Shameful Report: Homeopathy and Freedom of Information

The Complementary Medicines Australia (CMA) has released its own response to the shameful Report on Homeopathy by the NHMRC. It looks as though an inquiry into this government agency is necessary. The CMA says:

“We are very disappointed with the position taken by the NHMRC, especially when a number of independent experts in the sector have expressed strong concerns with the methodology of the review, according to information obtained from NHMRC under Freedom of Information laws.”

“The NHMRC Review on Homeopathy had Five Fundamental Flaws:

1. Shoddy Methodology: NHMRC provides no adequate explanation of why randomised controlled trials (RTC) were excluded from the Review. The NHMRC decision not to
adhere to a search of all Level 1 evidence, as per International standards, should certainly be justified.
2. Selective Research: The choice of databases searched was not broad enough to capture the balance of complementary medicine specific content, and excluded non-English studies.
3. Lack of Expertise: NHMRC did not appoint a homeopathic expert to the Review Panel.
4. Flawed evidence: NHMRC did not provide an adequate explanation of why only systematic reviews were used where systematic reviews have inherent weakness as a
reliable source of evidence.
5. Ignoring Opinion of Experts: Two out of three Experts who NHMRC consulted prior to publication expressed numerous concerns over the methodology and selective use of the
data and recommended the NHMRC could not come to the very definitive conclusion thatit came to. The NHMRC then chose to ignore these Expert Opinions.

More Information: CMA Disappointed with NHMRC Statement on Homeopathy