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quotable quotes

Updated: 8/14/21 9:00 amPublished: 7/22/13

"Early on, patients understood the power and paradox of insulin – it can keep you alive, but also induce harm – I call it living on the damn precipice."

James Hirsch (Author, Cheating Destiny, Needham, MA) during a symposium on hypoglycemia and diabetes technology at the American Diabetes Association 73rd Scientific Sessions in Chicago, IL, June 21-25, 2013. 

"I think we became the easy target. I think if you look at the way they are going to enforce this [SMBG competitive bidding], it is unbelievable. Doctors are not well represented in Congress, so they are taking out billions just to balance the sheet. You are going to have meters with no quality."

Dr. Satish Garg (University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, CO) on Medicare’s competitive bidding for self-monitoring of blood glucose test strips at ADA.

 "In Mozambique, the life expectancy for a newly diagnosed type 1 patient is 20 years in the capital city versus a mere 1.5 years in rural areas."

Dr. John S. Yudkin (University College London, London, UK) discussing health care for people with type 1 diabetes in low- and middle-income countries at ADA

"I think that one of the things that is implicitly crazy about how we treat diabetes in America is that when people come to see us, we unfortunately are not talking to them about,  ‘How can we help you get to somewhere safe and healthy with your disease?' The problem is we often have this implicit message of, ‘How do we get you to behave?' Or, ‘You need to behave.'"

Dr. William Polonsky (Behavioral Diabetes Institute, San Diego, CA) on changing the health care provider and patient relationship at ADA.

"The new clinical trial that we have going right now, GRADE, is a comparative effectiveness study. It’s answering what is the best [drug] to add to metformin. That’s the kind of study that would never be done by industry."

Dr. Judy Fradkin (NIH, Bethesda, MA) during her discussion of federal funding of academic research at ADA.

 "If you really look at the data, it really shows the majority of the cost is not with the drugs or the devices. It is with the services and taking care of the complications."

–Dr. Satish Garg (University of Colorado, Aurora, CO) on the cost of managing diabetes at ADA.

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