Narrator:
0:00
Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio Show hosted by Kevin Gettings of WSOS St Augustine Radio and powered by ENORE 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 health care. This is MedEvidence.
Kevin Geddings:
0:32
Michael Koren is a medical doctor, cardiologist, research scientist, and also, of course, heads up ENCORE Clinical Research. They do clinical trials, medical research, and they have an office right here in St. John's County across from Flagler Hospital in the Whetstone building. And Dr. Koren joins us, on a phone line, probably on his way to the hospital to save lives.
Dr. Michael Koren:
0:59
That would be nice, but I'm actually having to stop off at the bank to pick up a few dollars of cash so I can pay a bill.
Kevin Geddings:
1:06
Sounds way too pedestrian. Sometimes fiction just sounds better.
Dr. Michael Koren:
1:12
Well, I'd have to agree with that.
Kevin Geddings:
1:15
So have you ever found yourself in your life, Dr. Koren, where you've been on an airplane? You know I always hear those stories about somebody who has a heart attack on an airplane, and fortunately, there was a doctor, especially like you, a cardiologist on the plane, and they were able to help save that person's life. Have you ever been in that situation?
Dr. Michael Koren:
1:32
I have. Actually, I took a Southwest airline flight probably about five years ago to Ft. Lauderdale. And it was kind of a funny situation because we had to catch a cruise and we were a little bit time-pressed. And some poor guy completely passed out on the flight. They asked if there was any medical personnel on board and a bunch of people came up. There was actually four different people. One of them was a nurse and one of them identified himself as a physician, and then somebody else was like an anesthesia tech, and they got there a little bit before I did. And interestingly, the fellow that was trying to run the show was a little bit awkward, and then I saw what kind of doctor I was then he said I'm a psychiatrist and I said, well, I'm a cardiologist, so maybe I should jump in here.
Kevin Geddings:
2:28
I bet he was ready to step aside in a heartbeat for that.
Dr. Michael Koren:
2:32
And how the guy was in shock. It was not a good situation. So he literally had to lay him out and get some IV fluid going. T he pilot came up to me and said is this an emergency? And I said yeah, and he hauled ass. I never got into the Fort Lauderdale Airport so quickly. So I got some emergency clearance to get this guy in and EMS joined us on the plane, fortunately, the guy made it. But yes, I have been in that situation.
Kevin Geddings:
3:00
Wow, I didn't know what the answer would be. Well, we never know. Dr. Michael Koren is with us and we thought we would talk to you a little bit about the complexity of current healthcare environment. If you are of a certain age, you maybe remember Dr. Marcus Welby, for example, who would just show up at your house with his little black bag, and everything would be fine. And nowadays, if you have a particular ailment, you don't know whether you should go see a podiatrist or whether you should go see some other medical specialist. You don't even know how to enter the system. We don't know if we need a referral from our primary care physician to see a cardiologist. like Dr. Michael Koren. I t's pretty complex for the average consumer of health care services, right?
Dr. Michael Koren:
3:39
Oh, it's complex. For me It's really quite amazing. Trying to get a new drug can be very difficult, as you know, just trying to communicate with your medical office, to communicate by text, by fax, by email, to call, to leave a voicemail, to write a letter, literally. I have people who I know a little bit more personally who text me because they're having such frustrations just connecting with offices. So the complexity is crazy.
Dr. Michael Koren:
4:11
An example that was just this weekend, a very good buddy of mine from high school recently had a heart cath and had a stent coronary stent. And then, a week later, his hands were swelling and he had some weird sensations, these tingling sensations. He didn't even know if he should go back to the cardiologist or was related to a little bit of gardening that he did and go to his primary doctor, or was this his Lyme disease kicking back up and go to his infectious disease doctor, or because his hands felt a little bit weak, he should go to an orthopedist, or he should just go to the ER and get it all sorted out.
Dr. Michael Koren:
4:51
And so literally he didn't know which way to turn. And the truth is, Kevin, depending on which way he turned, he would get a completely different outcome. So it's a good chance, if he went to the orthopedist he would get some sort of surgery to release a tendon in his hand or a repetitive use injury. If he went to the Lyme disease doctor he may have an IV antibiotics, because from the oncologist he may get high dose steroids and so on. So yeah, the system is really really complex and one of the nice things about clinical research is we help head through some of that complexity. In fact, that's our job is to boil things down to very fundamental questions and then get the answer to those questions.
Kevin Geddings:
5:37
Yeah, absolutely. And one of the easiest experiences you'll have with healthcare because I've had this experience when you're involved with medical research. You know you get to go and there are professionals there at ENCORE that will deal with your sort of overall healthcare situation and you get, in the context of your participation in a medical trial of some sort, right Exactly exactly.
Dr. Michael Koren:
5:59
Yeah, so a great example of that is congestive heart failure. So right now, there are six different classes of congestive heart failure drugs that are approved by the FDA. That's classes, and within each class there's multiple types of drugs. So literally, we have choices of dozens of drugs to choose from. And how do you choose? How do you know, as a consumer, that you're getting the right drugs? And we have some really nice trials right now, including a trial that uses a phone-based app to determine if there are negative changes in congestive heart failure status.
Dr. Michael Koren:
6:34
We're also working in a phase one situation where people with congestive heart failure come in and they get observed in our clinic for three or four days straight. We go into great detail in terms of your elements and what your possible solutions may be, including getting exposed to interesting new drugs. So there's a lot of ways that you can tackle this, but, at the end of the day, having a really, really knowledgeable team makes a huge difference in coming through the complexity. Yeah, absolutely, and you'll have a team.
Kevin Geddings:
7:05
You'll have people that will spend time with you when you involve yourself and participate with a clinical trial There's no rushing and they'll talk to you about all of your various healthcare challenges and you'll be able to be in the forefront of medical research and you may benefit from some medicines and other things that are just not available to the overall general population, right, Dr. Koren?
Dr. Michael Koren:
7:28
Yeah, exactly, well said Yeah.
Kevin Geddings:
7:31
Hey, you can learn more about participating by going to ENCOREdocs. com. Your telephone number right here in Northeast Florida, in St Augustine, 904-730-0166. They have really nice people, a live human being will talk with you when you call that number and they'll answer any questions you have about participating in medical research 904-730-0166. I encourage you to check out the website medevidence. com for some really good factual information about what's going on with healthcare and clinical trials and medicine and all that sort of thing. It's kind of hard to get the truth sometimes when you just deal with Dr. Google. Go to this website, medevidence. com. Dr. Koren, thank you very much for joining us and we hope you have a great day okay.
Dr. Michael Koren:
8:19
Have a great week, Kevin, take care.
Narrator:
8:22
Thanks for joining the MedEvidence podcast. To learn more, head over to medevidence. com or subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
