Probing Edges Of Medicine -- And Reality

"We have to keep an open mind, but not an open mind to nonsense," said Bruce Flamm, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, Irvine.

"The Samuelis are very generous people," said obstetrician-gynecologist Flamm, "but this institute is a sadly misguided waste of money that could be spent on legitimate research."

Last year, after Flamm repeatedly raised questions about a widely promulgated study conducted by researchers affiliated with Columbia University that prayer could help infertile women conceive, the study was withdrawn. (Samueli had no affiliation with the study.) One of the authors is currently serving time in federal prison on unrelated criminal fraud charges.

Some skeptics say the Samueli-sponsored research is fundamentally unscientific and that much of it lacks the necessary safeguards to prevent spurious results. One paper presented at a Samueli-sponsored conference last year on optimal healing environments -- a concept Jonas said he is helping to synthesize -- was entitled "The Spa as a Model of an Optimal Healing Environment." Written by an executive of the posh Canyon Ranch Spa in Tucson, it was published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Using Canyon Ranch as a case study, the author concluded that "creating an optimal healing environment at any price point" requires "a dedicated, caring staff."

What Objective?

"What they're doing isn't science, it's faith healing," said Robert L. Park, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland and the author of a 2002 book entitled "Voodoo Science," which includes a lengthy discussion of homeopathy.

Adrienne Fugh-Berman, an associate professor in the complemetary medicine program at Georgetown University, said she regarded the studies listed on the SIIB Web site as "pretty self-indulgent."

Fugh-Berman, a physician who has published two dozen studies of alternative treatments, called the belief that homeopathy could be used to fight bioterrorism "embarrassing" and said she regarded optimal healing environments as "spa therapy for rich people."

"What bothers me about some of the research is that I suspect its objective is to create a veneer of science over certain strongly held beliefs," she said.

Jonas disputes these criticisms and says the institute follows standard NIH grant review practices. He said the goal is to fund credible pilot studies to determine what works -- or doesn't -- and that he has no other agenda. Negative results of studies are published on the SIIB Web site, he noted.

While the nonprofit foundation tries to subsidize research that is rigorous, Jonas continued, it is not always possible to conduct randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies of alternative therapies.

"A high percentage meet those requirements," he said, but "some things can't be blinded."

Richard H. Grimm, an epidemiologist who is director of the Berman Center for Outcomes at the University of Minnesota, agreed, noting that much of conventional medicine is predicated on treatments that haven't been put to such a test.