Opinion | ‘We Are Responsible for Someone Else’s Life’: What We Heard This Week

“We are responsible for someone else’s life. That’s important.” — Lein Torres, RN, a radiology nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital, explaining that the New York City nurses’ strike is about patient safety and the mental health and well-being of staff, not just compensation.

“15 years of data have taught us that ‘watchful waiting’ only leads to greater increase in child BMI, accumulation of comorbidities, and more challenges in trying to reverse some of this.” — Sarah Armstrong, MD, of the Duke Center for Childhood Obesity Research in North Carolina, on the American Academy of Pediatrics’s new recommendations advising young children with overweight or obesity be referred to immediate and intensive treatment.

“We’re spending a lot of money in scrubs for hospital systems, but has anyone stopped to ask the patients?” — Casey Hribar, BS, a medical student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discussing her survey about surgical scrub colors.

“It was pretty prevalent in that nine of 10 insurers in terms of market share were among those named, so it’s not just one or two bad actors.” — Vikas Saini, MD, Lown Institute president, on Medicare Advantage companies topping his organization’s annual Shkreli Awards list.

“As dramatic as these findings are, on some level, they’re not so unexpected.” — Louisa Holaday, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, on how Black medical residents are burdened with more debt than other racial and ethnic groups.

“This area of research is currently of great interest since it may be an indication of some kind of inflammatory process in the brain.” — Caroline Graff, MD, PhD, of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, about new research showing a blood-based biomarker that detected Alzheimer’s disease about 10 years before symptom onset.

“The vast majority of clergy embrace a medical understanding of the causes and potential treatments of depression.” — Anna Holleman, PhD, of Duke University in North Carolina, on a survey of church leaders unveiling views of depression that were largely in line with medical experts.

“The pandemic has exacerbated existing trends in food insecurity.” — Cindy Leung, ScD, MPH, of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, on a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic that hit older adults particularly hard.