Anti-CAM Bloggers and Homeopathic Researchers: Reports on Two Meetings with NCCAM's Briggs
Written by John Weeks
Anti-CAM Bloggers and Homeopathic
Researchers: Reports on Two Stakeholder Meetings with NCCAM's Briggs
Summary: US President Obama's Big Tent
policy has nothing on NIH NCCAM's director Josephine Briggs, MD. Briggs is
actively and commendably exploring the far reaches of this field for
which she is charged with creating the 2011-2015strategic
plan for deploying some $600-million in research funds. Six weeks ago, she and her top
staff met with an international delegation of homeopathic researchers, organized by Nancy Gahles, DC, CCH, RS Hom (NA), president of the National Center for Homeopathy.
Then Briggs reportedly extended an invite to a group of anti-CAM bloggers, anchored by Yale
School of Medicine's Steven Novella, MD. These folks don't
believe there is value in anything NCCAM has done, reserves a special
vintage ire for homeopathy, and have called for a de-budget bombing into smithereens of Briggs' professional home, NCCAM. Here are reports on the two meetings.
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Gahles: NCH leader organized the meeting
1. International homeopathic team meets with
NCCAM: Nancy Gahles,
DC reports An international team of top
researchers in
homeopathy recently met with NIH NCCAM leadership to explore NCCAM's
relationship
with their
field. The meeting was organized by Nancy Gahles, DC, CCH, RS Hom(NA),
president of the National Center for
Homeopathy (NCH). The topic: "Homeopathy
Research - State of the Science
& Future Recommendations."
Gahles'
top-flight team included Iris Bell, MD, and
Molly Punzo, MD, who were
with her physically at the NIH. Via teleconference, Gahles wired in Martin Chaplin, Rustum Roy, Stephen
Baumgartner, Harald Wallach, Klaus von Ammon, Peter Fisher and Claudia
Witt
(via slides). NCCAM was represented by director Josephine Briggs, MD,
deputy director
Jack Killen, MD, Richard Nahin, PhD, MPH and 3 others. Gahles reports that her team
began by presenting NCCAM with a "6-inch binder
of research."
Gahles, in
a report to
the Integrator, assessed that the
meeting
went "very well." In her view, a presentation by Chaplin and
Roy on
chemistry and slides that "showed
activity of homeopathic remedies on basophils and IgG" seemed to be
particularly compelling to the NCCAM team in suggesting mechanism
of action. Gahles underscored that
conventional bio-markers seemed to be key in stimulating interest from
the NCCAM team.
On
the other hand, a
presentation on quantum physics and energy medicine seemed to be less
useful in making in the case. At one point, an NCCAM team member who said he
found
the presentation "powerful" asked what the community of top scientists would
think.
Those in the meeting responded: "We are the leading scientists in the
field."
Bell: Top researcher onsite as part of the NCH team
The NCH team reiterated key points they had made in a
submission
on
the NCCAM 2011-2015 strategic plan. They urged representation on
the NCCAM advisory council, more research funding, and specifically more
"real world"
research. Gahles considers the next steps on research challenging. She
is actively involved in gathering CVs is submit names for the advisory
council. Her conclusion was that her group "will
continue to build on the inroads we have made."
Comment: One of the perverse pleasures
that comes from the disposition of the NIH to hire NCCAM leaders who
have no prior experience in alternative or integrative medicine is to
think of the culture shock when they move from a zone of relative
comfort - drug research on
fractions of botanical - into the far reaches such as homeopathic
theory and
practice. In truth, forms of energetic thinking and practice are
infused throughout
the "CAM" universe; homeopathy's dance with Avogadro's number merely
makes it, with distant prayer, the most challenging. It is probably good
that Briggs' extensive and
admirable self-education process over the last 2 years preceded this
meeting. The culture shock may had this meeting been in her
first months. Credit Gahles for her gumption in pulling her field into
this meeting and the NCCAM team for taking it.
Novella: Meeting with his sworn enemy
2. Anti-CAM blogging trio, led by Yale's Stephen
Novella, MD, invited to meet with NCCAM team
A trio of anti-CAM bloggers who have called for de-funding and shutting
down NCCAM recently held a meeting with an NCCAM team that included
director Josephine Briggs, MD and deputy director Jack Killeen, MD. In a
blog posting entitled "Our Visit with
NCCAM," the meeting is reported in detail by one of the attendees,
Steven Novella,
MD, a member of the faculty
at the Yale School of
Medicine.
"The one
concrete result was an offer
to have (us) review NCCAM material
before it is published. We, of course,
agreed
to offer our services."
Briggs reportedly requested the meeting, which
included
Novella
and his colleagues David Gorski, MD, PhD and Kimball Atwood, MD. One
area in which the trio expressed concern is NCCAM "putting the cart
before the horse" by doing
pragmatic trials prior to mechanism and efficacy research. They report
that Briggs "defended the utility of
pragmatic studies but also acknowledged our
concerns."
The bloggers then pressed a favorite issue, urging that NCCAM not
even consider funding of homeopathy research. The reported answer: "Dr. Briggs response was that in the last two years
(under her
directorship) the NCCAM has not funded any studies of homeopathy, which
is true. However, they still accept applications for homeopathic
research, but none have made it through the review process and been
awarded funding."
Novella then pressed on his widely-published view
that
NCCAM's website validates therapies and approaches. He notes that "the
one concrete result of the meeting was an offer to have experts from
SBM review NCCAM material before it is published. We, of course, agreed
to offer our services."
Comment: Novella's posting reads like a
Fox News interview: 95% his team's point, then a brief NCCAM response.
That Briggs asked for the meeting likely grew out of an early March
conference at Yale at which Novella and she both participated. For this,
she deserves
the Barack Obama Big Tent award for her proven interest in sitting down
with
everyone,
no matter which party affiliation or belief. (Some have said this was
proven in early 2008 when she Briggs
met
with me.) Arguably, Briggs takes her
openness to dialogue further than the President. While Obama has kept
arms length from leaders who call for the demise of the United States,
Briggs
has now met with those who have been lobbing bombs at her professional
home for years, calling steadily for NCCAM's destruction.
I am intrigued, though not entirely pleased with Briggs offer, as I
am with Obama's strategy. This may be the politics that allows maximum
movement in a polarized culture. At the same time, just as I often want
Obama
to play to the progressives whose activism got him elected, I want
Briggs to
respond above all to the wishes of the practitioners and patient and
other
stakeholders who actually offer or receive integrative services and
were the reason US Senator Tom Harkin and others created NCCAM. It is
one thing to have a variety of opinions at the table. It is quite
another to empower one who wants to kill you, as this group has wanted
to off NCCAM.
That said, what
would have been especially interesting is if Briggs' scheduler crossed
wires and the anti-NCCAM bloggers and homeopathic researchers had
showed up for the same meeting time.
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