Advancing Healthcare Through Unity and Cooperation

Transcript generated by AI.

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute radio show hosted by Kevin Geddings of WSOS St ,Augustine Radio and powered ENCORE Research Group. Each Monday morning, Dr. Michael Koren calls in to bring you the latest medical updates with insightful discussions. Medevidence is where we help you navigate the real truth behind medical research, with both a clinical and research perspective. So sit back, relax and get ready to learn about the truth behind the data in medicine and healthcare. This is MedEvidence.

Kevin Geddings: 0:32

We wanted to talk with Dr. Michael Koren.

Kevin Geddings: 0:34

By the way, he joins us on Monday mornings it's one of the highlights of our week and, of course, he is a medical doctor, as we just referenced a cardiologist and a research scientist.

Kevin Geddings: 0:42

You know, in this political season with I don't know what, was it, 35 days left until Election Day we see all these different ads, everybody competing back and forth. It's a very different approach that we elect our presidents as opposed to how you all help us get to a better place in terms of medicine, correct.

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:28

Yeah, it's funny, as Joe Jackson was singing, you and I were talking about how many texts or pieces of mail or emails we've gotten from people in politics trying to really diminish or discredit the other side.

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:45

I guess it's a testimony to my objectivity that I get them from both sides. Literally, I get a dozen texts from both sides but the left and the right each day, and mail from both sides each day, and emails, etc, etc. And most of them from both sides are just really just nasty, quite frankly, and talking about this person being a liar or person has no credibility, et cetera, et cetera. And it made me think how lucky I am to be in an industry where we actually try to find common cause, where we try to promote teamwork, where we have a situation where doctors work with nurses and technicians and we work with people in the pharmaceutical industry and other medical device industries and we work with the government and we all work cooperatively with Common Cause in order to find answers to important medical questions. So how lucky am I that I have to deal with this rather than deal with just the name-calling of politics.

Kevin Geddings: 2:43

Yeah, because so often we have the privilege of speaking with you when you're in Philadelphia at a Heart Association meeting or you're over in Europe, in Paris, at a conference, and you know I get the sense when you report on it that these are people coming together collaboratively, right, you're not dissing each other's research or calling somebody else mentally unstable, or you know? It's a whole different approach right.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:04

Yeah, it's totally. When you think about it. We do a lot of training and education of each other. And why should we be training our competitors, when you think about it? Obviously, other doctors are sort of competing against me, but there's a professional standard and we also realize that there's much more to be gained through cooperation rather than conflict. And if we work hard, instead of debating each other, we say, okay, let's set up a trial and scientifically answer the question, and then, after we answer the question, we share the results with everybody. So how cool is that?

Kevin Geddings: 3:39

Yeah, no, it's amazing I've even seen it just watching from way in the sidelines how even you, Dr. Koren, you get genuinely pleased if even someone that would be using my air quotes here, a competitor, figures out something that maybe you could have figured out or would have figured out right, Because you're excited about the progress correct.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:56

Absolutely. It's a joy of learning, it's a joy of seeing a problem solved.

Kevin Geddings: 4:00

It's wonderful. Don't see a lot of that in Washington, by the way, the joy of seeing a problem solved.

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:08

Yeah, you do not. I think we need an infusion of that. I think, instead of just name-calling, we need to set up clinical trials or tests of different policies. That would, I think, be a tremendous breakthrough, and I agree that, whatever the test results are, we're going to share them and then work from there.

Kevin Geddings: 4:25

Yeah, yeah, I always chuckle, because every once in a while, a medical doctor like yourself will get elected to Congress or the US Senate and you can basically start the stopwatch as to when they go ahead and decide to quit and retire. There's never been a medical doctor that served in Congress for 35 years ever.

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:46

Yeah, it's interesting. It's a whole different paradigm. It's hard for us who have been trained in medicine to completely embrace and understand it.

Kevin Geddings: 4:50

Yeah Well, consistent with that is the notion of putting out good information right and making sure that it's the right information for you to make health care decisions or to help guide a loved one down that path, and that's what MedEvidence is all about, and that's a website. That's also something that Dr Michael Korn is very, very much involved with, correct?

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:08

It is yeah. So that's our platform for talking about the truth behind the data. We talk about what we know in a particular medical issue, what we don't know about an issue, and then how we're going to learn about the stuff that we don't know, and that leads into the whole concept of clinical research.

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:23

And, for example, right now it's a little bit controversial about what vaccines to take to prepare for the cold and flu season and instead of just debating it or calling people ignorant or pointing fingers, we're getting people involved in clinical research, where we truly understand what works, what doesn't work.

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:42

So all of us listening to our conversation today, Kevin, can be part of that. The neat thing is that not only are you helping society by getting the answers to the question, but you're helping yourself by protecting yourself by having resources available when you're in the cold and flu season. So, for example, we'll find out whether or not you're sick from COVID or influenza or another virus, and you also get paid for doing it, a lot more than you get paid for just getting a flu shot at your local grocery store. So it's truly a win-win and an example of cooperation that we really encourage everybody to find out about and participate.

Kevin Geddings: 6:17

Dr. Michael Koren. We appreciate all your time this morning. Thank you and be safe out there. It's my pleasure.

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:23

Have a great week

Announcer: 6:24

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