National Science Foundation
Room 110
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA [map]
(Slides from Talk)
Brian Engler will discuss the research underpinning his paper “Measuring Mythology: Startling Concepts in NCCAM Grants” co-authored by Eugenie V. Mielczarek and recently published in the January/February 2012 issue of Skeptical Inquirer magazine. Over the past decade and more, huge annual expenditures by the U.S. citizenry fed by an increasing interest in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) prompted this research into U.S. taxpayer funding of so-called alternative medicine. Extensive review of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants for CAM studies—that were principally funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) but also significantly augmented by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and many other NIH Centers and Institutes—and of ensuing clinical trials that displayed a paucity of reporting, steered the authors toward their conclusion:
"Ignorance of science, the lack of publications in peer reviewed medical or science journals and the failure to report clinical trials in scientific medical journals have demonstrated the failure, despite the expenditure of $2 billion taxpayer dollars over nearly 20 years, to confirm cures based not on scientific evidence but rather on cultural mythology."
Brian D. Engler is a retired US Navy Commander; his fields of study are operations research and business administration. Eugenie V. Mielczarek is emeritus professor of physics at George Mason University.
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members.
Refreshments and socializing after the talk.
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