Coordinated Care Through Clinical Research

Dr. Michael Koren joins Kevin Geddings to discuss some of the pitfalls of traditional healthcare in America and how clinical research can bridge those gaps. The doctor and clinical researcher talks about a family member recieving care in a world-class medical facility, and that even in this setting there is confusion about who is coordinating the patient's care. He contrasts this experience with clinical research, where there are fewer patients and protocol-specified individuals who are required to keep the patient front-of-mind and take charge of medical care.

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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Chapters

• 0:00 Framing The Mission
• 0:30 The Coordination Gap In Healthcare
• 1:16 Protocols That Bring Order
• 2:39 The Power Of Research Coordinators
• 4:12 Trusted Resources And MedEvidence
• 5:10 Closing And Where To Learn More

Transcript

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 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

We're privileged to have Dr. Michael Koren join us, medical doctor, cardiologist, research scientist, big part of our family here. And of course, one of the key items that people should consider when getting involved with clinical research is how they will benefit from a coordinated approach to their health care, right, Doctor?

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:47

Yeah, absolutely. Good morning, Kevin.

Kevin Geddings: 0:49

Good morning.

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:50

Yeah, it's uh it's been a topic of interest, and yeah, I still practice cardiology, and I still hear from my patients, and I hear a lot that they're finding that the healthcare system just just doesn't coordinate care well. And we had a family member who had a recent incident in a in a wonderful medical institution. I won't mention the name except to say that it's a it's named after a condiment that goes together with lettuce and tomatoes. But we we went to this institution and there was a lot a lot of good things about it, but the coordination of care after the hospital discharge was really completely disjointed. And they couldn't decide if it was the surgeons or the gastroenterologist or the internist or primary care doctor who was going to run the show. And I'm getting that feedback more and more from my patients is that our healthcare system doesn't have the quarterback. Back in the old days, uh when I was doing my internal medicine training, we were taught to be the quarterback. But for whatever reasons, that's not happening anymore. And I think people miss it. But the beauty is is that you get that type of coordinated care in the research setting. And there's a simple reason for that is that everything that we do is based on a protocol. Doesn't mean that we can't ever deviate from the protocol for the safety or welfare of our patients, but when you start a program, you have a pretty good idea how it's gonna be laid out. So you know, for example, when you're gonna get your imaging tests and where they're where they're going to be and at what times they're going to be. You know when you're gonna get your blood draws, you know when you're gonna have visits in the office and when you're gonna have visits on uh by phone at home. And all this stuff is really well laid out, and we have a coordinator. We actually call them coordinators that coordinate all this care. So it's really a nice advantage of getting involved in clinical research.

Kevin Geddings: 2:38

Yeah, no, absolutely. In my experience uh with ENCORE Research Group, that coordinator is somebody that you can call or email with any questions that you might have. That's the person that, you know, if you need to even make a change in appointment, you might start with that person, or you might even just go to the front desk. But there's somebody you can count on, somebody who has all the answers, I mean, or at least can get you the answers, right, Doctor?

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:59

Yeah, absolutely. And one of the things, this is something that people wouldn't necessarily understand completely, but in a in a busy medical practice, you you have your medical systems and others, and they're literally seeing um 30, 40 patients a day. And the number of patients for each of these uh personnel runs in the hundreds and thousands. But a research coordinator is basically responsible for between twenty and fifty people total. So you can imagine with a much smaller census, they're much more able to truly coordinate care and truly answer questions and truly connect you to the science and connect you to what we're accomplishing on a day-to-day basis with research. So I I feel very proud of our coordinators. We have wonderful, wonderful people that serve this role. And I think it's something that people truly value from their research experience.

Kevin Geddings: 3:54

Yeah. No, it makes all the difference to have that kind of personal contact. You know, you're always a little anxious about anything that's dealing with our health, so it really helps to have someone like that, a central point of contact. That's what you'll experience. There are a lot of folks out there that are concerned about all sorts of different health issues, Dr. Koren, everything ranging from measles outbreaks to COVID to the flu. There's a good resource, though, a place where they can check out and get some good healthcare, reliable healthcare information, correct?

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:19

Absolutely. Uh, we have our MedEvidence platform, which we call the Truth Behind the Data. And um, you know, I'm just super pleased with the response I'm getting. Um I actually had a conversation over the weekend with a very famous entertainment critic who called me and said he was incredibly impressed by Med Evidence! and that it keeps on getting better and better. So uh that made me feel really, really good. So um I mentioned that and invite people to check it out that um you might find some of these podcasts that we're doing to be super interesting, and then there's very specific information about multiple diseases. Uh one that I uh one of the podcasts that I did uh this week is about the treatment of schizophrenia and PTSD. So I I actually learned a lot from that, and um I think our listeners will learn a lot about that. Uh we've had some really superbly uh performed podcasts on cholesterol issues, on skin issues, on orthopedic issues, etc. So check it out. See what you think and and let us know.

Kevin Geddings: 5:23

It's a great resource and and reliable. Dr. Koren, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate you as always.

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:27

Have a great week, Kevin.

Announcer: 5:29

Thanks for joining the MedEvidence Podcast. To learn more, head over to Medevidence.com or subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.