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DEAR Dr. Chew, Unfortunately patients in the US can be as gullible as patients anywhere. There are some safefuards however , in place which can be breeched- and often are . The FDA can prosecute physicians who used unapproved treatments. The problem is primarily with unethical physicians who who use borderline acceptable or non acceptable treatments especially surgery - especially in under served areas which do not have adequate peer review. The States are the licensing authority .in the US and some of the States are quite lax im enforcing good medical practice, The hospital provides the first line of defense against poor medical practice. There is departmental peer review and they (peers) decide what procedures a physician can preform in that hospital.. A problem occurs if there is another hospital nearby which does not have adequate peer review. and the MD says "I'll take my business down the street. There also is a national accreditation agency hospitals which can hold back medicare funding and acrediation by the agency is done with voluntary participation only.. The last and most useful line defense is an informed public .. I think a useful way of doing this like you said, is to write articles for your newspaper to inform the public Also stress that University affiliated hospitals are usually where the cutting edge research is done and if they want to take part in research that is the place where they might find one. Quacks and con men exist in every part of the world. Patient .education is our best we[on against them. Charles Meyer M.D, Middleton WI (Madison) chew nee kong wrote: > Dear Ray and everyone > > Thanks for all the wonderful information that you have provided through your parkinson's network. > > I'd like to share my experience with you and appreciate if you can give your comments. Two weeks ago, I discovered that one of my Parkinson's patients had undergone a "stem cell treatment" at Kuala Lumpur. This patient's daughter heard about the "stem cell centre" from her friends. The patient spent RM53000 (which is a huge sum of money) for a course of "stem cell" injections (administered into the shoulder muscles). > > I explained to the patient that currently stem cell treatment for Parkinson's has not been shown to be consistently beneficial for parkinson's patients. I also mentioned to her the guideline which was issued by the International Society of Stem Cell Research in 2008, which aimed to educate the public on the possibility of unproven stem cell treatment. > > Recently, another stem cell company approached me and claimed that they had successful stem cell treatment for parkinson's - direct injection of stem cells into the brain. > > In my country, people are so gullible and accept "treatments" which may be unproven, without consulting the relevant specialists? Does this happen in the US? What has the US government done to prevent this problem? > > I am considering bringing up this issue in the local newspaper to alert the general public about such unproven treatment. Otherwise, more parkinson's patients will be victimized. > > I'd appreciate your advice. > > Dr Chew Nee Kong, Kuala Lumpur. > > _________________________________________________________________ > What can you do with the new Windows Live? Find out > http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/default.aspx > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn