Michael Joyce is a multimedia producer at HealthNewsReview.org and tweets as @mlmjoyce
Stem cell clinics are booming. And hurting people.
How can patients protect themselves in a marketplace where the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and state medical boards have been ineffectual?
In this podcast you’ll hear from George Gibson (a patient left blind after a dubious stem cell intervention), Leigh Turner PhD (a bioethicist who’s been following the stem cell marketplace closely), and Drs. Jeanne Loring and Paul Knoepfler – two PhD stem cell researchers from California.
There are two websites that most of the people I interviewed for this story recommended as reliable and user-friendly places to go for further information on stem cells:
Although it’s directed at journalists, our 9 Writing Tips to Combat Stem Cell Hype in Your News Stories also will be of interest to most readers of health care news. We’ve closely followed coverage of stem cells for the past several years. Here’s just a sampling:
Bioethicist Leigh Turner, who was interviewed for this podcast, has published two papers in the past year that may be of interest. The first was published in the summer of 2016 and was co-authored by Paul Knoepfler. It offers a compelling look into the number and locations of stem cell clinics marketing directly to US consumers.
This summer Turner published a study documenting the use of clinicaltrials.gov by clinics offering unregulated interventions. In this Q&A with Turner, he discusses much of the background leading up to the publication. It’s a very interesting read.
Also quite provocative is this very concise “call to action” penned by Tim Caulfield, Douglass Sipp, and others published just last month. It offers an important perspective on what’s needed to keep people from being harmed by unregulated stem cell therapies.
Finally we’d like to continue the conversation and would love to hear from you during our upcoming Twitter chat!
You can listen to all our podcasts HERE.
About 6 percent of older Americans live in nursing homes. However, nearly half of us…
Only 7 percent of orthopedic surgeons in the United States are women. Dr. Julie Switzer…
Wellness programs in the United States are an $8 billion industry. Over 50 million Americans…
Comments
We Welcome Comments. But please note: We will delete comments left by anyone who doesn’t leave an actual first and last name and an actual email address.
We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified facts, product pitches, or profanity. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. Comments should primarily discuss the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages about health and medicine. This is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science. Nor is it a forum to share your personal story about a disease or treatment -- your comment must relate to media messages about health care. If your comment doesn't adhere to these policies, we won't post it. Questions? Please see more on our comments policy.
Our Comments Policy
But before leaving a comment, please review these notes about our policy.
You are responsible for any comments you leave on this site.
This site is primarily a forum for discussion about the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages (advertising, marketing, public relations, medical journals, etc.) It is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science.
We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified claims, product pitches, profanity or any from anyone who does not list a full name and a functioning email address. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. We don”t give medical advice so we won”t respond to questions asking for it.
We don”t have sufficient staffing to contact each commenter who left such a message. If you have a question about why your comment was edited or removed, you can email us at feedback@healthnewsreview.org.
There has been a recent burst of attention to troubles with many comments left on science and science news/communication websites. Read “Online science comments: trolls, trash and treasure.”
The authors of the Retraction Watch comments policy urge commenters:
We”re also concerned about anonymous comments. We ask that all commenters leave their full name and provide an actual email address in case we feel we need to contact them. We may delete any comment left by someone who does not leave their name and a legitimate email address.
And, as noted, product pitches of any sort – pushing treatments, tests, products, procedures, physicians, medical centers, books, websites – are likely to be deleted. We don”t accept advertising on this site and are not going to give it away free.
The ability to leave comments expires after a certain period of time. So you may find that you’re unable to leave a comment on an article that is more than a few months old.
You might also like
About 6 percent of older Americans live in nursing homes. However, nearly half of us…
Only 7 percent of orthopedic surgeons in the United States are women. Dr. Julie Switzer…
Wellness programs in the United States are an $8 billion industry. Over 50 million Americans…