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. Koren with us, of course a medical doctor, cardiologist, research scientist he's also been part of our family here at WSOS, Heads up the show with ENCORE Research Group, where, of course, they provide you the opportunity to be involved in leading-edge clinical research on all sorts of different health issues, health challenges you may be facing in all kinds of different areas, and we'll get to that in just a moment. We were talking off the air about sometimes we hear lyrics in songs and we thought those lyrics were what they were for decades, and then we learned that no, not so much, Right, Dr. Koren?
Dr. Michael Koren:
1:06
Yeah, yeah, and more broadly it's this concept; Do people hear what you think that you've just said? So that's a big issue for humans in general in human communication, but it's certainly a big issue in medical science and I guess we can get into that. But this came up over the weekend when I was taking my kids out for brunch and I was mentioning the fact that for years when I heard or sang the song Jingle Bells, I thought the line after Jingle All the Way was" oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse, soap and sleigh. And until I was 30, I thought a soap might have been some sort of old-fashioned sled.
Dr. Michael Koren:
1:50
Right and then I said you know, maybe I should look this up. And I looked it up and lo and behold, I realized that the actual lyric is in a one-horse open sleigh.
Kevin Geddings:
1:59
Right.
Dr. Michael Koren:
2:00
So there's lots of things like that, and it took me until age 30 to actually look it up.
Kevin Geddings:
2:07
Yeah, and that goes on with a lot of different songs, but it matters in terms of how we engage the health care system right, because sometimes we probably don't hear what we should hear.
Dr. Michael Koren:
2:15
Yeah, it's a huge problem and, unfortunately, even with our new technologies, I don't see that it's getting better. But in the research world we go through this elaborate consent process, which is so important, and the whole purpose of that process is to make sure that patients understand what we think that we're saying and, most importantly, give people the time to interact with staff members, to ask questions, because that active listening cannot occur without asking questions. So it's a big part of what we do and it's a big part of learning in general is that when you're in a research study, because of this engagement, this interaction, you actually learn a lot more about your condition and you learn a lot more about medicine. So it's really an invaluable time to ask that question. What was that lyric that I heard, or that I thought I heard?
Dr. Michael Koren:
3:08
This is your opportunity to really get to the Truth Behind the Data, as we like to say.
Kevin Geddings:
3:10
Yeah, I know from participating in clinical trials with ENCORE Research Group that when you have your follow-up regular appointment sometimes those are every week, sometimes once a month there's a lot of interviewing, there's questionnaires that get filled out and the person asking the questions is very intently listening to everything you say and probably even looking to get even more information out of you, right?
Dr. Michael Koren:
3:29
Exactly, exactly, and you never know exactly where the conversation is going to go, and for all of us, we didn't know exactly what our blind spots are. Again, you may be like me and it's a simple Christmas carol that we've sung forever and there was a lyric that I've sung over and over again and I really didn't know exactly what it was. And this is your opportunity to really have that deep level understanding through this active listening process.
Kevin Geddings:
3:57
Dr. Koren, before we let you go, I do want to talk a little bit about available trials today. I mean, give people a sense of the breadth, the broad nature of the different trials that people could participate in if they're struggling with, you know, particular issues, whether they're cardiovascular or what have you, it runs the gamut, doesn't it?
Dr. Michael Koren:
4:14
It does and chances are, if there's a health care concern for you or your family member, there's something that we can get you involved with. One of the studies that we're actively working on right now is for norovirus, which is to protect people against this horrible illness of severe diarrhea and vomiting. That has classically occurred when a bunch of people get together in close quarters, such as on a cruise ship, but, quite frankly, it can happen in a restaurant, it can happen in a convention hall, it can happen at a place of worship any place where these viruses can spread and the interesting thing is the way the virus spreads is through the air. So even though it has gastrointestinal symptoms, you can actually get infected through the air and people don't necessarily know that. We have a program right now to prevent that from happening for you and your family.
Dr. Michael Koren:
5:05
In the cardiovascular space, we have all kinds of programs helping people treat their cholesterol or their lipoprotein(a) problem that you and I have talked about on many occasions. If you're worried about your memory, we have programs that are looking at your memory. If you're worried about possible GI cancers, we have studies that are looking at liquid biopsies to determine whether or not you're at risk for having colon cancer, for example, and just on and on and on diabetes and weight loss, you name it, and there's a chance, there's a program. So we just encourage people to give us a call and let us know what your concerns are and we'll tell you if there's something enrolling. If there's not something right now, we'll get you on a list so you'll be available and we'll be available at a time when we do have something enrolling. But, most importantly, you're part of this communication process, both with the opportunity to have in-person communication or electronic communication through our MedEvidence! platform.
Kevin Geddings:
6:01
Yeah, absolutely. Also, before we let you go, let's talk about the MedEvidence! platform, because a lot of folks are going to get together over Christmas and inevitably the topic sometimes goes to health issues or the very latest, you know, with COVID or what have you, and this would be a great website for family and friends when they're all together on their phones to kind of check out together, right.
Dr. Michael Koren:
6:20
Absolutely. MedEvidence. com is a website where we share what we call the Truth Behind the Data, and this is a web-based platform where we have a lot of podcasts amongst physicians. We had the former Surgeon General of the United States do a podcast with me last week and you can take a look at that if you're interested. But you name the topic and we have different ways of presenting information within that topic. It may be a quick soundbite, like our WSOS talks every Monday morning, or it could be a more extensive, deep dive where we actually go into things for over an hour on a topic of acne treatment or migraine headaches or lipid issues, cholesterol issues, etc. So check it out. I think you'll find it to be particularly interesting and share the joy. It's a great gift for the holidays to just let people know that there's a website out there that really digs into the truth and, instead of just getting you confused with competing claims, we actually have physicians break down the issues for our patient populations.
Kevin Geddings:
7:18
Yeah, MedEvidence. com the truth behind the data.
Kevin Geddings:
7:21
You can trust the content there and increasingly I think we're all learning to realize the medical information we get on Facebook or TikTok and social media or just on Google is not all that it's cracked up to be and often cannot be trusted. Well, the information you get from MedEvidence. com can be be trusted. I encourage you to check out that website, MedEvidence. com. That's MedEvidence. com, Dr. Koren. We hope you have a good day and a good week and be safe out there driving along okay.
Dr. Michael Koren:
7:49
Yeah, I'll be on a cruise ship trying to prevent norovirus through my vaccine, so let me wish you a Merry Christmas.
Kevin Geddings:
7:56
Oh, Merry Christmas. Yeah, Well, good luck avoiding norovirus and everything else, but have fun.
Dr. Michael Koren:
8:01
That's the plan.
Dr. Michael Koren:
8:01
Kevin, you have a great week
Kevin Geddings:
8:03
You too.
Announcer:
8:04
Thanks for joining the MedEvidence! podcast. To learn more, head over to MedEvidence. com or subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
