‘I Think About the Lives Saved’: What We Heard This Week

“I think about the lives saved and families whose lives are forever changed because of [that] public health intervention, because we refused to stay in our lane.” Leana Wen, MD, president of Planned Parenthood, on Baltimore’s “Safe Streets” program.

“I’m just baffled. European patients with ovarian cancer cannot be that different than our American counterparts.” — Mark Shahin, MD, of Jefferson Health in Abington, Pennsylvania, reacting to a negative randomized trial of trabectedin (Yondelis) in U.S. patients with advanced ovarian cancer.

“We’re really on the doorstep of an era where we will be better able to individualize treatment based on that genomic characterization of the tumor.” – Eric Klein, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, on emerging precision-medicine approaches to prostate cancer.

“They [medical school students] are finding less and less obvious intrinsic justification for becoming a doctor, because when they look out at the health of the population they don’t see it getting better.” — Paul Chung, MD, of Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, describing the rationale for the soon-to-open medical school’s emphasis on primary care and community service.

“What happened in the interim? We’re not 100 percent sure.” James L. Gulley, MD, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, talking about a prostate cancer vaccine’s phase III failure, after better results in phase II.

“And in an era when we try to keep healthcare costs down, it will have to be not only more effective, but also cost-effective.” – Howard M. Sandler, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, on the potential widespread adoption of carbon-ion radiotherapy.

“I think we all think there’s probably a signal here.” — David Knopman, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, discussing a device for treating Alzheimer’s disease during an FDA advisory committee meeting.

“So that leaves primary care with an even greater burden caring for skin disease.” — Robert Brodell, MD, of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, commenting on the high prevalence of skin conditions and many patients’ limited access to dermatology specialists.

“Maybe there should simply be a CPT code and an RVU for obtaining a prior authorization.” — Family physician and blogger Hans Duvefelt, MD, venting about the time, frustrations, and lack of physician payment for prior authorization requests.