Saturday, March 09, 2013

Mar 9 - David H. Gorski - Quackademic Medicine

Saturday, March 9, 2013, 1:00 pm
National Science Foundation
Room 110
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA [map]

"Complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) or, as it is increasingly called, "integrative medicine," is infiltrating our medical schools and academic medical centers, not to mention even the NIH itself. Acupuncture, reiki, healing touch, herbalism, and even homeopathy are less and less being viewed as quackery and more and more tolerated if not accepted in what should be bastions of science-based medicine. Dr. Gorski will discuss how this sad state of affairs came about, where we are now, and, hopefully, what can be done about it.

David H. Gorski, MD, PhD, FACS is the managing editor of the sciencebasedmedicine.org blog, as well as a contributor both under his own name and the pseudonym "Orac." He is a surgical oncologist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute specializing in breast cancer surgery, where he also serves as the Medical Director of the Alexander J. Walt Comprehensive Breast Center and Cancer Liaison Physician for the American College of Surgeons Committee on Cancer. Academically, he is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Oncology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, where he serves as Chief of the Section of Breast Surgery, and is a member of the faculty of the Graduate Program in Cancer Biology. Additionally, he serves as Treasurer for the Institute for Science in Medicine. An investigator whose primary research interests include tumor angiogenesis and the role of glutamate receptors in promoting the growth and metastasis of breast cancer, Dr. Gorski also runs an active research laboratory and has recently taken an active interest in the problems of breast cancer overdiagnosis and overtreatment.

NOTE: THIS TALK BEGINS AT 1:00 PM INSTEAD OF THE USUAL 1:30 PM.

This talk is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served after the talk.