Quackademics at Yale: a "fluid concept of evidence"

[David Colquhoun]

US readers might be interested in the talk I gave at Yale on 12th May.
It is wriiten up as "Integrative Baloney @Yale (http://dcscience.net/?p=231)"

Yale is no worse than 40 or so other US universities in its embrace of quackery, but the presence on YouTube of much of their recent symposium means that we know more about what goes on their than most. I put some short clips from the 3 hours of woo on YouTube, at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HEl2fhfGBdI (or linked from my post (http://dcscience.net/?p=231))

[Asolepius]

Welcome back David :) We missed you here.

[Blue Wode]

Very interesting. The map at the end the Integrative Baloney @ Yale piece could be applied to the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bournemouth, and the University of Wales in the UK since they all validate degrees in chiropractic:

A Master of Chiropractic (MChiro) degree is offered by the University of Glamorgan:
http://www.glam.ac.uk/coursedetails/685/130

The Anglo European College of Chiropractic offers an MChiro which is validated by the University of Bournemouth. See here:
http://www.aecc.ac.uk/college/course_information/index.asp
And here:
http://www.aecc.ac.uk/college/message/index.asp

And the McTimoney College of Chiropractic offers a BSc (Hons) Chiropractic which is awarded by the University of Wales:
http://www.mctimoney-college.ac.uk/proshuman.htm
It also offers a three-year Paediatric MSc in Chiropractic (among others):
http://www.mctimoney-college.ac.uk/prospect.htm

You have to wonder if the students who enroll in these courses know what they’re getting themselves into, especially when you consider what Simon Singh and Professor Edzard Ernst recently concluded about chiropractic in their book Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial:
This treatment carries the risk of stroke or death if spinal manipulation is applied to the neck. Elsewhere on the spine, chiropractic therapy is relatively safe. It has shown some evidence of benefit in the treatment of back pain, but conventional treatments are usually equally effective and much cheaper. In the treatment of all other conditions, chiropractic therapy is ineffective except that it might act as a placebo.


Looks like the students would be better off training to be physiotherapists - not that the senior academics at the universities in question would ever suggest that to them.

[Thinking in CT]

After reading about Yale's "complimentary medicine" program in Dr. S. Barrett's Quackwatch news update I was compelled to send the following e-mail to the good doctor. I thought I would share it here.

Dear Dr. Barrett:

I read with not a little chagrin the recent CHD piece about quack medicine at Yale ( I live in the New Haven area and Yale is our family's main healthcare provider**). I am also an attorney specializing in the Charity/non-profit/philanthropy (pick your preferred term) field so I also have a professional interest in this stuff. My first reaction at learning about this was to wonder, "where is the money for this sh** coming from?" So I checked out the relevant page on Yale School of Med.'s web-site and lo and behold there was the "Bravewell Foundation".

The "BF" is one of those "small groups of philanthropists who want to make a difference……" outfits - that is, a bunch of trust fund babies who think that they have something to offer the world besides their money and want to control things. Rather than fund actual programs run by real scientists (who use great big words that they can't understand and won't provide instant positive results) they just make up their own! You can be sure that right on cue, the mangers of YS of M will announce to the board of the BF that the Yale Integrative Medicine program is a major success! And really deserves continued funding!

Yale's interest in this BS? Any project operated at institutions like Yale must do it's part to help support the institution's general overhead costs - also called indirect costs - I'm sure that Yale is taking 10 - 20 % of the funding as indirect cost. Ergo "money talks - science walks" even at the most hallowed Ivy covered halls.

Thanks for letting me vent,

***********, Esq.

(* with apologies to Cole Porter)

** My daughter is a patient at Yale's Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic (gosh wouldn't it have been nice if Yale told BF "Hey why not fund some actual type1 diabetes research rather than chasing moonbeams around Sidona Arizona, but I guess not.)

[JJM]

There is more discussion here: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=120