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Friends of Science in Medicine

Discussion in 'General Issues and Discussion Forum' started by mike weber, Feb 10, 2012.

  1. G Flanagan

    G Flanagan Active Member

  2. Rob Kidd

    Rob Kidd Well-Known Member

    Because I am still on the university staff as an adjunct, I was on the email list of the "Science in Medicine" group. I read with interest, and agreed in principle with their ideals.. However, I needed assurance that podiatry etc was not included in their blanket of pseudoscience. I wrote for clarification and was assured that we were DEFINITELY considered to be scientific and they wished for our support. There main gripe was courses such as iridology etc that were being funded from public monies. I joined them. Rob
     
  3. sceptical

    sceptical Welcome New Poster

    I was debating whether to join them, but found out that my particular area of medical specialism is being denounced as 'pseudoscience' so I decided not to.....;)

    Here are are some interesting details on Ben Goldacre, whose name came up earlier:
    http://www.slingshotpublications.com/dwarfs01.pdf
     
  4. BEN-HUR

    BEN-HUR Well-Known Member

    Funny... to have an online poll about online polls... within an article discussing the history of apparent corruption of online polls.
    Results to date;
    * Poll: How do you rate online polls?
    - Seriously: 95%
    - As a reasonable indication of sentiment: 0%
    - Lightly: 0%
    - Just a bit of fun: 0%
    - Misleading: 5%

    Well not quite - his (whoever he is) ignorant gripe is with Podiatric Surgeons per se. Case in point; his quote... "Except a consultant podiatric surgeon is just a chiropodist who has decided to charge a bit more"... is just plain ignorance on his part... I suppose there is no account for ignorance on his pseudoacademic blog. The irony - hey.

    More importantly... I'm all for science in medicine. I have addressed this issue before on this forum - albeit from another perspective. All fields of medicine needs to strive for evidence based practice - have empirical science as its base - not flimsy assumptions based on philosophical viewpoints, historical rhetoric & confirmation bias thrown into the mix to fulfil an agenda (I'll refrain from expanding).

    In association: there appears to be a lot of fields within the alternative 'medicine' camp that has its roots stemming from the New Age movement, even the occult & mythology. Many are not aware of this potentially dangerous/deceptive origin. I suppose people have a right to delve into this form of deception (based on their philosophical viewpoints) if they choose to - although it concerns me that the unwary public are then exposed to this form of deception - more alarming when it involves the health & wellbeing of other individuals. One of the complicated issues here is that the power of placebo of one who gravitates to this New Age mindset (consciously or subconsciously) & who has had deemed results, of which, will not guarantee the same affect for another - hence the danger. It is by the very nature of deception (i.e. mixing truth with error), people don't know they are being deceived - the awareness of which may come later i.e. in hindsight.

    Hence, we need to classify what fields fall into the above "pseudoscientific" categories & remove them (& prevent their admittance) to places of higher education (i.e. universities). This may be one way for the public to then determine if a particular field of health consultancy is worth considering for their inquiry of health related issues. Same applies to public funding.
     
  5. GCoe

    GCoe Welcome New Poster

    I am a physio who was hunting down nfo on the Friends of Science in Medicine when I came upon your website and this thread.

    Pseudo-scientific practices are unacceptable in any health profession and I know that podiatrists are striving along side other allied health professions such as physios, OTs, Speech pathologists, dieticians etc to improve their evidence-based practice. Unlike CAM also we have a history of basing our professions on basic and applied science so we very much share this with medicine. That is not to say that we have always done this well but on the whole basic and applied science are cornerstones of our professions and we all now strive to build our practice on clinical evidence. In that way we have nothing in common with CAM.

    I can't see that allied health has anything to loose by getting involved. However politically it can often be difficult to be heard when a body is dominated by medicos and that seems to be the case with this group. So my question is: is it time for Allied Health to join forces and state our support for this issue but as a separate umbrella allied health group?
     
  6. marcellocosta

    marcellocosta Welcome New Poster

    Hi there,
    I am one of the five founders of the Friends of Science in Medicine and I would like to assure those of you who may feel outsiders that this collection of now more than 500 people include more -non doctors than doctors.
    You can now view our just launched website at www.scienceinmedicine.org.au

    Podiatry is one of the 'allied health sciences', respected part of modern scientific medicine in that none of the principles behind podiatry proposes outrageous and mysterious explanations for the kind of problems you are dealing with in your profession

    I hope many of you would want to join us (see instructions in the webpage)

    Welcome to the FSM

    Marcello Costa
     
  7. W J Liggins

    W J Liggins Well-Known Member

    Thank you for that invitation. However before my application would you kindly answer the point made by Ben Hur (above)

    "his (whoever he is) ignorant gripe is with Podiatric Surgeons per se. Case in point; his quote... "Except a consultant podiatric surgeon is just a chiropodist who has decided to charge a bit more"... is just plain ignorance on his part... I suppose there is no account for ignorance on his pseudoacademic blog. The irony - hey."

    Is this the current position of Friends of Science in Medicine. If it is, then please provide the evidence for the conclusion; if it is not then when and where can we expect to see a public retraction by Dr Singh et al.?

    W J Liggins
    Consultant Podiatric Surgeon (who always tries to follow scientific principles)
     
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