The Clinician's Alternative

iCaduceus: Modern Tools for the Eclectic Clinician

 In the United States, we are now at a crossroads. For the last 60 years due to anti-profiteering laws, we have had employer based insurance. Now, Congress is debating a bill to give all Americans access to affordable healthcare. We believe that healthcare is a right and not a privilege. But this right requires forethought by our leaders. In a letter to President Elect Barack Obama at the end of 2008, we explain our thoughts in the matter. We are asking you to right your congressional leaders as well and ask that a national health plan be done well. It should of course include all forms of medicine including coverage for Naturopathic Doctors, Acupuncturists, Chiropractors and others. Emphasis should be put in primary care so that chronic disease can be avoided or caught early while inexpensive treatment options are still available.

At this page you will find a form that you can use to email your congressional representatives and President Obama. Use our shortened letter or write your own but please write.  

 "We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. " -- President Barack Obama, Inauguration Address, January 20, 2009

President Obama's declaration of a restoration of science is a noble goal. But we ask the question, whose science? The science of pharmaceutical companies that hide data to "prove" that their drugs are effective and not harmful? The science that forgets to run proper controls in clinical trials? The science of researchers attempting to disprove the efficacy of natural treatments that use the wrong part of the plant in their studies? 

Science offers us greater insight into the best forms of healthcare, healthcare delivery and outcomes. Science will allow us to achieve the goal that President Obama spoke of during the inauguration. But it requires a willingness to see truth regardless of what we believe to be true or how much money we can make. Medical science has been particularly guilty of that in recent years as drug companies have hidden results of outcome studies 1, insurance companies have cooked how to reimburse for procedures 2, or taking money to say something is effective when the research suggests otherwise. 3  

As a group, medical professionals must be aware of our personal responsibility to ensure that decisions that we make for our patients are safe and effective. We must gather the data ourselves and make informed decisions. It is not enough to take spoon-fed information. We must look at the options and decide which is best. Science is not only the research that happens in a lab. It happens when we treat patients with a remedy and see if it helps the particular patient. 

1. 1. http://www.newser.com/story/48032/eli-lilly-to-pay-14b-plead-guilty-in-m... Viewed 1/22/09 
2. 2. http://www.ehealtheurope.net/news/4497/united_healthcare_settles_on_&lsq... read 1/22/09 
3. 3. http://www.naturalnews.com/024737.html viewed 1/22/09

PBS recently aired a program about the healthcare crisis in America. On their website they asked a very interesting question about healthcare with respect to the efficacy and necessity of evidence-based medicine. It reads: