Amanda Wilde (Host): The goal of health equity is opportunity for everyone to live their healthiest life regardless of circumstance. It's especially important in medical research. We'll explore that connection and how the new Research and Innovation Center is addressing health equity with Research Coordinator Kareem Hamoudeh and Dr. Gian Varbaro, Chief Medical Officer at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center.

This is Wellness Waves, a Bergen New Bridge Medical Center podcast. I'm Amanda Wilde. A warm welcome to you both. Thank you for being here. Dr. Varbaro, you have opened the new Research and Innovation Center at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. What is this new center?

Gian Varbaro, MD: It's a center basically to start clinical research trials and to put extra resources behind the research that was already happening here. When you think about clinical research at hospitals, typically that's done at very large academic medical centers. And because of that, it draws in a particular patient population, which makes the patient population a little less diverse. Additionally, there are certain diseases for which clinical research trials are part of the standard of care. For instance, for some cancers, after a patient gets the traditional treatments, if they've failed them or not responded, the standard is to enroll them in research trials, but it's traditionally been very hard to get into those.

So this does a few things. One, it opens up the access to these trials to these patients. It adds to the medical knowledge and additionally, it allows us to develop trials of our own and studies of our own. We have a psychiatry teaching program who always did some research, and having an actual program there to help develop it or help develop other ideas from our staff will allow us to go even further.

Host: Well, Kareem, as the Research Coordinator, why do you think the new center is important for this hospital, Bergen New Bridge Medical Center?

Kareem Hamoudeh: Well, a big term that's thrown around in research is generalizability. And being a part of clinical trials is all about making sure that we learn to help as many people as possible. And sometimes in research, it's hard to know if what works for a few will work for everyone. And that's where our hospital comes in. It's unique because we see a wide variety of patients who aren't always seen elsewhere in these large academic institutions that Dr. Varbaro mentioned.

We're able to see patients who come from different socioeconomic statuses. And this diversity helps us make discoveries that are useful for everyone and not just a select few. It allows us to bring the novel therapies of tomorrow to our patients today.

Host: Kareem, what types of research are being conducted at the new center?

Kareem Hamoudeh: So here at the center we are bringing on some clinical trials that bring new medicines to patients who may not have had access to these medicines. We are also bringing on trials with our lab to run other phases of research. And we are also working on quality improvement projects and data analysis projects with our psychiatry residents here at the center.

Host: Dr. Varbaro, as we talk about health equity, how important is that at research centers, at safety net facilities, that is hospitals like yours that take all patients regardless of circumstance?

Gian Varbaro, MD: It's extremely important for a variety of reasons. Kareem hit on one of the big ones, which is the generalizability of the research. If you stop and think about it, the purpose of a clinical trial is to figure out if something works for as many members of the population as possible. If you're only testing it on a certain group, your information is going to be off. So by having a more diverse population to test it on, you're going to get better data and better results and things that are more generalizable and will hold longer and stick longer. That's part one. Part two is, as I mentioned earlier, to be able to offer these trials to patients who couldn't get them previously. It really is allowing us to make society in general, healthier. And third is that while over the years we've started to realize the importance in clinical research for diversity in race and gender, there still hasn't been a lot of diversity in socioeconomic status. And by involving a safety net hospital such as ours, that opens up that entire spectrum to the research.

Host: Well, in light of that, Kareem, you talked about current projects taking place at the Center. What are the future goals of the Center?

Kareem Hamoudeh: So, outside of just conducting medical trials, we do want to be a place where people can start their own research projects, no matter what kind of background they come from. A lot of times when people hear the term research, they kind of just like, oh, that's for the nerds or that's for the people that wear glasses.

But at the essence, research is just, I have a question and I want to find an answer. It's really just formalized curiosity. So we're here to help the people at the hospital and also students in the Paramus Bergen area to start their own research projects.

Host: That is ambitious and exciting, maybe even groundbreaking. Dr. Varbaro?

Gian Varbaro, MD: Yeah, it's a really exciting time. I think that having been at academic centers in the past, sometimes the best ideas from research come from the people who are working on the floor every day, and they don't realize, and they don't know how to go about it. So, we want to open up that possibility for just about anybody who either works here or is involved with us or in the area who hears about us.

If you've got an idea, we will help you develop it and we will help put it together. And I think you're right. I think it's groundbreaking. It's something that's really unique to us and that other people have not done in this level yet.

Host: And on the other side of that, what obstacles do you foresee overcoming in the process?

Gian Varbaro, MD: I think that there's a few potentially, I mean one is patient enrollment. For patients who've not been exposed before, it is difficult to make them understand what this is. Fortunately, there are measures to help with that. The patients actually do get reimbursed for their time and for being part of the trial. Kareem has already been very successful in enrolling some patients into our trials already, even though this has only been active for a short period of time.

I think there's also always the potential for a lack of resources for a program like this because we're at a safety net hospital. But the fact that the medical center is investing in this, shows a lot about the medical center and its leadership, I believe.

Host: Kareem, share any thoughts you want to on that and what you think will develop as a result of the Center being established.

Kareem Hamoudeh: Well, I'd first like to agree with Dr. Varbaro with that establishing this center is a reflection of our ongoing commitment to reducing health disparities and improving outcomes for everyone, no matter what socioeconomic class or background you may come from. And our efforts are really a testament, if you will. We really emphasize that inclusivity is not just ethical, but it's also essential in our studies.

Host: Well, gentlemen, thank you so much for this enlightening information about the principle of health equity, how it applies it to research, and the exciting developments that are happening at the new Research and Innovation Center at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center.

Gian Varbaro, MD: Thank you very much for having us. It was a pleasure.

Kareem Hamoudeh: Thank you very much for your time.

Host: That was Dr. Gian Varbaro, Chief Medical Officer at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center and Research Coordinator Kareem Hamoudeh. For more information, visit newbridgehealth.org/researchand innovationcenter. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you.

Until we meet again, thanks for tuning into this episode of Wellness Waves, a Bergen New Bridge Medical Center podcast.