quotable quotes - February 2013
“What is the goal? A sub 7% A1c? Good control? Learning to live well with diabetes is worth more than you reaching a perfect number.
-Sebastien Sasseville, who has climbed Mt. Everest, raced across the Sahara Desert, and who regularly participates in Ironman competitions. His closing talk on what he’s learned from these challenging activities at Children with Diabetes Focus on Technology in Crystal City, VA, February 1-3, 2013.
“So many of our trials are being driven by regulatory requirements. The important questions that we and our patients really want to know become ancillary questions, and that is a problem. I am concerned that diabetes has become largely a cardiovascular disease.”
-Dr. Robert Ratner (Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, American Diabetes Association, Alexandria, VA) on how current clinical trials are not as informative as they should be for developing guidelines for how to use therapies. The discussion was on developing guidelines for personal care from randomized clinical trials at Excellence in Diabetes, Istanbul, Turkey, February 7-9, 2013.
“If you are going to use MDI in adult insulin resistant patients, as you add injections it is important to assess whether adding those injections is having a benefit. If it is not… back off and accept the slightly higher A1c of 7.4% or so because there certainly are possible harms with MDI. I also do like the idea of doing more research on using GLP-1 agonists with insulin due to the possible synergies.”
-Dr. John Buse (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC) during a panel discussion on if multiple daily injections (MDI) should be a default treatment for type 2 diabetes care at Excellence in Diabetes, Istanbul, Turkey, February 7-9, 2013.
“Most lifestyle modification programs are about individual responsibility, while all around us we conspire to create a society that promotes the opposite of healthy behavior. So we need to move into community approach.”
-Dr. Pamela Dyson (CEO of Oxford Health Alliance, UK) commenting on the type of programs that will be effective at reducing obesity and type 2 diabetes. Her talk was on “Community Programs” at Excellence in Diabetes, Istanbul, Turkey, February 6-9, 2013.
“I think that a lot of the Medicare reform proposals that are getting the most traction would shift cost onto beneficiaries (patients) and would do nothing more. They would do nothing about rising healthcare costs. The things that are being talked about most are further increasing Medicare premiums, and raising the age of eligibility.”
-Mr. David Lipschutz JD (Center for Medicare Advocacy, Willimantic, CT) about the conversations on Capitol Hill about changes in healthcare from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Acts. He was part of a panel that discussed meeting compliance requirements at the 5th Annual National Forum on the Business of Medicare Advantage and Compliance, Arlington, VA, January 28-29, 2013.
