‘This Medical Report Will Have Little Effect’: What We Heard This Week

“I have not heard any fair-minded concerns about her health, so I expect that this medical report will have little effect.” — John Sotos, MD, a retired cardiologist who chronicles presidents’ medical histories, commenting on newly released details about Vice President Kamala Harris’ health.

“It’s not going to be a reflection of their best effort.” — Harris Ahmed, DO, MPH, of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, discussing how students approach pass/fail tests differently, after scores from a medical licensing exam that was intended to be pass/fail were accidentally shared with residency programs.

“Youth diagnosed with diabetes will carry the burden of diabetes-related complications and increased medical costs for many years.” — Pauline Terebuh, MD, MPH, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, discussing findings showing that type 2 diabetes diagnoses in teens were more common after an infection with SARS-CoV-2 versus other respiratory viruses.

“Glaucoma remains an important threat to vision.” — Joshua Ehrlich, MD, MPH, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, discussing the estimated 4.2 million Americans with glaucoma.

“We hope that in the future it will be used by clinicians to identify patients at high risk of severe disease.” — Marie Vibeke Vestergaard, MSc, of Aalborg University in Denmark, on research linking the presence of the single nucleotide variation HLA-DRB1*01:03 to severe ulcerative colitis.

“Small fees to discourage patients from using valuable services like telehealth or messaging is probably also going to do more harm than good.” — Matthew Notowidigdo, PhD, of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, on the topic of billing for patients’ portal messages to their doctors.

“When there are more organs available for transplant, everyone has a better chance of moving up on the list.” — Christine Durand, MD, of Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, on the benefits of HIV-to-HIV kidney transplantation.

“Having a drug that is less of a cognitive offender is really important.” — Jacob Ballon, MD, MPH, of Stanford University in California, discussing research evaluating the impact of different antipsychotics on the cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia.

“There is no clear evidence or pilot study to support the assumption that these guardrails will effectively address the risk of misuse.” — Chad Ellimoottil, MD, of the University of Michigan Medical Group in Ann Arbor, discussing a draft proposed rule from the Drug Enforcement Administration that would limit telemedicine prescribing of controlled substances.

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