resident Dr. Audra King shared her deeply personal story of surviving the toxic culture of medical training. What started as a coping mechanism through journaling turned into a nationwide wake up call for the healthcare industry. The harsh reality is that residents are completely stripped of their power. If they speak up against disrespect from charge nurses or other staff, they risk getting reported or labeled as difficult. This massive power imbalance crushes their self esteem and fuels the severe burnout crisis we see in medicine today. You cannot fix a toxic work environment with mandatory wellness modules and yoga classes. Dr. King's message is clear. Attendings need to remember what it was like and actively stand up for their residents. Trainees need to have each others backs. It is time to end the cycle of abuse in medical training once and for all. Listen to her full story in this classic episode. The link is in the comments below. Drop your thoughts and share your own residency experiences. Let us change the culture together. 👇 #MedTwitter #Residency #SurgicalResident #PhysicianBurnout #HealthcareReform #MedEd #DoctorLife