Turning Complexity Into Care

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio Show, hosted by Kevin Geddings of WSOS Radio and powered by ENCORE Research Group. Each Monday morning, Dr. Michael Koren calls us to bring you the latest medical updates with insightful discussions. MedEvidence is where we help you navigate the real truth behind medical research from 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: 0:34

On 103.9 WSOS, Dr. Miachel Koren. Medical doctor, cardiologists, research scientists, and Dr. Koren, we were talking off the air about Mr. Oppenheimer. And of course, everybody remembers the Oppenheimer movie from last summer, the summer of '24, I believe. But you had some takeaways from from reading a book about him lately, right?

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:51

Yeah, yeah. So I gave myself a day off, Kevin, yesterday. I did not fire up my computer at all yesterday. Good. So it was a wonderful day being disconnected, and I have um actually have a Christmas present, which was Oppenheimer's biography. Not specifically related to the movie, but uh certainly covers the the same time period. And it was fascinating. I loved I loved reading it. I loved being disconnected from the computer for for a couple yeah for several hours. But there was one particular anecdote in the book that really caught my attention. And it was an anecdote between Robert Oppenheimer, who just for everybody's knowledge, he's considered the father of the atomic bomb. He was the scientist and head uh the scientist who headed the Manhattan Project, which of course was the US effort to build the atomic bomb that ended in uh World War II. And he was a very, very interesting guy, grew up in a wealthy family, had lots of different interests, including art and literature, and of course science. He was a great scientist and a very, very important theoretical physicist. And he sort of was in the same group of a bunch of young physicists, including a guy named Paul Dirac, which is probably a name that's not familiar to most people. But Paul Dirac was a very, very prominent theoretical physicist. In fact, most people consider him the second most important theoretical physicist of the 20th century, second only to Einstein in importance and in terms of the contributions made. And there's a local connection with him that I'll get into in a second. But anyhow, Dirac and Oppenheimer were having this conversation while they were both studying in Germany with Max Born, who's another famous physicist. And Dirac was a really straight, colorless, unidimensional kind of guy. He was the kind of guy that would make Sheldon on big bang theory look like the life of the party, you know, really, really just straightforward and unidimensional and all he cared about was equations and physics. And he got into conversation with Oppenheimer and says, Oppenheimer, I don't I don't understand why you waste your time on poetry. He said, You know, as a scientist, our job is to take these complex things that we're studying and turn them into something simple and understandable. And poetry is all about taking something simple and making it complex, the complete opposite. And you know, it got me thinking, wow, you know, he's on to something here. And you know, as a medical scientist, that's really part of our job, Kevin, is to take these complex concepts and problems and titrate them down to something that's simple for patients to use to address whatever their problems are. So you know, I know that you've been involved in studies, for example, but what we're really doing is taking this incredible understanding of lots of complexity and turning it into a single shot or a single pill that helps people avoid a problem or treat a problem. So I think uh Dirac had was onto something during this conversation with Oppenheimer.

Kevin Geddings: 3:51

Yeah. And it's the opportunity for all of us to participate in that scientific process and potentially benefit ourselves and our family members, but also benefit society writ large, right?

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:02

Absolutely, absolutely. And then the local connection, by the way, is as I mentioned, Paul Dirac is considered the second most prominent theoretical physicist of the 20th century, and he spent the last 12 years of his career at Florida State University. It's a little known fact.

Kevin Geddings: 4:16

Oh, really?

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:17

Yeah. Really, really important guy that was here in Florida and is actually buried buried in Tallahassee. So again, this concept of a scientist taking these complex things and making them simple, I think is a very powerful notion.

Kevin Geddings: 4:33

Once again, that's Dr. Michael Koren, who is with us live on the air, and he joins us most Monday mornings. We appreciate him taking time out of his day. One of the other activities he's also very involved with is a great resource for all of us, a great place to get good information, reliable information about various health topics, current topics that a lot of us are talking about, much more reliable than TikTok or Instagram. And that's MedEvidence! Go to the website MedEvidence.com. And when they do that, Dr. Koren, what are they going to find?

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:01

Well, they're going to find people, mostly physicians, helping patients or potential patients understand what it takes to take these complex elements of scientific research and turn them into practical suggestions, make them simple. So we do that all the time on MedEvidence, whether it's dealing with migraines or dealing with cholesterol issues or dealing with dementia. We take these very complex ideas and then turn them into something simple for people. And of course, we do a lot of this through clinical research. So again, if you're worried about the complexities of preventing heart disease, come to our office and we'll make it simple by checking your lipoprotein(a) and letting you know what your risk is. And if your risk is super high, we'll let you know how you could address that risk. So again, taking these really difficult to understand concepts at first and making them very understandable and making them actionable.

Kevin Geddings: 5:59

And just a brief mention, I enrolled into a clinical study on Thursday to do with the COVID vaccine with Pfizer and a very thorough process. Got to spend some time with a couple of medical doctors who went through everything about my health history. And then ultimately I got the shot. And, you know, we'll see what happens over time. I don't know whether I got the placebo or not, but who knows? We'll find out, right?

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:22

Absolutely. Well, I'm glad to hear you had a great experience. That's what we strive to produce for all of our patients, and thank you for being part of it. And again, you know, a lot of these studies there are comparisons. So we'll see how you do, but there are a lot of questions around COVID these days. Disease morph to a form where it's not as concerning as it used to be. We don't know. Are there vaccines that'll be more effective as these different strains and variants of the virus are changing? That's also something we're learning. So thank you, Kevin, for being for being part of the learning process. And hopefully you you got something out of it through this interaction with our really strong group of physicians and other staff members.

Kevin Geddings: 7:02

Yeah. No, I had a great experience, and of course, no delays, walked right in, immediately just filled out a couple of quick forms, and started the process and was in and out of, you know, very, very quickly, and and just a lot of good information about what I actually was involved with. So anyway, we'll keep you updated over time, but highly recommend that whole experience and process to any of our listeners out there. Dr. Michael Koren, thank you for your time. We hope you're staying warm out there, okay? I will do my best.

Dr. Michael Koren: 7:29

Have a great week, Kevin.

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