Government Reform and Oversight Committee
February 12, 1998
Tammy Guerkink Born, MD
I am here today to give you a perspective from a Licensing
Board member, because in spite of all of the work already
done on FDA reform the job remains unfinished. It remains
unfinished in a vitally important area - True Patient Access.
Unfortunately the FDA Reform bill passed last year did little
to change the accessibility to alternative or complementary
medicine. In spite of what we have been told it did nothing
to increase patient access to unapproved therapies and only
codified existing law as it pertains to access to drugs already
in the IND pipeline. I hope to give you a perspective from
a practicing physician and as a member of a licensing board.
I am the Vice-President of the Michigan Osteopathic Board
of Licensing and Regulation. I have also been recently appointed
as a voting delegate to the Federation of State Medical Boards.
I have been practicing scientifically based complementary
medicine for ten years in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have included
for the record a few of the dramatic testimonials written
by our patients over the past years of the successes they
have experienced by combining the best of alternative and
traditional therapies.
My main objective today, however, is to give you a perspective
that you may not yet have heard. A perspective that may explain
to you why true patient access does not exist currently. Two
years ago I attended a National Federation of State Medical
Boards conference in Chicago, Illinois. The focus of the very
first presentation was how to stop the practice of alternative
and complementary medicine. As one Assistant Attorney General
of California said at that meeting -"It is difficult for us
to get patients to complain about these doctors, so we will
have to find ways to get them ourselves.'' He asked for a
show of hands for how many states had prosecuted alternative
medicine doctors and many of the state representatives raised
their hands. Then he asked for a special conference to compare
how other states had been successful in prosecuting alternative
physicians simply because they were alternative not because
they practiced bad medicine. Doctors may have been prosecuted
for recommending nutritional or dietary therapies, not necessarily
controversial treatments. In fact out of the four years that
I have been on the board in Michigan, the number of alternative
doctors that have been prosecuted for incompetence is extremely
low. Many physicians practicing complementary therapies combine
them with traditional therapies to allow patients their choice
of the best in each tradition. Many states have adopted policies
that have forced patients to seek medical care in other countries
or other states that may have more progressive policies. If
competent and well intentioned doctors are forced out of practice
because they cannot bring the type of care that their patients
need or want patients will be forced to seek their health
care from unregulated and unlicensed practitioners. Many good
doctors with advanced degrees are unwilling to provide complementary
therapies because of FDA and local medical society pressures.
Despite overwhelming evidence that many complementary therapies
are more effective and less costly, many doctors are unwilling
to incorporate them into their own practices. Every doctor
practicing Food medicine should be able to incorporate complementary
therapies Into his or her own practice without fear of retribution
from FDA and state medical boards .
My job description as member of the State Board of Michigan
has been to protect the people of Michigan. I have been amazed
at the swift and decisive actions which can take place in
an effective medical board while policing it's member physicians.
The Access to Medical Treatment Act would do nothing to undermine
the board's authority. Physicians who harm their patients
or in some way endanger the lives of patients are dealt with
swiftly and effectively by State medical boards. The Access
to Medical Treatment Act actually compliments these medical
boards and allows it to do its work much more effectively
as the Bill demands that practitioners have solid reasons
for believing that a therapy will work before providing it
to anyone. No good doctor would want to jeopardize his or
her license and/or lively hood by providing unethical treatments.
The Access to Medical Treatment Act provides that the practitioner
Doubt know that the therapy will not cause hand. This provision
can only help a state medical board while encouraging patient
education and patient antinomy. Ensuring that physicians provide
the best treatments for patients and the opportunity for the
much needed research on complementary medicine are the AMTA's
most notable provisions.
Many of my patients can afford the best of any medical care
and they have chosen nontraditional therapies. While the FDA
has done a good job at protecting patients from harmful drugs
it is unclear who they are protecting while prohibiting the
further research and practice of complementary therapies.
These patients are not vulnerable or likely to be taken in
by doctors offering "quack cures". These patients are well
informed and educated and the name therapies should be afforded
patients who are less fortunate and uneducated. Patients need
to be informed of all of their options and make a decision
in conjunction with their family, their doctor, and their
spiritual guide as to the right treatment for them.
It has been my goal to offer the best and most affordable
health care to the most patients that I can. I love my job.
I have been able to help hundreds and hundreds of people to
live more full and enjoyable lives. I could tell you stories
of patients who had no hope; who had legs amputated or who
could only walk twenty feet without getting chest pain and
now are able to walk or were able to save their remaining
leg from amputation. I have patients who have been outraged
that they were not given all of the information available
from their doctors. They were not given options concerning
their amputation or their surgeries. I have many patients
who have traveled to other countries to receive treatments
for their cancer or other chronic ailments because no physician
in the United States was able to offer this treatment for
them. The Access to Medical Treatment Act will allow patients
who cannot afford to travel to Czechoslovakia for a cancer
treatment or to Italy for and AIDS treatment, a glimmer of
hope that these treatments may one day be studied more thoroughly
in the United States.
I believe that I have a moral obligation to offer my patients
information concerning all therapies that are available to
them. I did not enter medical school knowing that I would
become interested in and practice complementary medicine.
In fact much the opposite. I planned on being a surgeon. However,
my own experience and insight has lead me on a path which
can only lead me forward. Forward into the future. A future
in which all patients are afforded the best medicine that
we as physicians can offer.
In a recent Grand Rapids Press article a study was cited
in which the administration of significant doses of Folic
Acid and Vitamin E were tested in thousands of nurses. The
death rate from heart attacks dropped more than 50%. With
The Access to Medical Treatment Act the recording of beneficial
medical treatment is required, therefore, enabling this very
significant information to be disseminated in a much more
timely fashion, saving hundreds maybe thousands of lives.
The research studies encouraged by The Access to Medical Treatment
Act will significantly impact the lives of the American public.
Lives will be saved and health care will be administered in
a more cost effective and efficient manner. What traditional
therapy can offer a 50% reduction in deaths due to heart disease?
Yet, are physicians routinely recommending that their patients
take high doses of Polic Acid or Vitamin E? Many are not!
Rich and poor patients, educated and uneducated people, professional
and laborers will all benefit from the research encouraged
by this bill.
If the United States is to continue to offer the best medical
care in the world we must look at the beet of non-traditional
and traditional therapies. Fifteen years ago when I entered
medical school we had no courses on nutrition or alternative
medicine. In fact there were no lectures in all four years
of medical school on the importance of diet and nutrition
in promoting a persons health or preventing a disease. Now
a few medical schools across the country are offering courses
in alternative medicine. While this is a great beginning,
I can see how the impact of The Access to Medical Treatment
Act could be much more profound for our already aging and
ailing Medicare population. Our illness based curriculum and
the attitude of "you give me a symptom and I'll give you a
pill" by many medical practitioners is not good medicine and
is in many ways unethical today. Many illnesses and diseases
can be treated without costly medicines or surgeries if the
public is aware of ways in which they can take responsibility
for their own health care and their own treatment. Everyone
will benefit. While it is very important to teach doctors
how to treat a patient when they are ill, it is more important
to teach them how to maintain health and wellness. If patients
are given the freedom to steer the course of their health
care, assisted by trained health care providers everyone benefits.
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