Science-Based Medicine

Back in January, the Connecticut Board of Chiropractic Examiners held a four-day hearing to decide whether chiropractors must, as a part of the informed consent process, (1)warn patients about the risk of cervical artery dissection and stroke following neck manipulation and (2) give patients a discharge summary listing the symptoms of stroke.¹ On June 10th, the Board of issued a written opinion that stroke or cervical artery dissection is not a risk of cervical spine manipulation, so no warning is necessary. Presumably, although it is not specifically mentioned in the decision, no discharge summary is required because, if there is no risk of a stroke after neck manipulation, what would be the point?

Background

Janet Levy and Britt Harwe are two Connecticut women who suffered strokes resulting from neck manipulation by chiropractors. That’s not just their lay opinion, it’s the opinion of their respective treating physicians, right there in the medical records.

Each decided that some good should come of their unfortunate situations, so each formed a non-profit and began warning patients of the risk of stroke following manipulation. Victims of Chiropractic Abuse, Levy’s organization, put giant ads on the sides of busses in Bridgeport, CT., much to the chagrin of the folks at the University of Bridgeport. Within the hallowed halls of the University (Go Purple Knights!) is a College of Chiropractic, a College of Naturopathic Medicine, and the Acupuncture Institute. The chiropractors demanded that the ads be taken down, which got exactly nowhere.

Some chiropractors also began harassing Levy and Harwe, calling them Nazis and KKK members, for example, and threatening their personal safety and that of their families.(What is it with the pseudoscience crowd and calling people Nazis? Perhaps, having used up their entire supply of imagination creating their nostrums, they are reduced to these tired tropes.) The FBI recommended Levy and Harwe have one of the harassers arrested, which they did, and that calmed things down for a while. Continue Reading »

Some Universities have more cachet than others. On the West coast it is Stanford that has the reputation as the best. There is Oxford, Yale, MIT, and maybe Whatsamatta U. I would wager that in most people’s mind the crème de la crème is Harvard. Harvard is where you find the best of the best. If Harvard is involved, a project gains an extra gobbet of credibility. Brigham and Women’s Hospital also has a similar reputation in the US as one of the hospitals associated with only Harvard and the New England Journal of Medicine. Premier university, premier hospital, premier journal.

So if Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School are offering continuing medical information (CME) for acupuncture, there must be something to it, right? A course called “Structural Acupuncture for Physicians” must have some validity.

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