'A Forest of Dueling Numbers': What We Heard This Week

— Quotable quotes from MedPage Today's sources

MedpageToday

"We're being subjected to a forest of dueling numbers." -- John Hirshfeld, MD, of Penn Heart and Vascular Center in Philadelphia, during an FDA advisory panel meeting about mortality risk with paclitaxel-coated peripheral vascular devices.

"These drugs are life-saving; at the very least, companies should be able to justify why they're charging what they're charging and what the increases are for." – Frederick Isasi, of Families USA, on a drug-price transparency bill sponsored by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).

"CAPABLE fits squarely in the stream of innovation of not just looking at diseases, but looking at the total health of people." – of Sarah Szanton, PhD, ANP, of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Baltimore, on the proposed Community Aging in Place -- Advancing Better Living for Elders (CAPABLE) model.

"This is not a treatment you would give to patients right out of the box on diagnosis." – Dhiman Basu, MD, of Heritage Rheumatology and Arthritis Care in Colleyville, Texas, on using repository corticotropin injection in patients with persistently active rheumatoid arthritis.

"The challenge in psoriatic arthritis is that we need drugs that are effective on the joints and on the skin." -- Thomas Dörner, MD, of the University Hospital Charite in Berlin, on results with tildrakizumab (Ilumya) in patients with psoriatic arthritis.

"What do we do with these kids?" -- David Epley, MD, of EvergreenHealth in Kirkland, Washington, summarizing the conundrum of whether to prescribe glasses or observe young children with moderate farsightedness.

"I am convinced that we can do better than that." -- Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), commenting on a Trump administration plan to reduce overdose deaths by 15% by 2022.

"Our study makes the case that cognitive and technical competence alone are not sufficient." -- Gerald Hickson, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, commenting on a study showing that surgeons with a history of unprofessional behavior had more surgical complications.

"In the end it's about health, not height." -- Ravi Savarirayan, MB, MD, of Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Parkville, Australia, discussing a drug in trials for children with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism.