Opinion | ‘There’s No Cops on the Beat’: What We Heard This Week

“A lot of this stuff that happens is because there’s no cops on the beat.” — Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute, discussing how the behavior of Shkreli Award winners gets overlooked by regulators.

“All medications can be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ depending on whether they are given to the right person, for the right indication, at the right time, in the right form.” — Alexander Chaitoff, MD, MPH, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, discussing gabapentin and fall risk in older adults with neuropathy or fibromyalgia.

“If it’s something that you might be sued for, you’re going to do it less, and then you’re going to be less experienced at it, and then you’ll be less good at it, and then you’ll do it even less.” — Pamela Berens, MD, of the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, on adverse perinatal outcomes in hospitals with fewer operative vaginal deliveries.

“When private equity takes over a hospital, things generally get worse for patients.” — Rishi Wadhera, MD, MPP, MPhil, of Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, discussing research on private equity’s impact on hospitals.

“It can’t predict OUD any better than a coin flip.” — Andrew Kolodny, MD, of Brandeis University in Massachusetts, discussing the AvertD test which is meant to predict opioid use disorder (OUD) risk based on genetic variants.

“The study clearly showed that driver mutation monitoring is needed to counsel patients properly, and will become clinical practice.” — Nicolaus Kröger, MD, of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, discussing myelofibrosis driver mutations after stem-cell transplant.

“It’s very difficult to distinguish it from other respiratory viruses.” — Tina Tan, MD, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, on human metapneumovirus.

“It’s not dissimilar to how I can feel, when talking to a patient about a disease, where things are going. — Colorado hospitalist Jason Persoff, MD, discussing his annual storm-chasing trip down “Tornado Alley.”

“What stood out was the strong negative reaction to financial incentives and celebrity-driven vaccine promotion, which participants viewed as manipulative and disrespectful.” — Brittany Slatton, PhD, of Texas Southern University in Houston, on factors that contributed to COVID vaccine hesitancy among Black women.