Andrew Weil houdt lezing op Amerikaanse artsendag AAFP

De AAFP heeft Weil uitgenodigd voor de openingslezing op haar jaarlijkse ledenbijeenkomst die half oktober wordt gehouden, dit jaar in Philadelphia.

‘Hoe kunnen jullie dit doen? Die Weil is schrijver van New Age-onzin en van boeken over niet-werkende ideologisch getinte behandelingen die niet veel van doen hebben met geneeskunde’, schrijft Catherine de Jong, voorzitter van de VtdK in haar brief. ‘Die keuze voor Weil is een belediging voor artsen die het principe huldigen van de Evidenced Base Practice en nodigt collega’s uit tot meer kwakzalverij. Doe hetzelfde als de Nederlandse artsenvereniging KNMG die accreditatiepunten introk voor een congres in Nederland onder andere omdat diezelfde Weil daar een lezing hield.’

Weil, zo oordeelde de Amerikaanse kwakzalverijbestrijder Stephen Barrett, is in de medische wereld een van de grote promotoren van kwakzalverij.

Hieronder de brief van VtdK-voorzitter De Jong aan de AAFP:

Subject: Speaker on opening ceremony Assembly Philadelphia

Dear Sir,

As the President of the Dutch Society against Quackery I am very surprised that the AAFP has invited Andrew Weil as key note speaker for the next AAFP Scientific Assembly, October 16-20, 2012 in Philadelphia. Surely Andrew Weil cannot be a serious choice for this important task? He is the guru of alternative medicine. He is a successful writer on New Age nonsense and on ineffective, ideology based treatments that are clearly outside the field of medicine.

According to your website www.aafp.org the major purposes of the AAFP include among others:

• To preserve and promote quality cost-effective health care;
• To promote the science and art of family medicine and to ensure an optimal supply of well-trained family physicians;
• To promote and maintain high standards among physicians who practice family medicine;

Alternative treatments do not contribute to quality cost-effective health care.

The choice of Andrew Weil is an insult to the attempts of all physicians to make medicine an Evidence Based Practice and to have science at the heart of progress in medical treatments.

The choice of Andrew Weil is a choice against going for high standards among physicians, because will inspire colleagues to more quackery than we already have.

I presume you are familiar with the article that Arnold S. Relman published on Andrew Weil in the book Science meets Alternative Medicine, edited by Wallace Simpson & Lewis Vaughn (ISBN 978-1-57392-803-8). It is full of examples of his illogical thinking and anti-science ideas.

Andrew Weil promotes unnecessary use of vitamins and other products. Is this in accordance with the purposes of the AAFP?

On April 20th 2012 Andrew Weil was invited to speak on the “Lentis congress” in Groningen, a university city in the Netherlands. His presence and his presentation were reason for the Royal Dutch Society for promotion of Medicine (K.N.M.G.) to withdraw the accreditation points to the attending physicians! No CME-points for Dutch family physicians who attended this congress. The reason for this decision was, that the views of Andrew Weil were lacking sufficient scientific basis. His practices verbalized in his speeches are not found to be in accordance with the standards of our national organization of family physicians (Nederlands Huisartsen Genootschap www.nhg.org), the Dutch equivalent of the AAFP.

Family Medicine is a very important specialty in medicine. We need progress in the development of protocols en we need to implement the outcome of scientific research to reach these goals. What we do not need is an New Age guru blinding his listeners with vague alternative ideas and leading well-meaning physicians into the swamp of alternative healing.

I sincerely hope that you will reconsider your choice of key note speaker. That said I also wish the AAFP lots of success with their next Scientific Assembly.

Yours sincerely,

Catherine de Jong, anesthesiologist

Voorzitter Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij

(President of Dutch Society against Quackery)