MedEvidence! Truth Behind the Data

🕗 Making a Difference Through Clinical Trials Ep. 302

• Dr. Michael Koren, Kevin Geddings • Episode 302

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Dr. Michael Koren joins Kevin Geddings to discuss the motivations of clinical trial veterans who repeatedly participate in medical research studies. Dr. Koren shares that these participants consistently cite the desire to "Make a Difference" as their primary motivation, pushing science and medicine forward for generations to come.

Be a part of advancing science by participating in clinical research.

Have a question for Dr. Koren? Email him at askDrKoren@MedEvidence.com

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Music: Storyblocks - Corporate Inspired

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Announcer:

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:

Dr. Michael Koren. Of course we appreciate him greatly. He's a big part of our family here at WSOS and, of course, medical doctor, cardiologist, research scientist, as I alluded to, and also helps run the at ENCORE Research Group, and of course they are engaged in leading-edge medical research. And you did this interesting program at WJCT, the NPR public radio station in Jacksonville, last week where we highlighted folks who participate in clinical trials, people, I guess, that have participated in more than one, correct?

Dr. Michael Koren:

Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Michael Koren:

So we did something a little bit different this past Friday at the WJCT program and we brought up three clinical trial veterans we'll call them who have done multiple clinical trials, just so that the audience can hear what motivated them not only to get involved in the first place, but to come back over and over again for different programs.

Dr. Michael Koren:

And I'll tell you, everybody had a little bit of a different story, but it all came down to this concept of people wanting to make a difference, and I think that's a fundamental element of human nature that some people truly have a very strong desire to make a difference, and I actually think that desire is closely linked to success in life. People want to make a difference ultimately are more successful, in my opinion. I think eventually we'll find the genetics of it. There's probably a gene that triggers that in human beings, but all these people told their stories and they all talked about how they felt so good, about the fact that they could make a difference in different ways, and they made a difference because of legacy and discovering things that helped their family members. They made a difference because they learned and understood new technologies.

Dr. Michael Koren:

One talked about this Heart failure app that we worked on and how fascinating that was and how he learned much more about how technology is moving healthcare forward, and other people talked about having a background in teaching and how he was a better teacher because of experience in clinical research. But again, the common thread there was making a difference.

Kevin Geddings:

That's interesting, right, because often people may think, or looking from the outside in that well, it's a little bit of the stipend that you get for your time and expense and that sort of thing. But that's not really it. It is that notion that you're moving the ball down the field when it comes to providing us all with better health care, correct?

Dr. Michael Koren:

Absolutely. And there's nothing wrong with the stipend, there's nothing wrong with enjoying it. I told the story actually of my mother-in-law who called me up every summer preparing for the cold and flu season and said you know, if I go get a flu shot at Publix, I get a $10 gift card, but if I get my flu shot with JCCR I get $500. So I think I'd go with the $500 option and this is my mother-in-law.

Dr. Michael Koren:

So there's nothing wrong with that and we certainly embrace that, and actually what we do is we negotiate those fees for our patients, so that's something we can bring back to the communities. But to your point, I think it's something more than that for most people.

Kevin Geddings:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and we have participated in clinical research with ENCORE Research Group here. Both myself and Karen Highly recommend the experience. It's a lot of fun actually, and you'll also get somebody who probably cares more about your health status than anybody you've ever encountered in your life, so that's another reason to do it. Let's talk about what might be some possibilities, though, for folks out there driving around. What are some clinical trials they could participate in, potentially?

Dr. Michael Koren:

Yes, we're always working on super interesting things, so I'll just throw out three things we're working on as we speak. I was at an investigator meeting for a new medication that's going to help people with congestive heart failure who are overweight, and obviously there's a lot of buzz about obesity drugs and for some people it's about appearance, but for many people it's actually about their health, and what happens for people with congestive heart failure is they get into this bad vicious cycle where they get overweight and that makes it harder on their heart, but also, by being overweight, it's harder to be active and lose weight. So people in that situation often need some sort of medication to help them break that cycle.

Dr. Michael Koren:

And we're doing a study as we speak that involves an injection that people take monthly that will help them break that cycle. That's one example.

Kevin Geddings:

That's cool.

Dr. Michael Koren:

Another example I think I mentioned this a couple weeks ago is that we're working with a small entrepreneur who's developing a new patch to detect cardiac arrhythmias. So if you have atrial fibrillation or palpitations or other arrhythmias, you can get information about your arrhythmia. But also help a small entrepreneur who has a neat little way of making this technology more available to people. It's helping to get it through the FDA.

Dr. Michael Koren:

So it's another example of "making a difference in helping a small entrepreneur while helping yourself. And then we also are doing a study that's looking at this problem of chronic cough. So there are plenty of people out there who just have a cough and they're not sure exactly why. They may have a little bit of a sinus issue, they may have concerns about medications or something else, but at the end of the day they're not 100% sure. So we're doing a study now that's looking at this problem and actually giving people a monitor to see how often they cough during the day, and as part of this program one you get the information from the monitor, but if the number of coughs you have during the day is great enough, then you can be involved in a randomized clinical trial. So again, you learn about yourself and also you're part of this process of learning about collectively this problem of cough without a good reason.

Dr. Michael Koren:

So those are three good examples of the stuff that we're doing as we speak.

Kevin Geddings:

Wow, well, and to participate, or potentially participate, in any of those and there's countless more too, by the way, you should get in touch with ENCORE Research Group.

Kevin Geddings:

And I would imagine there's just that initial phone call, right, Dr. Koren, and we start the process of assessing what they may be able to participate in.

Dr. Michael Koren:

Yeah, absolutely Obviously. You can look at the things we're doing on our website. Or if you're just interested in research in general or one of the topics that I just mentioned, just give us a call. We'll ask you a few questions and then have you come on in and be evaluated and see if something fits.

Kevin Geddings:

Yeah, there you go. Before we let Dr. Koren go too, we of course want to put a plug out there for MedEvidence. com. MedEvidence. com an amazing resource for getting you know the kind of health data and information that you can trust, as opposed to just Googling or relying on.

Dr. Michael Koren:

Yeah, yeah. So I'm really excited about this. Again, it's the Truth Behind the Data and again, the best way to explain this is that in life, there's things that we know for sure.

Dr. Michael Koren:

There's things that we really don't know. Sometimes it's hard to admit that we don't know them, but there are things we don't know and then there's a way to figure out the stuff that you don't know and med evidence really breaks down the role of medicine that way and people find it really extremely helpful and a good resource. So we often don't tell you what to do exactly, but we give you information about what is really known for sure and help you find your journey to learn about things you may not know in your particular circumstance. And I'm really super excited because a group out of Chicago has embraced the MedEvidence model and as we speak they're doing major programs using the MedEvidence model to reach out to their own community and talking about research as a care option and literally approaching hundreds of people in the Chicago area about how you can learn more about your health and how you can approach this concept of figuring out what you don't know about your health care and then solving that problem.

Kevin Geddings:

Well, it's a great resource and, of course, the information there is available on a variety of different media types, and so we encourage you to check it out MedEvidencecom, MedEvidencecom. And again, if you are interested and would just like to learn more, there's no high-pressure sales or anything here, just good information. If you want to learn more about how you can participate in some leading medical research, you can call this number here locally in St. Augustine and St. Johns County. Their offices are located near UF Flagler Hospital, 904-730-0166. That number again for ENCORE Research, 904-730-0166. Dr. Michael Koren, Any closing thoughts before we let you go on this Monday morning?

Dr. Michael Koren:

We're hitting those summer months, so start to think about how you're going to prepare yourself for the cold and flu season. And remember during the summer in Florida we spend more time indoors, so there's typically spikes in viral activity. So be careful and have a plan.

Kevin Geddings:

There you go.

Kevin Geddings:

Dr. Koren, thank you very much, be safe, we'll talk soon.

Dr. Michael Koren:

Be well, bye-bye.

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