The Alternative Medicine Program Advisory Council (AMPAC) is getting
ready for its first meeting, 8/30 9/1 [1994]. The job of this Board is
to oversee the activities of the Office of Alternative Medicine. It must
confront serious questions about the performance of OAM.
It is now over two years since OAM began. Yet to date, no evaluation
of an alternative treatment has been completed. Evaluations of antineoplastons,
shark cartilage, the Revici method, and bee pollen are moving so slowly
that it often appears nothing is happening. This is troubling. Congress
set up this office to investigate and validate alternative treatments
for cancer and other major diseases. Instead, weve gotten conferences,
meetings, and a plan, unapproved by the advisory board, to give away money
to so-called "centers of excellence" in academia.
Will all this activity answer the burning questions of our movement,
e.g., do the various alternative treatments really work? Delays are very
demoralizing to staff and advisors alike. The alternative-using public
is growing weary of what it sees as bureaucratic delays.
So, daunting questions confront AMPAC as it holds its long-awaited first
meeting:
Will the next OAM director be able to forge a better rapport with the
alternative community than did his predecessor?
Are these proposed >centers of excellence< the best way to conduct
alternative research?
Is it proper for OAM board members themselves to apply for or receive
OAM grants?
The 18 advisors serve on AMPAC to fight for the interests of patients.
The people want to know the truth about various alternative treatments.
AMPAC members should demand serious field trials now, so that the vision
we had two years ago can finally become a reality.
