‘Can Certainly Happen in Patients Who Are Not Surfers’: What We Heard This Week

“It can certainly happen in patients who are not surfers.” — Matthew Gorski, MD, of Northwell Health in Great Neck, New York, on the risk for pterygium, an ultraviolet radiation-induced eye condition commonly referred to as “surfer’s eye.”

“If there are a lot of different pathogens, which antibiotic do you use?” — Jonathan Finnoff, DO, chief medical officer of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, discussing the prophylactic antibiotic considerations for the Olympians who swam in the Seine.

“Doesn’t mean that the ingredients are a secret.” — Tenille Davis, PharmD, of the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding, explaining how compounders go about reproducing on-patent drugs like GLP-1 receptor agonists.

“Statistically significant does not necessarily mean it is true or clinically relevant.” — H. Nina Kim, MD, MSc, of the University of Washington in Seattle, discussing a study that found a link between paternal hepatitis B virus infection and congenital heart disease.

“We do not propose diet as a cure-therapy for MS.” — Laura Piccio, MD, PhD, of the University of Sydney, discussing a positive signal in a small trial of intermittent fasting in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

“Stabbing your child in the leg with an autoinjector, or injecting yourself, is a big move.” — Christopher Warren, PhD, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, on a potential advantage of the newly approved epinephrine nasal spray formulation (neffy) for allergic reactions.

“We categorically discourage off-label use of semaglutide and without any medical supervision.” — Georgios Schoretsanitis, MD, PhD, of the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, discussing study findings showing a potential link between suicidal thoughts and the GLP-1 agonist.

“A one-size-fits-all approach would likely not be effective in diagnosing children with long COVID.” — Rachel Gross, MD, of NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, on how long COVID symptoms differ between younger kids and adolescents.

“Doesn’t really make up for the fundamental problems of not having sufficient staff.” — Peter Griffiths, RN, PhD, of the University of Southampton in England, on findings that having greater numbers of senior nursing staff in hospitals only slightly blunted the risks associated with lower nursing staffing levels overall.

“It’s a good thing that so many providers are engaged in prescribing a medication that’s so effective.” — Lorraine Dean, ScD, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, on the wide variety of clinicians prescribing HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for at-risk adults.