‘You Can Create Some Scary Sounding Headlines’: What We Heard This Week

“If you only report on the nurses leaving, and don’t account for those who are coming in, you can create some scary sounding headlines.” — David Auerbach, PhD, of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, on the rebound of the registered nurse workforce following a pandemic slump.

“It’s still the reality to the patient, and to discount that does a disservice to the patient.” — David Yuh, MD, of Stamford Hospital in Connecticut, on possible placebo effects with a potential new treatment for severe tricuspid regurgitation under FDA review.

“Nitazenes may be a new threat but we already have answers; we just need to give them a chance to work.” — medical toxicologist Ryan Marino, MD, of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, on a class of synthetic opioids getting increased attention lately.

“The arrogance and ambition of Dr. Bliss did not allow any second opinions. The autopsy confirmed what Bliss publicly and adamantly denied, that the bullet was on the left side of the president’s body.” — Jeffrey Reznick, PhD, senior historian with the National Library of Medicine, on the death of President James Garfield.

“It’s not like a near-miss in a plane crash, where you re-evaluate everything that possibly could have gone wrong [and] you fix it all, then the day after that you’re at the lowest risk ever for a plane crash.” — Jacob Ballon, MD, MPH, of Stanford University in California, on the high suicide risk of patients hospitalized for depression in the first few days after discharge.

“We’re doing more things in this one bucket, but that bucket has a finite amount of things it can pay for.” — Adam Bruggeman, MD, a solo-practice surgeon in San Antonio, on declining reimbursements to surgeons under Medicare.

“This is good news.” — Catherine Kim, MD, MPH, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, on how blood pressure and cholesterol control reversed elevated cardiovascular risk in certain high-risk midlife women.