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| You too can be a medical* practitioner Simply register with the School of Old Wives' Traditional Medicine and we'll give you a big impressive certificate*no medical training requiredDo you remember the traditional way to treat burns? Or what would happen to your face if the wind changed? If you think you can answer these questions, why not become a registered practitioner of Old Wives' Traditional Medicine?Tomorrow at 11.30am outside the Department of Health in London, a new professional registration scheme for practitioners in the medical tradition of Old Wives' Tales will be launched. A group of junior medics and scientists from the Voice of Young Science (VoYS) network will form the new VoYS School of Old Wives' Traditional Medicine (pdf). They will hand out diplomas for people to practise Old Wives' Traditional Medicine, registering members of the public who can correctly answer questions about traditional cures and advice. The assessment is free of charge and absolutely no medical training or understanding of human physiology is required.Hang on a moment. Surely it is better to stop people practising medicine that isn't evidence-based rather than encourage it? Well, according to the Department of Health, to be worthy of a professional registration scheme all that really matters is for practitioners to be following traditional methods. In a Department of Health steering committee report, and a later consultation to look into how the government should regulate traditional medicine practitioners, a professional registration scheme was proposed. Just like the VoYS scheme, it would register practitioners for everything except whether a practitioner has medical training or whether the field is based on proper evidence. The VoYS School of Old Wives' Traditional Medicine is delighted with this proposed scheme, as it flatters practitioners just for following traditional methods, and does away with the need for any of that difficult medical training. And while Trading Standards and other schemes already regulate practitioners for standards of hygiene, English fluency and criminal records, a Department of Health stamp of approval is far more glamorous.But hang on a minute. What if you want little Johnny to be treated by someone with professional medical training? Could that lump that's appeared on the side of his face be indicative of something more serious than the wind changing while he pulled a face? Sense About Science and a group of professional societies including the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges, the Royal College of Pathologists and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences are indeed concerned about the risks of misdiagnosis (pdf), dangerous drug interactions and the problems of blurring the line between what is and what is not medicine. But the new scheme has the Department of Health's approval, so there can't be anything to worry about, can there? And as the previous health minister Andy Burnham said: I believe that the introduction of such a register will increase public protection, but without the full trappings of professional recognition which are applied to practitioners of orthodox healthcare." Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's junior doctors committee, objects: Providing regulation that looks like the kind of regulation that real medicine gets adds an undeserved veneer of respectability to essentially unproven therapies ... If they are proper treatments then they will be covered by the existing medical regulations; if they're not, then there is no benefit to dressing them up as being on a par with actual medical practice." What a spoilsport. The Department of Health has reassured us, though, that a professional registration scheme that doesn't check for evidence or medical training is the right thing to do. Come and show the Department of Health your enthusiasm for more registration schemes that don't require medical training. Take the test tomorrow, 8 September, between 11.30 and 12.30 at the Department of Health on Whitehall to see if you too can get a diploma in the medical tradition of Old Wives' Tales. Julia Wilson is the VoYS Coordinator at Sense About ScienceControversies in scienceAlternative medicineHomeopathyRegulatorsHealth policyHealthDoctorsScience policyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Cleaner for the Environment, Not for the Dishes Many find low-phosphate detergents as appealing as low-flow showers, underscoring the tradeoffs people often face in a more environmentally conscious marketplace. feeds.nytimes.com |
China's space program launches lunar probe By 2010-10-01T12:16:11ZBEIJING (AP) -- China launched an unmanned lunar probe on Friday, the latest milestone for an ambitious space program that aims to put a man on the moon later this decade.... hosted.ap.org |
Green: E.P.A. Seeks to Revoke Mining Permit The E.P.A. says Arch Coal's mitigation plan would be unable to reproduce natural streams' functions. feeds.nytimes.com |
Today's Mystery Bird For You To Identify Here's two North American mystery birds to keep you busy; are these birds the same species? The same sex?Mystery Birds photographed at Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, Brazoria County, Texas, USA. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]Image: Joseph Kennedy, 21 October 2010 [raptorize].Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400 Here's two North American mystery birds to keep you busy; are these birds the same species? The same sex? These birds share a life history trait that many people dislike. What is that trait and how did it evolve? Daily Mystery Bird Rules: 1. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification, keeping in mind that more than one field mark is often necessary to distinguish between species. IDs without any supporting information are not valid and may be deleted by the moderators. 2. Expert and intermediate level birders: do NOT try to be the first to blurt out the mystery bird's ID. Instead, please provide helpful hints, such as descriptions, literary references, puns, personal anecdotes, and other forms of discussion and assistance for beginning birders and for those following on their iPhones without naming the species. Expert and intermediate birders are free to name the bird species 24 or more hours after it was first published.3. Each mystery bird is usually accompanied by a question or two. These questions can be useful for identifying the pictured species, but may instead be used to illustrate an interesting aspect of avian biology, behaviour or evolution, or may be intended to generate conversation on other topics, such as conservation. 4. Each bird species will be demystified 48 hours after publication. If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and appreciate audience, feel free to email them to me for consideration.GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |