Submission + - Consumer Guide to Stem Cell Clinics
Penguinshit writes: Patients seeking stem cell treatments now have a guide to the various clinics purporting to offer such treatments. Not exactly a Zagat or Michelin, but much more objective information from qualified experts than was available before in one place. Created by the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the guide was the brainchild of a task force convened by the then ISSCR President Irving Weissman of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine.
As reported in the July issue of Cell Stem Cell, the task force said they had been aware of many misleading direct-to-consumer claims by various global clinics touting therapies for a wide variety of conditions. Such unethical marketing "could place individual patients at risk and jeopardize the progress of legitimate research". The guide aims to evaluate these clinics on the basis of, among other criteria, preclinical research (or lack thereof), regulatory oversight, whether an ethics committee is involved to protect patients rights, and whether the clinic provided information to the ISSCR group. The website has a form where patients can submit clinics for investigation by the ISSCR.
As reported in the July issue of Cell Stem Cell, the task force said they had been aware of many misleading direct-to-consumer claims by various global clinics touting therapies for a wide variety of conditions. Such unethical marketing "could place individual patients at risk and jeopardize the progress of legitimate research". The guide aims to evaluate these clinics on the basis of, among other criteria, preclinical research (or lack thereof), regulatory oversight, whether an ethics committee is involved to protect patients rights, and whether the clinic provided information to the ISSCR group. The website has a form where patients can submit clinics for investigation by the ISSCR.
