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I agree with the spirit of their document, which is to help people
find the good medical resources and avoid the inaccurate dishonest
ones. So, I decided to write the Pulse of Oriental Medicine's
answer to the 10 concerns listed.
- Who runs this site?
- Who pays for the site?
- What is the purpose of the site?
- Where does the information come
from?
- What is the basis of the information?
- How is the information selected?
- How current is the information?
- How does the site choose links
to other sites?
- What information about you does
the site collect, and why?
- How does the site manage interactions
with visitors?
1. Who runs this site?
Brian Carter is the founder,
webmaster, designer, editor, and primary author. He is joined
in authorship by regular and one-time writers.
2. Who pays for the site?
Brian Benjamin Carter pays the cost of the web-hosting out of
his own pocket. Contributors are compensated in terms of exposure
to web traffic and/or placement on our acupuncture listing service.
The Pulse is a labor of love, a gift at no charge to y'all. I
always thought that down the line I would write some books,
and finally one is almost out. Check it out here.
3. What is the purpose of the site?
The primary purpose of the Pulse of Oriental Medicine is to raise
public awareness of the value and scope of Chinese Medicine by
making use of plain english. Secondary purposes include raising
awareness of other alternative medicines, providing consumer warnings
about treatments and drug herb interactions, explaining inaccessible
scientific, medical, and psychological information, and occasionally
making mild jokes to lighten the mood.
4. Where does the information come from?
The information on the Pulse of Oriental Medicine comes from
a variety of sources, including international scientific research,
classic medical literature, expert lectures and websites, and
the clinical experience of chinese medicine practitioners. Most
articles are very well-referenced. If they aren't, they may be
some of our first articles… feel free to question them and
us. Let us know if you have any
questions.
5. What is the basis of the information?
Wherever possible, scientific research is referenced. However,
it must be noted that Chinese medicine is thousands of years old,
and until 1949 was not based on the double-blind placebo-controlled
study (the gold standard of western medical research). Instead,
it was based on generated upon generation of clinical trial and
error.
Plenty of conventional western medicine is still clinical trial
and error - ask any psychiatrist. There often are studies to prove
the safety but not the effectiveness of western treatments. AND,
there is a double standard that goes on… western treatments
get the benefit of the doubt, but alternative treatments receive
the detriment of skepticism. A healthy dose of skepticism is warranted
in today's whatever-goes medical climate, but due respect must
be given to the iterative anecdotal scientific method that chinese
medicine used for thousands of years.
Around the world, there is a great transition occurring…
Chinese medical physicians recognize the validity of western medicine
anatomy, physiology, and treatments, and they are integrating
them with traditional chinese anatomy, physiology, and treatment.
It's a vast enterprise, and it's going to take a long long time.
In the meantime, those trained in western medicine need to recognize
that even though chinese medicine has yet to duplicate the rigor
of the gold standard double-blind placebo-controlled study in
all nooks and crannies, neither has western medicine… and
there are many shades of gray between the black-and-white of no
evidence and the gold standard. We have thousands of years of
clinical evidence… tons of fodder for gold-standard-style
studies.
It's appropriate that chinese medicine physicians be able to
continue to practice in this transition period. In California,
licensed acupuncturists are primary care physicians, and the only
class of people exempt from the ban on ephedra. In short, the
basis of our information is research, clinical evidence, tradition
and experience.
6. How is the information selected? (Is there
an editorial board? Do people with excellent professional and
scientific qualifications review the material before it is posted?)
The information is selected based on both reader queries and writers'
choice. At this point, there is no editorial board. All submitted
writings are chosen and edited by Brian Benjamin Carter. We highly
favor chinese medical topics, though we occasionally allow writings
based on other alternative medicines. We are considering a peer-review
process, however, since we are not the typical medical journal (The
Pulse is rather more a 'popular science' type of offering), and
we expect our readers to take what they read with a grain of salt
anyway, a peer-review process may not be necessary. In any case,
we generally adhere to high standards of readability, referencing,
and relevance.
7. How current is the information?
The publishing date of each article can be found on the previous
issues of Being Well page. The article itself may note if
it has been updated since its writing.
8. How does the site choose links to other sites?
Although on occasion we have exchanged links, it has only been
with relevant health websites. All of the links on our links page
are chosen to benefit the reader. Links within articles are chosen
to give the reader access to more information or services. None
of our links are paid for. We do sell advertising in our e-newsletter,
Being Well, but the advertisement are separated from the body
of the newsletter and marked at beginning and end.
9. What information about you does the site
collect, and why?
At this time, all articles on the Pulse are available for free
without any membership or requirement of information from you.
Our webhost, Irides.com collects basic web traffic information…
the same standard information tracked by all webhosts. Nothing
specific about each user is remembered, but a total number of
visitors and to which pages is stored. When we analyze our site
traffic, we get summary statistics… no names or email addresses
or anything like that.
10. How does the site manage interactions with
visitors?
You can contact us at any time.
The menu on the left side of every page contains a Contact Us
link. If you ask us a question, we may ask you for more information
before we can answer. This is usually because we have not been
given enough information in the first place. If your query fits
the topic of one of our columnists, it will be forwarded to them.
If you give us noteworthy praise, we may share it and your full
name (but nothing else about you) with other readers. If we turn
your query and our response into an article, we keep your identity
anonymous. We also point out on every page that our purpose is
educational only. We always encourage our readers to consult their
doctor and chinese medicine physician one-on-one before taking
any action.
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