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 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
On Mondays we get to speak with Dr. Michael Koren, medical doctor, research scientist, of course, and also one of the principles at ENCORE Research Group. ENCORE does medical research and hosts clinical trials right here in Northeast Florida with an office right at Flagler Hospital here in St John's County in St Augustine. Learn more by going to encoredocs. com. I guess over the weekend, Dr. Koren, you went to the movies. I assume you saw the Barbie movie, right?
Dr. Michael Koren:
1:02
How'd you guess that, Kevin?
Kevin Geddings:
1:05
You did Barbieheimer, the combination of the two that everybody was supposed to go? I only saw Oppenheimer, but I guess we were all supposed to go see both of them on the same day.
Dr. Michael Koren:
1:16
Yeah, well, I did see Oppenheimer over the weekend. I thought it was fabulous and it gets into some very interesting things about predicting the future, which is very relevant to the clinical trials industry that I'm part of.
Kevin Geddings:
1:29
Right right. I would think that we learned from the Oppenheimer movie which is a great film, I highly recommend it, saw it on Saturday as well. T he notion of theory and what goes on with it. You know mathematic modeling and the like, and then, of course, this movie walks you through from the chalkboard to actually the creation of the atom bomb. That's a lot of what you're involved with too, right? I mean, clinical research is sort of taking theory and turning it into actual application.
Dr. Michael Koren:
1:56
Yeah, yeah. So let's think about this for a second, because it's an incredibly powerful idea. So back in the beginnings of the 20th century, the whole field of theoretical physics was just taking off and lots of folks were winning Nobel Prize most of them, by the way, from Germany and the concept was that if equations can describe exactly what you can observe, isn't it logical that those equations predict something else that you haven't observed yet? It must be true. So when you think about that, it's a powerful way to predict the future, if the equations are accurate. And of course, the equations predicted that there was a tremendous amount of energy that could be released in atoms. We just thought you had to figure out how to release that energy.
Dr. Michael Koren:
2:43
Now, interestingly, this played out in politics, because the Nazis didn't believe in theoretical physics, they believed in engineering and they wanted to build weapons based on engineering. But fortunately, the Americans trusted theoretical physics and it turned out that that was the pathway to building the atomic bomb. So look at that idea of using something, creating a model, and showing that the model actually works in what you know and then extending that to what you do not know. And that's basically what we do in clinical research. We don't know exactly whether or not this particular molecule is going to have an impact, but we actually know the equations on how to analyze that. So we put the particular molecule through the equations and, lo and behold, it works. And then, once we show it works, then we leverage that knowledge by being able to share this knowledge around the world and have physicians and other health caregivers deploy this knowledge through the prescriptions they write and the procedures they order and the other interventions they do on behalf of their patients.
Kevin Geddings:
3:47
Yeah, absolutely, that's Dr. Michael Koren, once again with ENCORE Research Group. I thought the Oppenheimer movie also pointed out to us how you can have some degree of confidence when looking at things theoretically right. So I think a lot of times when people think of clinical research or participating in medical research, they think, oh, it's just people throwing something up against the wall to see if it'll stick. But indeed there's been a lot of research before the trials ever get started.
Dr. Michael Koren:
4:12
Yes, and of course over the years we understand risks a lot better than we used to. Even over the last 50 years there's been a tremendous ability to de-risk clinical trials. There was a point in the movie that was pretty interesting where they were talking about the fact there was a theoretical possibility that once they started the chain reaction for the atomic bomb that the entire world would blow up. And right before the detonation General Groves, who was in charge of the project from a military standpoint, just learned about this theoretical possibility and he asked Oppenheimer well, how sure are you that the whole world will not blow up? And Oppenheimer says, well, it's pretty low. And he says how low? He says well, it's probably less than 1%. He says it's not zero. No, it's not zero, but I would bet on it.
Dr. Michael Koren:
5:07
It's an interesting thing because we always talk about the risks in medicine, and we should, but we also know that statistically, these risks are very, very low and the likelihood of a positive outcome is far greater than the risk.
Kevin Geddings:
5:19
Yeah absolutely, and of course, that's the work that Dr. Koren and his team are engaged in each and every day. They also spent a lot of time making sure that you get good data, good information about healthcare research and medical research. You can go to medevidence. com for some of that information.
Dr. Michael Koren:
5:35
The MedEvidence. com, the goal of that website, is to educate the public to understand the nuances in medical information. So if you hear all the time that people are saying, oh, one week the doctor says something and in the next week they say something else, and it gets very, very confusing. But if you actually dig into the details it really isn't as confusing. And basically it comes down to, is that there's some things we know for sure, there's some things we don't know at all and there's some things that we can speculate with a reasonable degree of probability. And that's what the website helps people do is to explore what we absolutely know and what you should adopt for yourself and your family and what we don't know, and what may be a reasonable way to explore your health path and find the best way to protect yourself and your family.
Kevin Geddings:
6:29
Check out that website once again. MedEvidence. com share it too with other folks. We're just trying to get the word out about it. MedEvidence. com, and if you're interested in participating in clinical research, there are opportunities to do that right here in St. John's county. All you have to do is go to ENCOREdocs. com or call this number, where you'll get to speak to a live human being who actually knows about all these different trials and can talk with you about it at 904-730-0166. Dr. Michael Koren, we appreciate your time, as always, and we'll talk with you again next week.
Narrator:
7:07
Have a great week. Thanks for joining the MedEvidence podcast. To learn more, head over to MedEvidence. com or subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
