'The Pandora's Box is Giant': What We Heard This Week

Quotable quotes from MedPage Today's sources

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"Every 9 minutes, someone in a U.S. hospital dies due to a medical diagnosis that was wrong or delayed." -- Paul Epner, MBA, CEO of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, speaking at a society event to launch a public awareness initiative.

"In the context of kidney disease, these are like so many other environmental toxins in that we don't know how they interact to worsen or augment kidney disease in people with other risk factors such as diabetes or hypertension." -- John Stanifer, MD, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, discussing a study linking exposure to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances to impaired kidney function.

"This is terrifying." -- Barbara McAneny, MD, on the California medical board's use of overdose fatalities to investigate their physicians for possible overprescribing.

"It is unsustainable." -- Franklin Gaylis, MD, of the University of California San Diego, commenting on healthcare inflation in the U.S. and the contributions of overtreatment.

"This slope is a slippery one. The Pandora's box is giant." -- Internist and blogger Suneel Dhand, MD, commenting on what he sees as efforts to change the history of medicine.

"We would never send our loved ones to a surgeon who says 'I don't really have any training but I'm going to try my best.'" -- Julie Goldstein Grumet, PhD, of the Zero Suicide Institute on clinicians' lack of training in suicide prevention.

"I can imagine this substance could be used in other diseases with itch." -- Konstantine Buxtorf Friedli, MD, of Plans-les-Ouates in Switzerland, commenting on research showing that a topical JAK inhibitor is active in atopic dermatitis.


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