Steven Kahn, editor-in-chief of Diabetes Care, denounced what he described as “pure censorship” after American Diabetes Association leadership blocked a series of editorials addressing the removal of researchers from the annual ADA meeting. In a separate move, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, MBA, justified heightened scrutiny on Medicaid claims by stating that the administration would not “pay for healthcare for dead people,” as it froze over $1 billion in state funding over allegations of fraud. Dr. Oz emphasized that the freeze targets suspected fraudulent expenditures.
Melissa Loseke, DO, chief medical officer of the Re-New Institute and an FDA advisory committee member, called for stricter pharmaceutical oversight after a patient took an unregulated peptide laced with MDMA, arguing that the current response is “not protecting the American people.” Gill Livingston, MD, noted that dementia remains the illness most feared by many, presenting updated World Health Organization guidelines aimed at reducing cognitive decline risk. Meanwhile, David Brown, MD, reported that retinal nerve fiber thickening in geographic atrophy patients treated with complement inhibitors never plateaus, calling the progression “scary.”
Stalled federal grant funding prompted Nora Becker, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan, to express relief when her university stepped in to cover her study’s costs, stating that the situation “can’t continue indefinitely” and had been “really stressful.” Michael DiStefano, PhD, of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, emphasized the importance of investigating suppliers after a secret shopper study revealed safety violations at several GLP-1 drug compounding pharmacies. Raksha Jain, MD, of UT Southwestern Medical Center, called for integrating reproductive healthcare into routine cystic fibrosis management, pointing out a “big gap in who’s taking responsibility for these things.”
