Dr. Michael Koren shares insights from his recent speaking tour across Saudi Arabia where he delivered 14 lectures in 6 days to sophisticated healthcare providers eager for American medical research. His observations reveal surprising aspects of Saudi healthcare including English as the professional language, universal insurance coverage, and the powerful roles women play despite traditional cultural restrictions.
• Saudi Arabia offers universal healthcare coverage with additional private insurance options
• English serves as the professional language in Saudi healthcare settings
• Women in healthcare occupy positions of authority despite only gaining driving rights in 2019
• Female healthcare professionals maintain strong professional presence while following traditional covering practices
• Dr. Koren shared research on improving cholesterol management published in JACC
• Saudi physicians highly value clinical research conducted in Northeast Florida
• The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran remains strong despite geographic proximity
• MedEvidence platform received enthusiastic response from Saudi healthcare professionals
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Episode Transcript
Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio
Show hosted by Kevin Gettings ofWSOS St Augustine Radio and
powered by Encore Research Group.
Each Monday morning, dr MichaelKoren calls in to bring you the
latest medical updates withinsightful discussions.
Medevidence is where we helpyou navigate the real truth
behind medical research, withboth a clinical and research
(00:20):
perspective.
So sit back, relax and getready to learn about the truth
behind the data in medicine andhealthcare.
This is MedEvidence.
Kevin Geddings (00:31):
As promised, Dr.
Michael Koren joining us here,live on the studio line.
We appreciate him taking timeout of his day to be with us.
And, Dr.
Koren, you with me, I am.
How are you, Kevin?
Well, doing, well, yes, and, aswe mentioned, Dr.
Koren has been traveling theglobe and giving some great
talks in places as exotic asSaudi Arabia.
Dr. Michael Koren (00:50):
Right, that's right.
Yeah, I just got back from anextended trip.
I was in Saudi Arabia andMorocco.
and in Saudi Arabia.
I gave 14 lectures in six daysin three different cities.
Kevin Geddings (01:02):
Wow
Dr. Michael Koren (01:04):
So I had a whirlwind tour of that very,
very interesting country andreally learned a lot and shared
a lot of really cool informationwith a very sophisticated group
of Saudi physicians and otherhealth care providers.
Kevin Geddings (01:16):
So a lot of times, when we think about
places like that, I mean, howdoes their health care system,
or for us average folksaccessing health care, is it
better?
The same, less than it would behere in the United States?
Dr. Michael Koren (01:29):
Well, it's a rich country to mind everybody.
Obviously, they have tremendousoil wealth and everybody
basically gets some insurance.
And then, in addition to that,there are private markets for
insurance.
But for example when you go to ahospital, everybody is
basically covered, and thenthere's sort of gradations of
the level of health care beyondwhat the public gets.
So that's the basic structure.
(01:51):
Their physicians are extremelywell-trained.
By the way, the professionallanguage in Saudi Arabia is
English, so all of my lectureswere conducted in English and
everybody in the audience wasconversant in English, and
lectures by the Saudis wereconducted in English as part of
our symposia.
That occurred while I waslecturing through that country,
(02:13):
so that was super interesting.
And the other interesting pointis the way women and men
interact in Saudi Arabia, whichI found absolutely fascinating.
So, as people probably know,women haven't had the rights
that we take for granted here inWestern countries.
So, for example, women wereonly allowed to drive in Saudi
Arabia as of 2019.
(02:34):
But the women seem to be prettymuch okay with this, and a lot
of women, in their roles asphysicians and pharmacists,
cover their faces completely.
And I had this one reallyinteresting anecdote where I
gave a lecture and the personwho gave the lecture before me
was the head pharmacist at amajor Saudi hospital.
(02:55):
With her face completelycovered and in a black robe.
She mentioned to me that shehad done her training at the
University of Maryland in theStates and was really the person
who made major decisions forthe hospital about what drugs
would be used, and she was veryclear in her knowledge.
She gave a lecture and then,when the male moderator of this
(03:17):
session said that her time hadrun out.
She actually turned to the manand said I'm not done yet.
I'm going to speak until I'mdone.
So she was actually veryforceful and went on for another
10 minutes and got remindedagain that her time was up.
She said well, I'm almost done,I just want to make a couple
more points.
So even though, she wascompletely covered.
She was very confident in herrole as an expert and as a woman
(03:41):
that works in the Saudi system.
So I thought that was superinteresting.
Kevin Geddings (03:44):
It is super interesting, especially in a
country where what?
10 years ago they weren'tallowed to have a driver's
license, yeah, yeah.
So what was the message youwere trying to extend to them?
What were you trying to helpthem better understand?
Dr. Michael Koren (03:57):
Yeah, so, as a lipid expert, they were super
interested in my views on how todo better.
Unfortunately, despite the factthat we have really good
medications, we still don't do avery good job of getting people
to their cholesterol goals,particularly their LDL
cholesterol, which is the reallybad cholesterol, and so we had
done a study that we designedhere in the US In fact, I had a
(04:20):
major role in the design of thestudy and that got published in
the Journal of the AmericanCollege of Cardiology last year,
and I presented those data tothe Saudi physicians, who were
absolutely fascinated by that.
They were so appreciative ofthe fact that I was sharing this
information and that there wasa lot of learning that happened
based on the participation ofclinical trial patients here in
(04:41):
the US, particularly inNortheast Florida.
So I'll tell the people out inNortheast Florida that people
all around the world,particularly health care
providers in places that you maynot think of, are super, super
appreciative of all the workthat you do when you help us
conduct these clinical researchprograms.
Kevin Geddings (04:59):
Wow, Well, that was a great experience, right?
I don't think had you beenthere before.
Dr. Michael Koren (05:04):
I have not.
I've been to Dubai and AbuDhabi, Jordan, Israel and Egypt,
but I have not been to SaudiArabia.
So definitely a little bit of adifferent culture.
Really nice people, gentlepeople and, again, very, very
interesting culturally,particularly the role of women
in the health care space and thefact that they're actually very
(05:24):
much involved, very muchrespected, despite the fact that
they cover themselves up.
Kevin Geddings (05:29):
Right.
Well, now that you've beenthere.
I guess President Trump's goingto follow you today, and
tomorrow he's going to SaudiArabia.
You're a trendsetter.
Dr. Michael Koren (05:37):
Well, certainly that was one of the
discussion points.
Historically, the US has had areally good relationship with
Saudi Arabia, and even thoughit's a country in the Middle
East that's directly next toIran, I asked a lot of people in
Saudi Arabia, have they everbeen to Iran?
And virtually all of them saidno.
So there's a rivalry betweenthose two countries that I think
(05:59):
is underappreciated in the US,so I found that also very
fascinating.
Kevin Geddings (06:04):
Absolutely, hey, before we let you go, of course
, good medical information andresearch results of research.
Medical research can also befound at MedEvidence MedEvidence
.
com, right, Dr.
Koren.
Dr. Michael Koren (06:16):
Yeah, and the Saudis were very, very
interested in this.
I showed them some of the workwe're doing on that.
They absolutely loved it.
They loved the technology thatwe're bringing to clinical
research and the technologywe're bringing to patient
education.
So, you know, definitely checkit out.
I think as we get more and moretraction from MedE vidence!,
it'll certainly become moreinternational, but people really
(06:40):
love how we break down medicalissues and help people
understand what we know about aparticular issue, the things we
don't know about a particularissue and how we learn about the
things we don't know.
So I definitely encouragepeople to check it out.
Kevin Geddings (06:50):
Well, once again , that website is medevidence.
com.
That's medevidence.
com and Dr.
Koren, we appreciate you.
I think we're going to try tomake up a couple of missed
opportunities and have you backon again on Wednesday morning,
if that works for your schedule.
Dr. Michael Koren (07:04):
I look forward to it, Kevin.
Kevin Geddings (07:05):
All right, thank you, doctor.
We'll talk soon.
Announcer (07:07):
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com or subscribe to our podcaston your favorite podcast
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