The FDA did nothing to assure that the proper trials were conducted, but at the same time allowed mass-marketing campaigns with hundred of millions of dollars supporting direct-to-consumer advertising.

The [drug-approval] system was tested in ways it was never tested before. In an era of mass marketing, where data may show uncertainty and where the FDA has no real authority to take action, this class of drugs was set up to fail.

I use a portable pocket ultrasound device instead of a stethoscope to listen to the heart, and I share it with the patient in real time. 'Look at your valve, look at your heart-muscle strength.' So they're looking at it with me. Normally a patient is tested by an ultrasonographer who is not allowed to tell them anything.

The digital world has been in a separate orbit from our medical cocoon, and it's time the boundaries be taken down.

If you sequence a cancerous tumor, you should be able to tailor the therapy according to the root cause of the cancer. But it has taken so long to do the sequencing - which also requires time to prepare the samples and interpret the deluge of data that comes out - that the patients are already undergoing therapy by the process if over.

For people who have heart disease, statins are great. But if all you've had is high cholesterol, what you're doing is taking this 1/100 chance of getting a benefit and offsetting it with 1/200 chance of getting diabetes.