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'A Pain in the Ass': What We Heard This Week

— Quotable quotes heard by Ƶ's reporters

Ƶ MedicalToday
A female reporter holding two microphones takes notes on a pad

"It's still a pain in the ass." -- Christie Ballantyne, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, discussing how despite some improvements in access to newer, highly effective cholesterol-lowering drugs, frustrations remain over the prior authorization burden.

"This was a bad decision." -- Italo Brown, MD, MPH, a California emergency physician, on the American College of Emergency Physicians' decision to let Greg Murphy, MD (R-N.C.), speak at its annual leadership meeting after the congressman introduced a bill proposing a ban on federal funding to medical schools with diversity initiatives.

"This may be a palatable -- or should we say 'soft palatable' -- solution to this problem." -- Edward Fry, MD, of Ascension St. Vincent Heart Center in Indianapolis, discussing how a mandibular advancement device could help sleep apnea patients who struggle with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines.

"There's a narrative that nurses no longer want to work in certain settings because of the pandemic. Our research really debunks this." -- K. Jane Muir, PhD, RN, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in Philadelphia, on what's really driving nurses out of healthcare.

"This is the oil that's going to power healthcare AI." -- John Torous, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, describing how high-quality patient data will likely be the limiting resource for developing artificial intelligence (AI) tools for mental healthcare.

"The fact that about 30% of these hospitals didn't even have a privacy policy that we could find was, I think, pretty concerning." -- Matthew McCoy, PhD, also of the University of Pennsylvania, on hospital websites transferring user information to third parties without properly informing patients and other users.

"We've got the technology now." -- Steven Nissen, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, on an actual use study where an app helped patients self-select for rosuvastatin (Crestor), part of a push to make the statin available over the counter.

"These drugs themselves are likely not what is causing the finding." -- Pamela Berens, MD, of the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, on a large nationwide cohort study clearing acetaminophen use in pregnancy of neurodevelopmental risks for kids, suggesting that previously reported associations were due to confounders.

"This is a groundbreaking trial." -- Robert Roswell, MD, of Northwell Health/Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University in New York, on randomized data showing the Impella CP microaxial flow pump improved survival in patients with infarct-related cardiogenic shock, the first study to show a significant mortality reduction in this population in 25 years.