Opinion | ‘Believe in Your Data and Question Conventional Wisdom’: What We Heard This Week

“Two lessons: believe in your data and question conventional wisdom.” — Stephen Hauser, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, discussing his book, The Face Laughs While the Brain Cries.

“You don’t always think a chip can be dangerous.” — Scott Krakower, DO, of Northwell Health in New York, about the ‘One Chip Challenge’ social media trend.

“Approximately 10 minutes of watching [TV] by the child yields actionable clinical assessment data for the clinician.” — Warren Jones, PhD, of Marcus Autism Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, on an eye-tracking tool that may aid in autism diagnoses.

“I very rarely, if ever, think ‘does this person have Merkel cell?'” — Raman Madan, MD, of Northwell Health in New York, discussing the rare skin cancer Jimmy Buffett died of.

“A bit of a unicorn-type candidate.” — John Brownstein, PhD, of Boston Children’s Hospital, on hiring one of healthcare’s first artificial intelligence prompt engineers.

“We’re uniquely positioned, as people that see the downstream effects on individual health, to also prioritize our ability to advocate for our patients.” — Russell Buhr, MD, PhD, of UCLA Health in Los Angeles, on caring for respiratory patients during climate change.

“Trust is absolutely foundational to our ability to help Americans and those around the world protect themselves.” — CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH, on rebuilding trust within the agency and with the general public.

“If we went back to 2017, people would think we’d be crazy to do this.” — Ching-Wei Tzeng, MD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, on discharging pancreatic resection patients with little to no opioids through sequential updates to clinical protocols.

“We don’t believe the UDDA is fundamentally broken.” — Matthew DeCamp, MD, PhD, of the University of Colorado in Aurora, discussing the American College of Physicians’ position on the Uniform Determination of Death Act.