Exploring Medical Choices and Everyday Risks

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio Show hosted by Kevin Geddings of WSOS St Augustine Radio and powered by 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: 0:31

Dr. Michael Koren, as promised, joining us live on the studio line. He's a medical doctor, of course, cardiologist, research scientist. He also heads up the ENCORE at and they do clinical research, leading-edge clinical research that you and I can participate in. Dr. Koren, good morning.

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:47

Good morning Kevin.

Kevin Geddings: 0:49

How are you doing?

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:51

Well, thank you.

Kevin Geddings: 0:52

So we hear from folks, especially this time of year because we're urging people and we see the marquees anytime you drive by a Walgreens or a CVS get your flu shots. And then some people say, well, you know, they had some sort of you know after effect or some sort of you know some side effect from the flu shot, it's I'm I'm never taking that ever again. What would you say to those folks?

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:13

Yeah, it's a. It's a really good question. It's something that comes up periodically. So, uh, let me ask you a question, Kevin have you ever been in a car accident?

Kevin Geddings: 1:23

Unfortunately a couple of times.

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:27

Do you?

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:27

still drive

Kevin Geddings: 1:32

Yeah, that's funny. You drove away from the accident, got another car Immediately, started driving again.

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:39

Why did you do that? You had a side effect of driving, but you're still driving, right.

Kevin Geddings: 1:43

Exactly Because the benefits outweigh that. You had a side effect of driving, but you're still driving, right, right. Exactly because, well, the the benefits outweigh the risk exactly.

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:50

Did you ever have a bag lost by the airlines?

Kevin Geddings: 1:53

yeah, that, yeah, I've got some really good stories about that. Losing bags for like five days in italy not fun, uh, yes, and then immediately got on a plane yeah, immediately got on a plane again. Isn't that funny how we think that way.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:06

Yes, it's funny In most things in life. We understand the fact that side effects occur. They're unintended consequences and they occur.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:18

But it's usually relatively easy to weigh the risk versus benefit. But in medicine it's a little less comfortable for people to make that assessment and that's why they have doctors and other people to help them make that assessment. But really the same logic applies, which is that you have to weigh the side effect against the benefits of continuing that product or using a similar product. But on occasion, maybe, you don't use that product. So this is what we do in clinical research, is we make those assessments, and this is why people have medical professionals that they can lean on.

Kevin Geddings: 2:49

Well, the great thing, too, when you participate in clinical trials with ENCORE Research Group or whomever but we would recommend obviously strongly with ENCORE Research Group is that if you participate in learning more about new medicines and the like, there's going to be somebody working with you every day, and certainly you're going to see them probably every week, face-to-face or so, and so any side effects are going to be immediately determined to figure out what's the next steps right yeah.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:21

So in a very general sense, the reason we get, study grants is so that we have the resources to evaluate every possible side effect of a new medication. So one of the things that people love about clinical research is the attention to detail. So if you go to your doctor's office and you say, hey, doc, I get this funny itch in my nose when I eat a banana, well, no one's going to make much of that and I'll kind of say, well, let's move on.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:45

But if you said I get a funny itch in the nose about 10 minutes after I took this pill, we're going to evaluate that and we're going to actually send a report to the FDA and we're going to make a determination whether or not that's related to the product that you're taking. And so, in a very important sense, the process is actually quite safe because of all this attention to detail. And of course, there are times when we find things that concern us as medical professionals and we'll tell those patients hey, I think we should stop taking this medication out of an abundance of caution typically. But nonetheless, that's our job and that's actually why we have study grants to cover this really extensive process that benefits.

Kevin Geddings: 4:27

So many people, yeah, in the course of people being involved in clinical research. I mean, it's still relatively rare, right, that they're going to have serious side effects, correct, correct?

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:37

Yeah, it almost never happens. But again, that's our job is to weed all these things out and keep in mind once a product gets on the market there's still the possibility of side effects. But we have a really good sense for what to look for because of all the work that's done in non-clinical trials. So you know any medicine has a risk. I like to remind people you take an aspirin and there's some incremental risk of taking an aspirin.

Kevin Geddings: 5:01

Remind people you take an aspirin and there's some incremental risk of taking an aspirin, but that's offset by the incremental benefit, which for most people is larger than the incremental risk Right, and it seems like these side effects to become fodder, for you know all the garbage information that's available on Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and everywhere else right, Because one person can even, you know, totally fictionalize a side effect and it becomes viral and millions of people see that information, right?

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:27

Yeah, exactly, you have to take a systematic approach to evaluating a side effect. So let's say that somebody is complaining about itching on your nose, as I just mentioned. Okay, well, let's hold this medication for the next three or four days and see if the itching goes away. Well, if it doesn't go away well, chances are it's something else. Let's say it does go away. Well, let's resume the medication and see if it comes back.

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:56

So if you have a situation where you have a side effect that comes on with the use of a product, goes away when you stop the product and comes back when you reintroduce the product, then you have a pretty good story. In that case we typically tell the patient hey, maybe this is not a great idea for you, unless there was some compelling reason to take the medication, and we would ask them to stop the medication as part of the program. But you have to go through that systematic evaluation before you really know. And of course, what you usually see in social media is oh, I drank this potion that the doctor gave me and I had the worst headache ever. And of course there's no details there and who knows if it's related to the potion you took or something else.

Kevin Geddings: 6:36

Yeah, and before I let you go, we're talking about misinformation. Misinformation about side effects. That's prevalent and you can learn more about that and so many other issues by going to the medevidence. com website. Correct.

Kevin Geddings: 6:49

Dr. Koren?

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:49

Absolutely. MedEvidence is our platform that uncovers the truth behind the data, and our mantra is there's things that we know in medicine, there's things that we don't know in medicine and then there's a process to learn about the things we don't know.

Dr. Michael Koren: 7:04

We try to help people understand that. We also emphasize the fact that decision-making in medicine is extremely personal. Dr. Google does not know your personal circumstances. Dr. Google doesn't really know the truth, quite frankly, but they'll just repeat the information that's out there. But the truth is actually how facts overlap with your personal circumstances, and we try to help people understand that on MedEvidence.

Kevin Geddings: 7:29

Well, once again, check out the website MedEvidence. com. Medevidence. com the truth behind the data. Dr. Michael Koren, we appreciate you taking time out this morning. Drive safe out there and we'll talk with you again next week.

Dr. Michael Koren: 7:40

My pleasure.

Announcer: 7:41

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