🎙️What is MedEvidence: Three Major Elements of Decision Making Ep150

Send us a text

Unearth the secrets to navigating the complex world of medicine and health issues with, Dr. Michael Koren, a top medical researcher and cardiologist. By tuning in, you'll gain a deep understanding of MedEvidence, a one-of-a-kind platform designed to help you evaluate medical products, services, tests, and claims objectively. We’ll illuminate the importance of evidence-based medicine, and explore the idea of risks versus benefits, a vital concept in making informed health decisions. Get a handle on how your individual factors can drastically affect these decisions, and why absolutes in healthcare often lead to inaccuracies.

In this compelling conversation, Dr. Koren breaks down the complexities of health claims, medications like statins and aspirin, and even the flood of healthcare information that inundates us daily. Learn how to view medical decisions through a risk versus benefit lens, and begin to recognize how understanding who you are can fundamentally shape these decisions. We also discuss the dangers of viewing health issues in absolutes and the resulting inaccuracies that can occur. Come along for this enlightening journey and arm yourself with the knowledge needed to confidently navigate the vast expanse of medical information.

Part 1: Risk vs. Benefits - Release November 1, 2023

Part 2. Who You Are - Release November 8, 2023

Part 3: Value vs. Convenience - Release November 15, 2023

Part 4: Dose, the Devil is in the Details - Release November 22, 2023

Recording Date: October 13, 2023

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

Have a question for Dr. Koren? Email him at [e-mail]

Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Watch on YouTube

Share with a friend. Rate, Review, and Subscribe to the MedEvidence! podcast to be notified when new episodes are released.

Follow us on Social Media:
Facebook
Instagram
X (Formerly Twitter)
LinkedIn

Want to learn more? Checkout our entire library of podcasts, videos, articles and presentations at www.MedEvidence.com

Music: Storyblocks - Corporate Inspired

Thank you for listening!

Episode Transcript

Narrator (00:01):
Welcome to MedEvidence , where we help you navigate the
truth behind medical researchwith unbiased evidence, proven
facts powered by ENCOREResearch Group and hosted by
cardiologist and top medicalresearcher, Dr.
Michael Koren.

Kevin Geddings (00:16):
So we're going to spend a little bit of time
talking about a reallyinteresting and very useful
website, the MedEvidence website.
Dr.
Michael Koren is here with meand of course, he heads up the
show with ENCORE Docs and alsohelps us get good health care
information and medical researchinformation.
Dr.
Koren, give us the website, theactual address, and then we're

(00:37):
going to start talking about itin a little more detail.

Dr. Michael Koren (00:39):
Okay, yeah, thank you, Kevin.
It's called MedEvidence.
com and it's a platform that weestablished several years ago to
help people understand how toevaluate medical products,
services, tests and claims in anobjective way and also from the
standpoint of somebody who'sinvolved with clinical research,

(01:00):
which is the way we actuallyput things to the test.
So we like to call it the truthbehind the data, and I'm happy
to explore that with you,because there are actually some
principles that one should useto understand health claims as
well as possible and thenultimately make good decisions
for you and your family.

Kevin Geddings (01:20):
Yeah, Dr.
Koren.
Obviously there's justa flurryof health care information that
comes flying at us.
It seems like every day there'sa little snippet either in the
news or on our Facebook feedthat says that here's the latest
research on Alzheimer's or theeffectiveness of statins or
whether or not the COVID vaccinelatest variation works.

Dr. Michael Koren (01:39):
How do we?

Kevin Geddings (01:40):
How do we use MedEvidence to help us make
better sense of all this healthcare information that kind of
blows at us out of a fire hose.

Dr. Michael Koren (01:48):
Yeah, and keep in mind that when you
Google something, you're goingto get information back that's
based on somebody trying to sellyou something, and that's fine.
I have no objection tocapitalism.
I'm a capitalist.
I think you are too as well,Kevin, but ultimately, people
need to get to the truth.
And how do you do that?
So, again, our bias is onlythat we believe in

(02:09):
evidence-based medicine, webelieve that medical claims
should be backed up by somescientific information, and we
are part of the process forgenerating that scientific
information.
So that's what I do day to day.
So, when I think about how toadvise patients and family
members and friends, it comesdown to understanding certain
elements that will help youthink through these things in a

(02:32):
much better way, and I like tosay that there are three big
categories.
One, understand how to look atrisks versus benefits.
Two, understand who you are andhow that's relevant to medical
decision making.
And then, finally, understandissues around value and
convenience.

(02:52):
And then the fourth thing isthat once you've gone through
those three major elements ofdecision making, then you have
to know what dose to pick, andthe devil is in the details.
So we'll get to that and we'regoing to break down each one,
right?
So let's start with the conceptof risk versus benefit.
So, Kevin, what do peopleusually ask me when they come to

(03:14):
my office?
Rhetorical question they ask meis something good or bad for me
, right?
And that's not a great way tothink about the world, because
everything could be good oreverything could be bad.
There's nothing intrinsic aboutthings that are either good or
bad.
It depends on their context.
So, for example, is water goodfor you?
Well, we all need water to live, and water and being hydrated

(03:38):
is important.
But you can drown in water andyou can literally kill yourself
with water.
People have actually drank somuch water that they die from
water intoxication.
So water isn't good or bad.
Water is something that has abenefit and a risk and,
depending upon what yourquestion is, what your
circumstances are, you canassess that risk versus benefit.

(04:01):
Obviously, in the doses that weusually use for water, the risk
is extremely low, but itdoesn't mean it's zero.
And actually, when you get intomanagement disease, the amount
of fluid in one's body becomesvery, very important in terms of
how well they'll live theirlives.
And, of course, this concept ofrisk versus benefit carries

(04:22):
through in virtually everydecision we make in medicine.
So some of the common ones.
I think you and I have talkedabout this should I take an
aspirin a day?
Is aspirin good or bad?
Well, aspirin is neither goodor bad, but aspirin is something
that, if used correctly, canreduce your risk for heart
artery disease.
If used incorrectly, it couldincrease your risk of having a

(04:44):
gastrointestinal bleed, and sowe can go into why, in certain
circumstances, something shouldbe considered to be high risk
and something that should beconsidered to be low risk.

Kevin Geddings (04:57):
Does that resonate?
Yeah, I think I guess I wouldask and back up a little bit.
When somebody first goes to Dr.
Google and they researchwhether or not it makes sense to
take a statin because they'vebeen told their cholesterol is
elevated, and they see all theseresults and depending on how
they typed in the search, itcould come up with all kinds of
stuff, what would you recommendfor we laymen out here?

(05:18):
I mean, how do we handle that?
How do we handle all that stuffthat's appearing on our Google
search results?
What should be step one, as wereally look at that,
understanding the whole riskreward notion that you just
explained?

Dr. Michael Koren (05:32):
Right.
You should look at theinformation based on that risk
reward mentality.
So, for example, if you'relooking at statins and you're
just looking up their sideeffect profile, well, you're
going to find lots of reportsabout side effects, right.
On the other hand, if you lookat statins and you say what are
all the potential benefits?
You'll say that they save lives, they reduce strokes, they

(05:54):
reduce heart attacks.
There's no question about that.
And you get more into the riskversus benefit when you start to
look at the clinical researchelements and you also look at
the consistency of all thescientific data.
So, if you have heart arterydisease or if you've had a
stroke, there's nothing thatever has said that, on average,

(06:15):
stentons will be bad for you.
Obviously, somebody could havean individual side effect, but
as a population and you're atthat high risk category of
having had previous heartdisease there's nothing out
there that says that stentonsare a problem.
And there's nothing out therethat says getting your LDL
cholesterol down to as low aspossible is a bad thing.
So some people have said in thepast oh, you need a certain

(06:37):
amount of cholesterol to liveWell, that's really not exactly
true, and the reason it's nottrue is because your body is
very, very capable of makingcholesterol from basic
ingredients.
So every cell in the body isable to produce cholesterol for
its own needs, which aremultiple.
Cholesterol is a very, veryimportant part of cellular

(06:59):
functions but because of that,every cell in your body except
your eyelashes, interestinglyenough can make cholesterol.
And the stuff in yourcirculation, the stuff that we
measure is the extra stuff yourbody's trying to get rid of, and
the stentons help your body getrid of that.
So again, getting back to yourquestion is look at the clinical

(07:19):
trial evidence or look at aresource like MedEvidence that
breaks this down, not fromanecdotes or stories, but
looking at more global pictures,and then fit yourself into that
global picture.
Is it relevant to you?
So, for example, if you're a 22year old woman who is a
vegetarian and you get a reportthat your cholesterol is a

(07:43):
little bit high, don't freak out.
Chances are that that may be"good cholesterol.
Quote unquote, meaning that thecholesterol your body is trying
to get rid of is in a favorablepackage called HDL and that
person shouldn't be on a statinnumber one, because they
probably don't need it andnumber two statins can cause
birth defects.
So if you're a 20 year oldwoman and you may get pregnant

(08:06):
or you may want a baby.
You don't want to be on astatin.
So, again, this is the conceptof one looking at risk, benefits
, and then start putting it intostep two, which is who you are.

Kevin Geddings (08:17):
And it would seem that Dr.
Koren all of us, I guess islayman consumers of health care.
We want absolutes right.
We want absolute answers.
You know that say, okay, thisis good, this is bad, this will
work 100%, this won't, andthat's really totally seems like
it's unrealistic to ever lookat any health information in
that way.

Dr. Michael Koren (08:38):
You're absolutely right, Kevin, is that
if you look at anythingabsolutely, you'll be absolutely
wrong.
So with that concept let's takea break and in our next session
let's talk more about who youare and why that's so important.

Narrator (08:52):
Thanks for joining the MedEvidence podcast.
To learn more, head over tomedevidence.
com or subscribe to our podcaston your favorite podcast
platform.