quotable quotes - April 2013
“I think there has to be a perception shift. Right now, the human body is thought of as a harbinger of disease. It’s not that. It’s imperative is to be healthy…If there was one lever to pull, we have to change the dynamic of excess intake of nutrient poor, highly concentrated sugar…How have we allowed our food system to be so altered?”
– Gail Christopher (VP, Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, MI) during the Building a Healthier America Summit in Washington, D.C., March 7-8, 2013.
“[Obesity is] eating away at the foundations of our children, consuming their potential and their dreams, raising the costs of living, [and] lowering the quality of life.”
– Mayor Cory Booker (Honorary Vice Chair, Partnership for a Healthier America; Mayor of Newark, NJ) during the Building a Healthier America Summit in Washington, D.C., March 7-8, 2013.
“If airlines were run and regulated the way healthcare is, they would put a plane out there and not refill the tank, because they would not get reimbursed for doing so. The airline would [only] get reimbursed once the plane crashes.”
– Dean Kamen (President, DEKA Research & Development Corporation, Manchester, NH) during the Building a Healthier America Summit in Washington, D.C., March 7-8, 2013.
“There are also things that need to change systematically. [At Kaiser], we now use activity as a vital sign. It’s the same way that 10 years ago, you were asked, no matter why you came in, do you smoke? Have you smoked? Now you are asked, ‘Are you active.’ Your BMI is checked routinely…We need that change to ripple through American medicine.”
– Dr. Raymond Baxter (Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA) on the wellness innovations at Kaiser Permanente (the nation’s largest not-for-profit health plan) during the Building a Healthier America Summit in Washington, D.C., March 7-8, 2013.
“In all my years of clinical practice, severe hypoglycemia is more detrimental and more negative than anything – it doesn't allow you to intensify management. Patients are not willing to listen to you and won’t come back into the clinic. I don’t understand why FDA does not realize that reducing severe hypoglycemia is far more important than a small rise in A1c.”
– Dr. Satish Garg (Barbara Davis Center, Denver, CO) discussing the tradeoff between devices that reduce hypoglycemia but have the potential to slightly increase A1c, at the 6th International Conference on Advanced Technologies and Treatments for Diabetes, Paris, France, February 27-March 2, 2013.
