Federal officials are ordering a community bank and national mortgage lender to investigate and take corrective action over alleged misconduct that targeted Department of Veterans Affairs borrowers.
Processing Content
In a consent order filed in early April, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency accused The Federal Savings Bank, a Chicago-based depository institution specializing in mortgage lending, of false or misleading disclosures about its VA products on numerous occasions.
Between 2022 and 2024, deceptive marketing led some homeowners to refinance their loans, unaware they were taking out new costlier mortgages, according to OCC officials.
“The bank’s deceptive statements induced consumers to obtain VA cash-out refinance loans, which resulted in certain consumers paying significant origination fees and receiving refinanced mortgage loans with significantly increased interest rates and monthly payments,” the order said.
The infractions ran afoul of section five within the Federal Trade Commission Act prohibiting “unfair or deceptive acts or practices,” OCC said. Among the alleged violations The Federal Savings Bank regularly committed were product misrepresentations hiding the nature of the loans and marketing that offered lower rates and favorable terms borrowers would not see. The OCC also claims the following:
Bank employees suggested to consumers the institution had a “special relationship” with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Millions of deceptive advertisements were sent to consumers stating they had funds available to them and directed them to contact The Federal Savings Bank. The ads disguised the fact they were actually solicitations for VA cash-out refis that required applying for a new mortgage loan.
Some bank employees led customers to believe the interest rate or payments on their cash-out loan would decrease, failing to disclose the mortgages were fixed or explain they might not qualify for future refinancing.
In addition to ceasing the misconduct, the community bank agreed to hire a third-party consultant to identify all impacted borrowers within 90 days per terms of the order. The bank will then be required to submit to the OCC sixty days later a formal restitution plan that determines the appropriate amount to compensate each customer and a timeline for implementation. The agreement to settle the charges via consent order represented neither admission nor denial of the allegations. No response to a request for comment sent to The Federal Savings Bank had been received prior to article publication.
Mortgage volumes at The Federal Savings Bank
During the three-year period covered by the consent order, the bank originated $10.8 billion worth of loans covering 30,361 transactions, according to an IEmergent analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. Of that volume, VA-backed originations accounted for a significant portion approaching $5.2 billion for 13,591 units.
In 2025, originations at the bank totaled almost $3.1 billion, with VA mortgages comprising $1.7 billion worth of volume.
Along with two Chicago-area retail branches, The Federal Savings Bank offers mortgage services in dedicated lending offices located in 14 states.
The allegations against The Federal Savings Bank bear some resemblance to charges currently in front of another prominent VA lender, Veterans United Home Loans. In a potential class action suit currently under litigation in federal court, plaintiffs similarly claimed the lender engaged in practices that suggested it held direct ties to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and that it steered clients to costly loans.
Veterans United this week filed a motion to dismiss the claims.
Capital One 360 has a new bonus for its high-yield 360 Performance Savings account. New customers can earn up to $1,500. The maximum bonus requires a balance of $100,000. Additionally, this account now earns a 3.20% APY which makes it a better deal. Check out the details below.
How to Earn This Bonus
Here’s how you can earn this signup bonus:
Open a new 360 Performance Savings account with promo code BONUS1500.
Deposit $20,000+ of external funds during the 15-day Initial Funding Period after opening your account.
$300 bonus when you deposit $20,000+
$750 bonus when you deposit $50,000+
$1,500 bonus when you deposit $100,000+
Hold the deposit(s) in your account for 90 days after the 15-day Initial Funding Period ends.
Capital One will deposit the bonus into your account within 60 days after you have completed all the requirements above, including fulfilling the 90-day holding period.
Eligibility
Offer available nationwide.
If you have or had an open 360 Performance Savings, 360 Savings, 360 Money Market, Savings Now or Confidence Savings account as a primary or secondary account holder with Capital One on or after January 1, 2024, you will be ineligible for the bonus.
If your account is in default, closed or suspended, or otherwise not in good standing, you will not receive the bonus.
Account Fees
The 360 Performance Savings account has no monthly fees.
Guru’s Wrap-up
This is a good bonus for those who have the kind of money required. You can earn $1,500 if you deposit $100,000 and keep it in the account for 90 days. There are also bonuses of $750 and $300 with deposit requirements of $50K and $20K respectively. But besides the signup bonus, you balance will also earn a 3.20% APY. That’s a competitive rate right now, which is a good deal when combined with the signup bonus.
Bank bonuses are a great way to earn some extra income, often from the comfort of your home. You can take a look at my bank bonus results for 2022 where I made over $6,000. If this bonus is not for you, then you can check our full list of available bank bonuses. You can also access bonuses available in your state by visiting dannydealguru.com/tag/NY-bank-bonus/. Just replace NY with your state or with “nationwide”.
And, if you’re new to bank account bonuses, you can learn more about churning bank accounts here.
💡 Link & Full Details
OFFER PAGE
Promo Code: BONUS1500
Bonus: Up to $1,500
Account Type: Savings
Availability: Nationwide
Type of Inquiry: Soft pull
Direct Deposit Requirement: No
Other Requirements: $20K-$100K balance for 90 days
Credit Card Funding: No
Monthly Fee: No
Closing Account Fee: No
Expiration Date:12/6/231/9/24 No expiration
Help us & other readers. Email us if you find any bank offers!
If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Sign Up for my Rich Habits Daily Tips/Articles. No one succeeds on their own. Thank You!
TOM@RICHHABITS.NET
It’s hard to save your way to wealth. It took the average millionaire in my Rich Habits Study between 12 – 32 years to accumulate an average of between $3.3 – $7.4 million.
When asked about the importance of saving, 88% of the millionaires in my Study stated that it was critical to success.
Almost all of the millionaires in my Study used three key strategies to grow their wealth.
#1 Automated Savings
Each Saver-Investor consistently saved 20% or more of their net pay, each pay check. Many accomplished this by automating the withdrawal of a fixed percentage of their net pay. Typically, 10% of their net pay went into employer-sponsored retirement accounts and the other 10% was automatically directed into a separate savings account.
Once a month, the Saver-Investors would then transfer their accumulated 10% monthly savings, into an investment account, such as a brokerage account.
#2 Consistent Investing of Savings
Because the Saver-Investors consistently invested their savings, their investments compounded over time. In the beginning of this Investment of Savings strategy, this compounding was not very significant. But after ten years, their investment wealth began to become significant.
Towards the final years of their working lives, using these two strategies, the Saver-Investors’ wealth grew to an average of $3.3 million.
Similarly, many of the Big Company Climber and Virtuoso Millionaires in my Study adopted these two strategies during their working lives, which significantly added to their stock compensation-related wealth, upon retirement.
The millionaires in my Study who pursued some dream and started a business, whom I call Dreamer-Entrepreneurs, did not have the ability to invest their savings, particularly in the early stages of the pursuit of their Dream. Whatever savings they did have were used as working capital, in those early years, in order to fund their dream.
But, interestingly, once most of these Dreamer-Entrepreneur millionaires began to realize success, in the form of available cash flow, they immediately pivoted and began to employ both strategies into order to preserve and grow the wealth generated by their success.
#3 Frugality
One of the common denominators for Saver-Investors, Big Company Climbers and the Virtuoso self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study, was being frugal with their money.
For these millionaires, this frugality began the moment they received their first paycheck.
For the Dreamer-Entrepreneur millionaires in my Study, their frugality started the moment their dream began to create enough cash flow to enable them to save and invest.
What does it mean to be frugal?
Being frugal requires three things:
Awareness – Being aware of how you spend your money
Focus on Quality – Spending your money on quality products and services and
Bargain Shopping – Spending the least amount possible, by shopping around for the lowest price
On its own, being frugal will not make you rich. It is just one piece to the Rich Habits puzzle, and there are many pieces. But being frugal will enable you to increase the amount of money you can save. The more you have in savings, the more money you can invest.
Having money set aside in savings, also allows you to take advantage of opportunities that come along. Without savings, those opportunities pass you by.
Tom Corley
Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner, public speaker, and author of the books “Effort-Less Wealth: Smart Money Habits At Every Stage of Your Life” and “RichKids: How to Raise Our Children to Be Happy and Successful in Life“. Corley’s work has appeared on CNN, USA Today, The Huffington Post, SUCCESS Magazine, and many other media outlets and podcasts in the U.S. and 27 other countries. Tom is a frequent contributor to Business Insider and CNBC.
🚀 Navigating Global Education on a Budget: Where to Study for Less! 🌍📚 Discover which countries offer the best financial options for international students, from free education in Italy to affordable business management courses in Japan and Australia.
🌏 Exploring Cost-Effective Study Destinations:
Germany: Ideal for students with a modest budget, needing around 13 to 15 lakh rupees for business management studies.
Italy: Perfect for students with limited funds, offering opportunities to study for free, especially in renowned institutions like the University of Bologna and the University of Milan.
Japan & Australia: Excellent destinations for business management with good PR options, costing only 8 to 10 lakh rupees.
📈 Why Consider These Countries?
Italy: Known for its rich cultural heritage and strong academic framework, Italy offers free education options and a vibrant international student experience, making it ideal for storytelling and immersive learning.
Germany: Offers a robust educational system with relatively affordable tuition fees for high-quality business programs.
Japan & Australia: Not only more budget-friendly compared to Germany for certain programs but also provide favorable post-study work and permanent residency options.
🎓 What You Will Learn:
Insights into managing finances abroad for Indian students.
Overview of scholarship opportunities and how to apply in Italy.
Understanding new visa requirements and job opportunities in each country.
🌟 Your Educational Journey Awaits: Embark on your academic adventure with confidence by choosing the right country that aligns with your financial capabilities and career aspirations.
Is this the end of deep, liquid markets? Not quite—but the model has changed.
Liquidity is no longer an abstract concept; it is being tested in real time. Private markets are illiquid; this is well understood. The issue is that liquidity is increasingly engineered at the product level, often creating expectations that may not hold under stress.
This is a subtle but important shift—from an asset characteristic to what a product promises.
Practitioners used to ask: How liquid is this asset?
Now they should ask: How is this product making it seem liquid—and when does that break?
We see it in redemption pressure across private credit. The broader ecosystem is showing signs of strain: business development companies (BDCs) are trading at persistent discounts to net asset value (NAV), withdrawals are being gated, capped, or delayed, secondary markets are clearing at discounts, and fundraising has slowed alongside weaker distributed to paid-in capital (DPI).
These are not isolated dislocations; they reflect a change in how liquidity is being designed and delivered. What once felt like a stable feature of markets is now proving to be conditional, and increasingly fragile under stress.
Earlier in your career, you volunteered for hard projects, stayed late, and prided yourself on delivering. It worked. You rose through the ranks, built a reputation for getting things done and became a leader. That was then. Now, the ambition that once energized you exhausts you. And the standards you set feel like a treadmill you can’t step off.
Earlier this year, the S&P 500(^GSPC +0.26%) fell about 9%, while the Nasdaq-100 dropped 12%. It was the biggest decline for U.S. stocks in about a year and was triggered by the uncertainty over the war in Iran.
For many investors, it was a panic moment. Stock market corrections haven’t been that common over the past few years, so the pain of seeing a loss in their investment values was no doubt very real. But while nobody wants to see the value of their accounts go down, how people react to that situation goes a long way in determining whether those short-term losses turn into long-term underperformance.
Investors who saw their investments decline over the past month and decided to get out before they risked further losses likely missed out on the entire rebound in April. In essence, they did the one thing behavioral finance experts tell you not to do: sell low and buy high (if they bought back in at all).
These types of market swings can teach us a lot about why it’s important to maintain a long-term perspective and not give in to the temptation to make emotional decisions.
Image source: Getty Images.
Key takeaways
The S&P 500 fell 9% and the Nasdaq-100 fell 12% through the latter part of March, driven by the war in Iran, rising oil prices, and inflation concerns.
In April, both indexes staged rallies following a two-week ceasefire agreement.
Investors who sold their stocks during the decline likely did long-lasting damage to their portfolio returns.
Bank of America research shows that investors who miss the market’s best days end up losing out on most stock market returns.
Quick rebounds after sharp market declines are common. Most investors are better off just waiting things out.
The cost of selling low is significant
When people talk about long-term buy-and-hold investing, it’s not just a platitude. Even in normal times, stocks are volatile. People need to understand that when they go in. They’re usually fine with that when prices are going up. When prices go down, however, that’s when you find out what a person’s real risk tolerance is.
Studies have repeatedly shown that investors usually do damage to long-term returns by trying to time the market or sell when the market is declining. In the latter instance, they usually do the opposite of what they should. They sell low and fail to get back in before prices have already recovered. They’re locking in losses while missing out on subsequent gains. And it’s a recipe for poor returns.
Here’s some of that research in real terms:
UBS found that during past geopolitical conflicts where the S&P 500 dropped by 5% to 10% in a matter of weeks, it usually recaptured those losses within six months.
Bank of America found that since 1930, a buy-and-hold investment in the S&P 500 would have returned more than 17,000%. If you missed the 10 best days in each decade, the total return drops all the way to 28%.
The general rule is that if stocks fall by around 5% to 10% due to a geopolitical disruption, they’ve demonstrated a historical ability to recover pretty quickly. This is because geopolitical events are usually short-term in nature and rebounds can also occur in the short term. If the stock market decline approaches 20% or more, the recovery period is usually longer.
S&P 500 & Nasdaq-100: Staying invested through the cycle
Metric
S&P 500
Nasdaq-100
Index decline (February-March 2026)
(9%)
(12%)
April recovery
Back to all-time highs
Back to all-time highs
2026 YTD return (as of 4/15/26)
2.4%
3.4%
Best use for long-term investors
Core diversified holding
Core growth holding
Sensitivity to geopolitical shock
Moderate
Somewhat higher
YTD = year to date.
The biggest lesson out of all of this is that nobody knows when conflicts like this will end. Nor do they know the timeline or potential impact. Because of this, it usually causes more harm than good when people try to trade their investments based on unknown factors.
In most cases, it’s best to ride out short-term volatility and avoid the temptation to do something to your portfolio. As we’ve seen in 2026, the market can swing quickly. The investors who come out ahead are likely to be the ones who react the least.
Let that be a lesson for the next crisis.
Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. David Dierking has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Update 4/16/26: Look back period has been massively improved. Not eligible if f you have or had an open
360 Performance Savings,
360 Savings,
360 Money Market,
Savings Now
or Confidence Savings account
as a primary or secondary account holder with Capital One on or after January 1, 2024, you will be ineligible for the bonus. If your account is in default, closed or suspended, or otherwise not in good standing, you will not receive the bonus.
Previously this was 2022.
Update 5/3/25: Rate now 3.6%
Update 4/4/24: Deal is back, I don’t see any end date. APY is now 4.35% instead of 4.3%
Update 11/29/23: Extended until 1/9/2024.
Offer at a glance
Maximum bonus amount: $1,500
Availability: Nationwide
Direct Deposit required: None
Additional Requirements: $20,000-$100,000 deposit
APY: 4.35%APY 4.25% 3.2% APY
Hard/soft pull: Soft, as long as you opt out of overdraft protection
ChexSystems: Mixed
Credit card funding: None
Monthly fees: None
Early account termination fee: None
Household limit: None listed
Expiration date: 12/6/2023
The Offer
Direct link to offer
Capital One is offering bonus of up to $1,000 when you open a 360 performance savings account with promo code BONUS1500. The bonus you receive depends on the amount you deposit within 15 days of account opening and you must maintain that balance for 90 days
Deposit $20,000+ and get $300 bonus
Deposit $50,000+ and get $750 bonus
Deposit $100,000+ and get $1,500 bonus
The Fine Print
STEP 1—Open a 360 Performance Savings account between 12:00 a.m. ET on November 1, 2023, and 11:59 p.m. ET on December 6, 2023. When you open your account, ensure the promo code FALL23 is entered in the Promo Code box.
STEP 2—Initial Funding Period. Deposit a total of $20,000 or more (Deposit Amount) of new money from externally sourced funds (transfers between Capital One accounts will not qualify) within the first 15 days of account opening (Initial Funding Period).
STEP 3—Hold Period. You will earn a bonus once you’ve maintained the Deposit Amount of $20,000 or more for 90 days following the Initial Funding Period. The Initial Funding Period is defined as the first 15 days from account opening, and the 90-day Hold Period does not begin until after the full 15-day Initial Funding Period.
The amount of your bonus will be determined as follows:
$300 bonus—The new money deposited from an external bank during the Initial Funding Period was between $20,000-$49,999.99, and you maintained that Deposit Amount for 90 days following the Initial Funding Period.
$750 bonus—The new money deposited from an external bank during the Initial Funding Period was between $50,000-$99,999.99, and you maintained that Deposit Amount for 90 days following the Initial Funding Period.
$1,500 bonus—The new money deposited from an external bank during the Initial Funding Period was $100,000 or more, and you maintained that Deposit Amount for 90 days following the Initial Funding Period.
Capital One will deposit the bonus into your account within 60 days after you have completed all the requirements above, including fulfilling the 90-day holding period. If your account is in default, closed or suspended, or otherwise not in good standing, you will not receive the bonus. If at any time during the 90 days following the Initial Funding Period your Deposit Amount drops into a lower tier, you will be rewarded that tier’s cash bonus. If your Deposit Amount decreases to an amount less than $20,000, you will not qualify for a cash bonus. This offer cannot be combined with any other 360 Performance Savings account opening offers. Only one promotional code is accepted per account. Bonus is only valid for one new 360 Performance Savings account. Bonuses are considered interest and will be reported on IRS form 1099-INT.
If you have or had an open 360 Performance Savings, 360 Savings, 360 Money Market, Savings Now or Confidence Savings account as a primary or secondary account holder with Capital One on or after January 1, 2021 2022, you will be ineligible for the bonus. If your account is in default, closed or suspended, or otherwise not in good standing, you will not receive the bonus.
All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
This account has no monthly fees to worry about
Early Account Termination Fee
There is no early account termination fee
Our Verdict
This account earns 4.3% APY, ends up being 10.4% APY over the bonus period once when you take into account the bonus but obviously only lasts for 90 days. Still worth doing for a lot of people and much better than the previous $1,000 bonus and better than other high interest savings rates. We will add this to our list of the best savings bonuses.
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
Introduction To ChexSystems
Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
The filing paints a picture of an employee left to figure things out on her own. Kerr alleges she inherited an office that had already lost roughly $14.6 million in production due to agent departures, transfers, and her own transition out of a producing role. Instead of a structured turnaround plan, she says the company’s answer was to have her make more cold calls. When she brought in outside recruiting advice and raised those ideas at a May 2024 leadership meeting, Bryan allegedly shut the conversation down with, “I 100% disagree.” A day later, according to the filing, Bryan imposed a 90-day ban on workplace communication between Kerr and her closest internal support.
What may catch the attention of HR leaders is what happened when Kerr escalated. She alleges that on more than one occasion, when she flagged the gap between her experience and what non-Black peers received, management dismissed her concerns as “imposter syndrome.” In October 2024, the company’s owners allegedly acknowledged the situation was unusual and admitted they had not given Kerr the support she needed. One owner, Allen S. Crumbley, allegedly told her the company had financially harmed her by placing her in the role without proper backing.
Yet according to the filing, nothing changed. In January 2025, Kerr was demoted to a part-time “Market President Liaison” position with reduced hours and no bonus eligibility. She was then directed to train her replacement — a white male brought in to take over her former role. Her employment ended on or about March 27, 2025, with the company citing lack of production.
One detail stands out: Kerr alleges the company tracked Market President performance using a color-coded system, and she ranked in the “yellow” tier while most of her peers sat in the lower “red” category. Those peers, she says, were kept on. She was not.
The case is still in its earliest stages, but the allegations raise questions that HR teams across industries would do well to sit with — particularly around whether training and development resources are being distributed equitably, and what happens when employees raise that concern.
You finish a full day of patients, you’ve got a clinical question in the back of your mind, and you know you should look it up. So you open PubMed. You get 300 results. You skim three abstracts, get pulled in two directions, and close the tab. You’ll get back to it later.
Later never comes.
I’ve been there more times than I can count. And honestly, the problem isn’t laziness or lack of curiosity. It’s just that reading and synthesizing research takes a specific kind of focused mental energy that most of us have already spent by 6pm.
Here’s the thing, though. AI can do the first pass for you.
Disclaimer: While these are general suggestions, it’s important to conduct thorough research and due diligence when selecting AI tools. We do not endorse or promote any specific AI tools mentioned here. This article is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal, financial, or clinical advice. Always comply with HIPAA and institutional policies. For any decisions that impact patient care or finances, consult a qualified professional.
With so much noise out there, it’s hard to know who’s actually done what you’re trying to do.
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Real physician peers sharing proven strategies.
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The Real Problem Isn’t Finding Information. It’s Processing It.
There’s no shortage of medical literature. There’s a shortage of time and bandwidth to actually absorb it.
What I’ve found is that ChatGPT works best not as a search engine, but as a processor. You point it at a topic, give it a clear structure to follow, and it hands you back a summary you can actually use. Not a list of links. Not 12 open tabs. A readable overview you can review in five minutes.
That shift, from searching to processing, is where most physicians are leaving time on the table.
One Prompt That Actually Works
I’m not gonna pretend there’s a magic formula here, but there is a structure that can consistently give a good output.
So go to ChatGPT, hit new chat, and pick the “thinking version”. If you don’t know how to do that, just click on the top-right dropdown after the word ChatGPT. Now, paste in this prompt:
Act as a clinical research assistant. Summarize the current evidence on: [TOPIC]. Format your response as: (1) key findings, (2) areas of agreement, (3) areas of conflicting evidence, (4) practical takeaways for physicians. Be concise and mention study types where relevant.
That’s it. One prompt, reusable forever. Just swap in the topic.
Just don’t forget to pin and rename the chat so you won’t forget it. Then each time, you’ll get a structured summary in under a minute that would have taken you 30 to 45 minutes to piece together manually.
Btw, don’t use it to make patient-specific decisions though. Use it to get oriented faster so you can focus on real thinking where it counts.
Take It a Step Further: Set It Up as a ChatGPT Project
The prompt above works on its own. But if you want this to actually stick as a habit rather than something you try once and forget about, setting it up as a dedicated Project in ChatGPT is worth the extra five minutes.
Here’s the difference. A regular ChatGPT conversation is basically a one-off. Every time you start a new chat, the AI has no memory of how you like information structured, what specialty you’re in, or what you’ve already asked it. You’re starting from scratch every time.
A Project changes that. You give it context once, it remembers. You come back a week later and it already knows you’re a physician who wants concise, clinically practical summaries. That consistency compounds over time. The outputs get better and more tailored the more you use it.
Pretty straightforward to set up. Here’s how:
Open ChatGPT and look for “Projects” in the left sidebar. It’s available on the paid (Plus or Team) plan (as of this writing). If you don’t see it, check that your account is updated.
Click “New Project” and give it a name. Something simple like “My Research Assistant” works fine.
Open the project and go to “Project Instructions.” This is where you give the AI its standing context. Think of it like a permanent system prompt that applies to every conversation inside this project.
Paste in your standing context. Here’s a simple version to start with:
I’m a physician. When I ask you to summarize medical research, always structure your response as: (1) key findings, (2) areas of consensus, (3) conflicting evidence, (4) practical clinical takeaways. Be concise, clinically practical, and mention study types where relevant. Never make patient-specific clinical recommendations.
Save it and start your first conversation inside the project. From here on, every time you open this project and paste in a new topic, it already knows the format you want.
Bookmark or pin the project so it’s easy to find. The goal is zero friction. If you have to hunt for it, you won’t use it.
That’s really it. You set this up once and you’re done.
The reason this matters is that one of the biggest barriers to using any new tool consistently isn’t the tool itself, it’s the friction of getting started each time. When your research assistant is already configured and one click away, it becomes the path of least resistance instead of another thing on the to-do list.
And over time, you can add to the project. Save summaries you’ve already generated. Build a running reference library on topics you care about. Use it as a place to think through clinical questions before you go looking for primary sources. It starts as a shortcut and slowly becomes something more useful than that.
Three Simple Ways to Make the Output Better
The base prompt already does a lot. But a few small tweaks go a long way.
Get more specific with your question. Broad topics give you broad summaries. “Diabetes treatment” is too wide. “SGLT2 inhibitors in heart failure outcomes” gives you something actually useful.
Ask for study types. Adding “mention the type of studies supporting each conclusion” helps you judge how solid the evidence base actually is. Randomized controlled trials and retrospective observational studies are not the same thing, and you already know that.
Ask it to simplify when needed. If the output is too dense after a long shift, just add: “Explain this in a way that’s clinically practical and easy to scan.” Works every time.
None of these make the workflow complicated. You’re still in and out in five minutes.
BONUS: If you set it up as a ChatGPT project, you can ask it to tweak your instructions to follow your preference. For example, you can tell it to only search and get data from specific sources, or tell it to always include their sources so you can quickly fact-check.
Unlock the Full Power of ChatGPT With This Copy-and-Paste Prompt Formula!
Download the Complete ChatGPT Cheat Sheet! Your go-to guide to writing better, faster prompts in seconds. Whether you’re crafting emails, social posts, or presentations, just follow the formula to get results instantly.
Save time. Get clarity. Create smarter.
One Honest Caveat
I want to be clear about what this is and what it isn’t.
This is a tool for staying current and orienting yourself to a topic faster. It’s not a substitute for your judgment, your training, or primary sources when the stakes are high. And there are real AI legal safety considerations to keep in mind, never put patient-identifiable information into a public AI tool. Always sanity-check the output, especially for nuanced clinical scenarios.
Think of it like having a really well-read colleague who can quickly brief you before you walk into a decision. You’d still bring your own expertise to the table. This just gets you up to speed faster.
On a side note, if you like stuff like this we actually have a physician’s ChatGPT cheat sheet. It’s worth checking out if you want to upgrade your ChatGPT experience.
Start Somewhere. But Don’t Skip the Thinking.
Here’s what I keep hearing from physicians in our community: “I barely have time to eat lunch. When am I supposed to keep up with the literature?”
That’s the real pain point. It’s not that we don’t care. It’s that the mental load of a full patient day leaves almost nothing in the tank for self-directed learning. The reading pile grows, the guilt compounds, and eventually you just stop trying.
If this prompt helps you chip away at that, it’s worth trying. But if you want to go deeper, AI skills for physicians are becoming more important than ever. This is just one of them.
AI doesn’t replace your clinical judgment. It doesn’t replace primary sources when you really need them. And it can be wrong, especially on nuanced or evolving topics. Always sanity-check what it gives you. Treat it like a well-read colleague who did a quick lit review for you, not like an attending signing off on a plan.
Do your due diligence. Verify what matters. And don’t put anything patient-specific into a public tool.
With that said, if you’ve been meaning to get current on a topic and haven’t had the time, this is a pretty low-risk place to start. And if you’re curious how elseAI can help physicians save time across the board (not just with research), that rabbit hole is worth going down too.
What topic have you been putting off? I’d genuinely love to hear it.
The goal is not to automate everything. It is to reduce friction in one area at a time.
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