Announcer:
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 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:
0:30
Dr. Michael Koren joining me live on the studio line right now.
Kevin Geddings:
1:16
information you can trust, Medevidence. com. That's MedEvidence. com Joining us live this morning on Martin Luther King Day, a federal state county holiday, but also Inauguration Day in Washington, with probably some changes coming in health policy. Or will there be any changes in health policy?
Dr. Michael Koren:
1:34
It's a really good question, Kevin. I don't have the answer to that. We will have a new president today and the advisors to the president seem to have very different opinions, so we'll see how it all plays out. You have one advisor who is recommending that everybody all Americans get access to GLP-1 agonists, which are drugs to help people suppress their appetite, like Mounjaro or Ozempic, and then you have another advisor that is extremely skeptical about all drugs and vaccines and thinks that if everybody has a membership to a gym, everything will be okay in terms of controlling your weight. So how this all plays out, I don't know, but certainly we're in for some interesting times.
Dr. Michael Koren:
2:23
I guess that's. An old Chinese proverb is may you live in interesting times, and we can certainly say that will be the case as we, as we unpack what happens in terms of health care space. But I'll also say that one of the things about quote interesting times is that there are places where you can find consistency. Interesting times is that there are places where you can find consistency, and one of them is actually in research, where we take folks that come in, we evaluate them and then we get them involved in protocols, where there's a lot of consistency. You know exactly what the goals are, you know exactly what the process is and you'll be cared for very carefully under these circumstances.
Kevin Geddings:
3:01
Yeah, that's Dr. Michael Koren. Of course, with us live and a big part of our family here, and yes, to get into that. You know you can have a little bit more control over what's happening with your own health care by participating in a clinical trial, right? You're going to be experiencing health care probably in the most intimate way than you maybe have ever experienced it when you're participating in a clinical trial.
Dr. Michael Koren:
3:24
Yeah, absolutely. Depending on the trial, some are more intense than others. But, for example, if you got involved in a weight loss study, there would be a nutritionist involved, there would be a protocol. You knew when your business will be occurring. There'll be lab tests done for safety reasons and to make sure that everything is moving in the right direction. So there's a lot of support that goes in it, but I think the most important thing is that there's consistency. Your expectations will be clear. We'll do everything we can to make it a good experience for you and you won't have this uncertainty of having very, very different advisors set the stage for how your health care may be presented to you.
Kevin Geddings:
4:10
Before we totally leave, the new president message, Dr. Koren. I mean you've been around this for a while. You and I are roughly the same age and you know you've seen administrations come and go. I mean, when you look in the rearview mirror I mean how much really can a change in administration really change what happens with the progress of the health sciences in our country?
Dr. Michael Koren:
4:30
It can have some effect. Certainly, there's a lot of elements to the government that affect healthcare. The US government by far is the number one contributor to healthcare dollars, so from that standpoint they have the power of the purse. Some of that is already baked in in terms of CMS, which is Medicare and Medicaid and those policies, but the president and politics definitely influence some of those policies that can have a big impact. On the research front, there's a lot of spending that goes through the government. The National Institute of Health is the number one contributor to health research in the world and that has a huge impact in terms of what gets studied and what doesn't get studied. So there's an impact there.
Dr. Michael Koren:
5:22
But, to your point, day to day it's still really up to people interacting with their physicians and other healthcare providers and making their own decisions. So it is a mixed bag. But the thing that again, I think is stressful, quite frankly, to people is not knowing exactly what to expect. So I'll give you an example of this.
Dr. Michael Koren:
5:46
We were talking about obesity and a big issue right now is how people get access to drugs like Ozempic and Manjaro. These are called GLP-1 agonists and these drugs have helped lots of people lose weight. They treat diabetes. They help lower blood pressure. They've actually been shown to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, meaning fewer heart attacks and strokes. So what is the government going to do in terms of access? You probably know that there was a shortage of these drugs for a while and, under the setting of the shortage, compound pharmacies were allowed to make these drugs and actually defy the patents that these big pharmaceutical companies enjoy when they are able to sell Mounjaro or Ozempic without competition. Now has the government interpreted this quote shortage and will they ban these compound pharmacy makers from getting into the market? So that's a great example of how the government gets involved and how that involvement can affect people. But again, it's also an example that when you're doing things in a research protocol, you don't have to worry about these political issues affecting your access to medications.
Kevin Geddings:
6:54
Yeah, that's a very good point. So people that are enjoying compounded ozempic, for example, for maybe a couple hundred bucks a month, could suddenly find themselves trying to figure out a way to pay a thousand dollars a month Right.
Dr. Michael Koren:
7:07
Absolutely, and these are situations that are going through the FDA and the court systems as we speak, and it gets into some tough decisions that somebody's going to have to make in terms of protecting intellectual property, which is the patent system, versus giving the public access to things in the healthcare space that are extremely popular, versus proprietary issues of different companies and our ability to run private businesses here in the healthcare space that are extremely popular, versus proprietary issues at different companies and our ability to run private businesses here in the United States. So super interesting stuff and again, I'm just happy that I'm a clinical researcher and I can give people a consistent experience.
Kevin Geddings:
7:43
Yeah, absolutely. Well, you can learn more about participating in clinical trials right here. There can be some compensation for your participation, but mostly you're going to enjoy some of the best healthcare you've ever had and the satisfaction of being a part of leading-edge medicine. Go to EncoreDocs. com. Encoredocs. com. And, of course, a shout-out to MedEvidence. com that platform the truth behind the data. What are folks going to find when they punch in to the Google machine, medevidence. com?
Dr. Michael Koren:
8:12
You're going to find again a consistent message about healthcare, and the message is that healthcare is very complicated, but when you hear two knowledgeable physicians talk about an issue, you get to credible information, you get to the truth behind the data, you start to understand that particular area and then make good decisions for yourself and your family. Now, if you get on a website and they tell you the state of the world, you should be very skeptical because medicine, like most things, is complex. There are different issues and ultimately, no website knows your particular circumstance. So the only way you get to that realization is by just listening to experts discuss things and then gleaning insights.
Kevin Geddings:
8:57
Well, once again, go and check it out. I want to take you a second. You're going to find the information easily presented and in different formats that are easy to consume medevidence. com. That's medevidence. com, Dr. Michael Koren. We appreciate all your time this morning. We hope you have a good day, okay.
Dr. Michael Koren:
9:14
Thank you, kevin, have a great week.
Announcer:
9:16
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