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'The Number One Frustration With the Healthcare System': 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

"It's really the number one frustration with the healthcare system." -- American Medical Association president-elect Jack Resneck, MD, on the growing burden of prior authorization.

"The numbers were eye-opening." -- Ahmed Obeidat, MD, PhD, of the Medical College of Wisconsin, discussing the disproportionate numbers of multiple sclerosis patients in certain parts of Wisconsin.

"He put me on medication, and in a month I was a different person." -- Nerida Zapata, a patient with rheumatoid arthritis, treated at a clinic supported by the Arthritis Foundation that's now facing legal troubles.

"We're doing this for our community." -- Maulik Joshi, DrPH, president and CEO of Meritus Health, which faces a lawsuit from Walgreens after Meritus opened an independent pharmacy in the lobby of its flagship medical center.

"This is a new era for obesity treatment." -- Ania M. Jastreboff, MD, PhD, of Yale University School of Medicine, on trial data showing major weight loss with tirzepatide (Mounjaro), a dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist currently approved for diabetes.

"We are not enough." -- Alba Azola, MD, of Johns Hopkins Medicine, on the dearth of long COVID clinics in America.

"This is a reform that deserves our very best attention." -- Thomas Dee, PhD, of Stanford University, discussing the drop in less serious crimes with a pilot program where healthcare workers responded to emergency calls instead of police.

"I've often joked of it as the Cheesecake Factory menu, for which you almost need an outline or a table of contents -- we have more choices than ever." -- Joseph Mikhael, MD, of City of Hope Cancer Center, discussing new trial data in multiple myeloma.