‘This Is Probably the Most Obviously Fake Data I Have Seen’: What We Heard This Week

“This is probably the most obviously fake data I have seen.” — Kyle Sheldrick, MBBS, PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales, on the potentially fraudulent data underpinning an infamous study of vitamin C for sepsis.

“It is OK to have financial relationships with industry.” — Adam Bitterman, DO, of Northwell Health Physician Partners Orthopaedic Institute, on rising industry ties among U.S. orthopedic journal editorial boards.

“When the unspeakable happens to you, and you speak about it, others have permission to speak up too.” — Corey Feist, JD, MBA, president and co-founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, on the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, which will help to train healthcare providers on suicide prevention strategies and behavioral health.

“For those who keep brushing off polygenic embryo screening…this is another development that suggests that it can have utility.” — Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, PhD, JD, of Harvard Medical School, on predicting the risk of common diseases within in vitro-fertilized embryos through new techniques.

“We are in grave danger of the ‘Texas sharpshooter fallacy’ — where someone first fires a shot at a barn then paints a target around the bullet hole.” — Scott Emerson, MD, PhD, of the University of Washington and member of the FDA advisory committee that reviewed aducanumab (Aduhelm), about the importance of prespecified analysis plans in clinical trials.

“The performance is the table dressing for the conversation that follows it.” — Bryan Doerries, artistic director for Theater of War Productions, on how the Zoom production, The Nurse Antigone, encourages nurses to talk about workforce issues.

“The question is, where’s the elephant in the room?” — Martin Reck, MD, of Hospital Grosshansdorf in Germany, on the results of the PEARLS/KEYNOTE-091 trial of adjuvant pembrolizumab in early non-small cell lung cancer.