Outsmarting Medical Misinformation

Transcript:

Narrator: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute radio show hosted by Kevin Gettings 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 di scussions. 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: 0:30

Dr. Michael Koren joins me here live on the studio line every Monday morning and we love having him on. He's been with us for years now and of course he heads up the show at ENCORE Research Group. They do leading edge clinical medical research here in Northeast Florida, including from their offices in St. Augustine in the Whetstone Building on 312, near UF Flagler Hospital. All kinds of different studies you can participate in and ultimately not only may those studies you know hopefully will make you feel a little bit better or get you some treatment, they also might make you smarter, right, Dr. Koren?

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:04

Yes, we were just chatting about that, Kevin. Good morning. It's an interesting question is how do people get smarter? Have you thought about that?

Kevin Geddings: 1:14

I've thought about the need for people to get smarter.

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:18

Well, it's funny. It's one of the things I kind of learned during college. I didn't grow up fancy and I didn't go to a fancy high school, but I went to a good college and one of the things I learned early on in college was the way to do well on tests was actually to practice by doing old tests. So while some people are just reading in the library endlessly, I would just try to find old tests and practice by doing that.

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:43

It was a very successful tactic for me and it made me learn that practicing is truly the way you become perfect and it's actually the way you get smarter. So theoretical knowledge is important to some degree, but actually practicing is what makes a difference, in my opinion.

Kevin Geddings: 1:56

I t makes a huge difference. And, of course, getting smarter also involves getting good information, and we speak with you often, every week, pretty much about having people check out the website MedEvidence. com so you can get fact-based knowledge. Because, let's face it right, we're overwhelmed by TV commercials that say, hey, put this magnet on your back and you'll get rid of your arthritis.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:19

Yeah, it's interesting you bring that up. I had a conversation this week with a good buddy, incredibly successful guy, really smart guy, very, very fancy education and he was asking me about magnets for his back pain and he was telling me about this. You know very, intense presentation that he received and for a mere price of five thousand dollars, there was a series of magnets that would make his back pain go away, and I had a laugh I was trying to be polite, but I had to laugh a little bit that somebody that is incredibly intelligent can fall for something like this without any evidence. And I just asked a simple question do they have any studies to prove it works? And of course they didn't. So that's what we do, is we come up with ideas, but any idea is only as good as the evidence to show that it either works or doesn't work.

Kevin Geddings: 3:08

Right, that's Dr. Michael Koren, by the way and you can get a little smarter. You can participate in clinical research here locally, perhaps even get compensated for your time, but, more importantly, learn more about your health situation and how you can make it better by going to Encoredocs. com. Part of this process of being engaged in clinical trials too, from a patient's perspective or an individual's perspective, is that you're going to be interacting with you know nurses and doctors and others on a almost every other week basis.

Kevin Geddings: 3:38

Right, you're going to learn a lot about what's going on inside your body and how this medicine may be helping you or not, right?

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:48

Totally, and we're going to reinforce all the positive behaviors that help people do better, to help people feel better and live longer. So we know that diet and exercise, for example, is important, and, even though we may be doing a study on a drug, we're going to reinforce all those positive characteristics that help people. And even just being in a study is very reinforcing in terms of taking your medicine every day. It's not so easy to do so things like statins, which are well proven to make a big difference in reducing heart attacks and strokes, or taking your blood pressure pills they're hard to take every day. So by being in a study, we reinforce all those behaviors that really make a difference.

Kevin Geddings: 4:24

Yeah, you know, one thing we don't mention enough, I think, Dr. Koren, is how people who do get involved in these studies really enjoy it and how they want to do it again, right?

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:33

Totally, totally Well having a little bit of a coach. A health coach is helpful, it's fun, it reinforces good feelings about yourself and people enjoy it. Plus, they're part of this wonderful worldwide process where we share information. So this coming weekend I'll be at the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta and presenting data that came from our patients here in Northeast Florida, and I love to tell the audience that I'm really speaking on behalf of the patients, that in fact, they're the ones that are providing this information for all of us to get smarter.

Kevin Geddings: 5:07

Yeah well, that's a big event. Obviously, this is one of those types of conferences, right, Dr. Koren, where it kind of drives the news cycle for the next day. Right, because you all will be releasing information that we don't even know about today. We won't know about it for a week, right?

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:23

Exactly. Again, I don't know which studies will capture the imagination of the media, but hopefully you and I get to talk next Monday from the American College of Cardiology and I'll let you know how it goes and let you know what the hottest breaking story is.

Kevin Geddings: 5:36

Yeah, yeah, we put a reading lamp on Dr. Koren. We really tried to browbeat him but he would not give us the information early. But we tried. We tried to "60 minutes him, but it did not work.

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:50

Yeah, there is a strict embargo. We cannot reveal the results of the studies prior to the presentation. What I can tell you is that my presentation will not only be a verbal presentation, but at the same time we're going to release all of the results in a paper that's published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Kevin Geddings: 6:11

Well, congratulations on that. I was wondering so are there folks in your profession, though, that are kind of known to be a bit of a sieve, like they're just leakers, they're just going to share with the media. You know, like you kind of look at that doctor or that research doctor and say, yeah, he's a media hound" a media hound.

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:29

Well, that's actually going to be an hour podcast before I can give you that information. Alright, because we want to name names. Like any other industry, just like in politics, things get leaked. I think we have the same type of phenomenon in our industry, but maybe a little bit more subtle.

Kevin Geddings: 6:46

Well, we'll look forward to finding out about what you're going to be presenting this week in Atlanta, and we hope that you have a good week getting ready for that. Okay, doctor.

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:54

Much appreciated, Kevin. Thank you.

Narrator: 6:55

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