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Medicine

NECSS, a brand new talk, and blogging

My NECSS talk isn’t done and something’s got to give. So that means blogging will be sparse this week. Sorry about that.

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Bioethics Medicine Politics

Some final thoughts (for now) on right-to-try, the Stanislaw Burzynski of drug regulation laws

Right-to-try is now the law of the land. Unfortunately, it’s a law custom-made for the unethical who don’t mind taking advantage of the terminally ill.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Science

Crowdfunding for unproven stem cell treatments: Taking advantage of the generosity of strangers to pay for quackery

With the rise of quack stem cell clinics, there has been a rise of crowdfunding campaigns to assist patients in paying for expensive stem cell treatments of unproven efficacy. Unfortunately, as a recent study shows, these crowdfunding campaigns nearly always oversell efficacy and ignore potential risks of the treatments, while making powerful emotional appeals.

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Clinical trials Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science

The FDA brings the hammer down on two quack stem cell clinics

Last year, the FDA announced a regulatory framework for stem cell clinics, and hopes were raised that it would finally crack down on the hundreds of quack stem cell clinics in the US. Yesterday, the FDA dropped the hammer on two clinics, seeking injunctions in federal court to stop them. Is this the beginning of a real (and long overdue) crackdown on these clinics?

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Bioethics Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

How quacks sell dubious stem cell therapies

More and more, alternative medicine practitioners are offering unproven, almost certainly ineffective, and potentially dangerous stem cell therapies. How are they doing it?