So, we are left with the dilemma of how to address proactively the New Fundamentalism. Obviously, research on efficacy and possible modes of action of homeopathy/CAMs must continue to be prosecuted, published, and promoted. However, it is unlikely in the near term to command the media’s attention in the way New Fundamentalists can. Nevertheless, debating with them should continue because, though a thankless task, it keeps these issues alive and before the public, however one-sided (through media exposure) the debate may appear at times.
First things first, however: There is the problem of achieving unity among the various CAM professions, which is a vital prerequisite for any concerted action. This is not trivial, homeopathy being a case in point.
From Hahnemann to the present day, its history has been one of such factionalism, herding cats might seem a more tempting prospect than getting homeopaths to agree. Apart from homeopathy in the UK apparently having been overtaken by a particularly narrow-minded form of political correctness, the profession itself is fragmented. There are medical homeopaths, classical homeopaths, polypharmacists, homotoxicologists, etc., all with their associated professional organizations, and all incapable of agreeing on a unified way forward. For example, after over 6 years of increasingly bad-tempered negotiations, homeopathic organizations in the UK finally gave up trying to achieve the modicum of unity necessary for them to combine under a single register. This would have given them at least some modicum of regulatory transparency.
The message of disunity and unprofessionalism this sends out, especially to government, plays directly into the hands of the New Fundamentalists and makes it easier for them to isolate and target the CAM professions one at a time. Homeopaths as a group have simply got to wake up and learn to unite among themselves, and with other CAM disciplines. There are, however, some encouraging signs going forward.
First, the UK is currently in the throes of modernizing its much-admired National Health Service (NHS). Policymakers have realized there is an explosion of interest in CAM both from within and outside the NHS. So, like CAM, primary health care is increasingly being seen as inherently holistic, patient-centered, and multiprofessional. Add to this that CAMs are low-tech and low-cost, and policymakers see them as resonating with the central themes of government health policy. These include a proactively health- oriented NHS and informed patient choice of relevant CAM options, as well as conventional health care: in other words, central government policy is moving more toward a model where patients “own” their health and health care.
So, bypassing the New Fundamentalists’ insistence on a narrowly defined deterministic evidence base for homeopathy/CAMs, what the policymakers are really after in order to properly integrate them into primary health care are (1) evidence of cost-effectiveness; (2) many real-life working examples of CAM therapies in action; (3) proper regulation of CAMs; and (4) good clinical governance. Homeopaths and homeopathic organizations need to urgently take note, especially of points 3 and 4.
Second, and again in the United Kingdom, homeopaths are becoming increasingly impatient with the institutionalized torpor of their professional organizations in the face of continued attacks in the media and literature. An organization has been formed called “Homeopathy: Medicine for the 21st Century” or HMC21, which is asking satisfied patients to sign a declaration saying homeopathy has worked for them. In the very short time since its inception, and with no publicity except a Web site, HMC21 has already gathered thousands of signatures worldwide, and sent a wake-up call to the UK homeopathic community. Ultimately they hope to harvest a quarter of a million signatures by the middle of 2008, and so achieve the critical mass needed to bring public opinion to bear on the problems of saving homeopathy in the NHS, and the state-funded hospitals that provide it. This has been mirrored politically in the UK’s House of Commons recently, where over 200 MPs across all parties signed an Early Day Motion to debate the future of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, despite being targeted by skeptics.
By Lionel Milogram, Ph.D., F.R.S.C., M.A.R.H.
