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'The Data Do Not Even Exist': What We Heard This Week

<ѻý class="mpt-content-deck">— Quotable quotes heard by ѻý's reporters
MedpageToday
A female reporter holding two microphones takes notes on a pad

"Heck -- the data do not even exist." -- Becky Smullin Dawson, PhD, MPH, of Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, on a controversial BMJ Public Health paper about COVID-19 deaths.

"A lot of times, the person on the other end of the phone is not a doctor." -- American Medical Association President Bruce Scott, MD, recounting calls with insurance companies who have denied patient procedures.

"It's just not robust or specific enough for that." -- Adrian Diaz, MD, MPH, of Ohio State University in Columbus, on the shortcomings of using CMS hospital star ratings to decide where to have surgery.

"Diversity work has always been relatively undervalued [and] under-invested [in]." -- Michelle Ko, MD, PhD, of the University of California Davis, on equity and inclusion programs at academic health centers.

"If you do want to receive evidence-based care and do have co-occurring disorders, it's definitely difficult." -- Jonathan Cantor, PhD, of the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, on the low access to opioid use disorder medications at outpatient treatment centers.

"We feel like we have a game plan." -- Redonna Chandler, PhD, director of the HEALing Communities Study, getting evidence-based practices for reducing opioid overdoses into the real world.

"The endpoint of naloxone success is not awakening; it's breathing." -- Lewis Nelson, MD, of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, discussing reversal of overdoses involving medetomidine and fentanyl.