‘This Isn’t About Turning Doctors Into Dieticians’: What We Heard This Week

“This isn’t about turning doctors into dieticians.” — Bobby Mukkamala, MD, president of the American Medical Association, discussing the federal effort to increase the time medical students spend on nutrition education.

“You shouldn’t do it.” — Steven Pliszka, MD, of UT Health San Antonio, warning against the use of amphetamine-dextroamphetamine (Adderall) in people without attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder due to the potential heart risks.

“It’s a bigger problem than we may have previously appreciated.” — Anisha Ganguly, MD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, discussing the downstream effects of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, including a drop in residency applications in states that introduced abortion restrictions.

“Unfortunately, this is no longer rare.” — Robert Frolichstein, MD, president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, on how independent physician groups are increasingly being replaced by large national staffing companies.

“What we did not expect was that, in every single respect, this new federal IACC would be radically different from anything we have seen since its inception 20 years ago.” — Helen Tager-Flusberg, PhD, of Boston University, on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s overhaul of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), including the appointment of new members who have questioned vaccine safety.

“They don’t want to sit on their hands and do nothing for the kids.” — Wayne Shreffler, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, on how parents are eager to seek early intervention after a food allergy diagnosis.

“Just don’t use it for too long.” — Raman Madan, MD, of Northwell Health in Glen Cove, New York, discussing mometasone cream, a topical steroid listed in President Trump’s medical history.

“This prompted us to look closely at biological and mechanistic reasons.” — Hemalkumar Mehta, PhD, MS, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, after research suggesting women reap greater weight-loss benefits with GLP-1 agents than men.

“If this trend continues, more and more babies will be at risk for serious bleeding that is truly preventable.” — Kristan Scott, MD, of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, on the rising rate of parents who refuse vitamin K shots for their newborns.