[girija]

http://www.cellmedicinesociety.org/h...e8afa041f3cfa5

PORTLAND, OREGON. APRIL 14, 2011 – Today, the International Cellular Medicine Society, the global leader in providing best practice standards for cell based medicine, announced the initiation of its first step toward conducting worldwide evaluations of current stem cell treatment offerings. This step, the creation of a new ICMS Treatment Oversight Committee (TOC), is the first of many that will guide a global effort to bring oversight and transparency to cell based medical treatments.

The TOC will serve as a sub-committee under the ICMS Medical Advisory Board. The committee is tasked with reviewing and evaluating protocols and methodologies being utilized by clinics that are providing stem cell treatments. “Patient safety is our key concern,” said David Audley, Executive Director of the ICMS. “Without oversight and independent evaluation of these treatments, there is no way to distinguish between those that are promising and those that are deceitful and potentially harmful.”

The ICMS has identified Parkinson’s as the first condition to be investigated. Parkinson’s disease is illustrative of the issues surrounding cell based medicine. It is a condition that holds tremendous promise for treatment with stem cell, while at the same time poses great potential risks due to a lack of supportive data for these treatments. The ICMS has identified nearly a dozen clinics around the world currently offering stem cell treatments for this condition.

Comprised of specialists in cell based medicine, as well as physicians and scientists with significant domain expertise in Parkinson’s disease, the newly formed TOC is tasked with the responsibility of evaluating the data that the ICMS will be collecting from clinics worldwide. The TOC will generate a report that will provide an evaluation of the current treatments, general guidelines for the applicability of stem cells in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and methodologies for judging the outcomes of these treatments.

“Our mission is to bring transparency to the field,” continued Audley. “No one knows which clinics are peddling false hope, or whether or not there are any viable treatments available for patients. This is only attempt to evaluate what is available, and separate the credible from the malicious.”

The results and learnings from this global treatment evaluation of Parkinson’s disease will serve to form a model for future evaluations of other conditions.

[Conductor71]

Has anyone eve heard of tihis?

The Wu Stem Medical Center

[lurkingforacure]

Originally Posted by girija

http://www.cellmedicinesociety.org/h...e8afa041f3cfa5

PORTLAND, OREGON. APRIL 14, 2011 – Today, the International Cellular Medicine Society, the global leader in providing best practice standards for cell based medicine, announced the initiation of its first step toward conducting worldwide evaluations of current stem cell treatment offerings. This step, the creation of a new ICMS Treatment Oversight Committee (TOC), is the first of many that will guide a global effort to bring oversight and transparency to cell based medical treatments.

The TOC will serve as a sub-committee under the ICMS Medical Advisory Board. The committee is tasked with reviewing and evaluating protocols and methodologies being utilized by clinics that are providing stem cell treatments. “Patient safety is our key concern,” said David Audley, Executive Director of the ICMS. “Without oversight and independent evaluation of these treatments, there is no way to distinguish between those that are promising and those that are deceitful and potentially harmful.”

The ICMS has identified Parkinson’s as the first condition to be investigated. Parkinson’s disease is illustrative of the issues surrounding cell based medicine. It is a condition that holds tremendous promise for treatment with stem cell, while at the same time poses great potential risks due to a lack of supportive data for these treatments. The ICMS has identified nearly a dozen clinics around the world currently offering stem cell treatments for this condition.

Comprised of specialists in cell based medicine, as well as physicians and scientists with significant domain expertise in Parkinson’s disease, the newly formed TOC is tasked with the responsibility of evaluating the data that the ICMS will be collecting from clinics worldwide. The TOC will generate a report that will provide an evaluation of the current treatments, general guidelines for the applicability of stem cells in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and methodologies for judging the outcomes of these treatments.

“Our mission is to bring transparency to the field,” continued Audley. “No one knows which clinics are peddling false hope, or whether or not there are any viable treatments available for patients. This is only attempt to evaluate what is available, and separate the credible from the malicious.”

The results and learnings from this global treatment evaluation of Parkinson’s disease will serve to form a model for future evaluations of other conditions.

Don't get me wrong, I think we need evaluation of places offering treatments...I just don't know if this is the best expenditure of resources. One could, for example, simply compile a matrix using patient-supplied data. True, it would be subjective, but at least honest. A clinic providing data might not be so objective about the real benefit, if any, in their treatment, much the way pharma has been known to manipulate/hide/distort data so as to make drugs appear better than they really are.

Additionally, there is the internet and most folks that know about these places around the world have access to a computer, or they probably wouldn't know about them in the first place. So...they are able to do the research themselves.

Finally, I think a lot of folk that go to these stem cell places are pretty desparate...and doubt that some "report" that comes out is really going to change their minds. They probably have read the testimonials and forum comments already, good and bad, and have made the decision for go for it anyway, because they feel horrible. Again, I wonder how much this is going to cost and who is going to pay for it, and whether those $$$ could be better spent finding the CAUSE(S) of PD....particularly when, as mentioned above, one could so easily compile a simple matrix of good and bad from patient-supplied data. Does anyone really think some clinic across the ocean is going to voluntarily supply any data, particularly that which might be negative, about the treatments offered there? And this organization conducting this "evaluation" has no authority to force them to do so that I can see. Sorry to be the dumper here.

[girija]

For more info on ICMS and how they evaluate stem cell therapies, check out their web site.


The International Cellular Medicine Society (ICMS) is a 501c3 non-profit that represents doctors, researchers and patients from over 35 countries and 6 different continents who believe that adult stem cell therapy is the realization of Hippocrates philosophy "vis medicatrix naturae;" the body has the ability to heal itself.

Thus, as a society, the ICMS has dedicated itself to patient safety, peer oversight, and physician education regarding the medical use of these promising therapies. We believe that doctors have a critical hand in the invention of medicine. We value a physician's right to innovate through the practice of everyday medicine and encourage them embrace the power of responsible observational study and peer oversight in the search for ways to provide better therapies for patients who are suffering today.