Brainstorming with me about practice based clinical research

[Lewis MehlMadrona]

Dear friends,

 

I hand selecting some of you from my mailing list in hopes you would brainstorm with me about how to move forward on a project that I think is important and hope you will agree would be useful also.

 

I've been studying what the drug companies have done in setting up research networks to accomplish large projects that none could do on their own.  For example, the study that got quetiapine FDA approval for treatment of bipolar depression involved 43 academic centers (to enrol 290 patients, but that's another very interesting statistical story).  Competing companies now are even collaborating together to create more capacity.

 

For those of us that are interested in traditional healing, in non-pharmaceutical approaches to getting well, etc. etc. we need that same capacity.  I'm proposing to create such a network and to make it easy for any of us to pose a question to each other and for those of us that can help to contribute data toward answering that question.  I'm offering to be the hub for data management.

 

I've started a beta-test site at http://groups.google.com/group/integrativeclinicalresearch.  I've put up some information on my study on spirituality and health outcome in case others would like to participate and wrote a short blurb about participatory research.

 

I really need your thoughts on what would make this attractive to people.  I know we are all busy.  What would make it so easy and attractive that someone in their private office or clinic or center or anywhere would say, "I can do this.  This is easy enough that I can do this."  Of course, we would all share the data and authorship and all that good stuff just like the drug company collaborative groups do (probably more so).

 

I'm trying to get funding to get this off the ground, but I suspect that it will have to be more grassroots, especially documenting changes when people work with traditional healers.

 

Thoughts, please?

 

Lewis

[kawika liu]

Aloha,

Although I have no clinical practice at this time, I would be very happy to participate in any manner that would be useful.  Currently, in my office we are discussing the means of evaluating traditional healing practices, both for efficacy and for reimbursement.

Kawika Liu

[mehlm...@gmail.com]

I would like to hear more about how you are thinking about that.
Anything you can post for us to read would be greatly appreciated.
Perhaps we could collaborate in my endeavor of evaluating efficacy of
traditional healing practices. I've set that project up at
http://groups.google.com/group/traditionalhealing. Check out the
instruments I am finding and let me know if you can what you are
considering doing for evaluation. I want to also use narratives from
people about their experience with the healers.

Lewis