Page 11 - Summer 16

European Congress for Homeopathy
Spring Meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania by Bernhard Hornig, Germany
On behalf of the IAVH I took part in the ECH spring meeting in Vilnius from 15th to 16th April 2016. To give you a short overview about our sister organisation I will write
1 The preparation to the ECH congress in Vienna
2 The discussions about the best strategy for public relations
• Now proven effectiveness
• Increasing researches
• Endurance and passion of the supporters • Resources
some facts about structure, aims etc.
The ECH represents all medical doctors specialized in homeopathy, organised in 40 associations in 25 European countries.
It is aimed at:
• Promoting the scientific development of homeopathy
• Ensuring high standards in the education, training and practice of homeopathy by medical doctors
• Harmonising professional standards in homeopathic practice across Europe
• Providing high-quality homeopathic care in a medical context
• Integrating high-quality homeopathy into European healthcare
The organisational structure is similar to the one in the IAVH. The ECH is directed by a Council, which is elected by the General Assembly for four years. The Officers are elected from the Council members also for a period of four years.
The ECH has seven subcommittees:
1 Documentation: Promoting accessibility to information on homeopathy in Europe.
2 Education: Working towards harmonisation of educational curricula.
3 Patients: Promoting the freedom to choose homeopathic treatment in Europe.
. Pharmacy: Involving all matters arising from homeopathic medicine development.
5 Politics: Aimed at monitoring and lobbying European authorities.
6 Provings: Concerned with all the important issues surrounding provings or HPTs.
7 Research: Discussing research projects and protocols – present and future.
About 60 doctors from Europe came to this meeting. Among them were board members, coordinators of subcommittees, delegates from national associations and doctors, who came for their own interest to take part in the discussions in the subcommittees.
I had three good reasons to come to Vilnius:
3 The software presentations by Archibel (Radar) and Vithoulkas’ Compass Team (VC)
Thanks to the great preparation of Edward de Beukelaer, Petra Weiermayer and Stefan Kohlrausch, most of the questions about the congress had already been answered. So there was no further need for discussions. Everyone waits in suspense for this great event, the first European Congress for Homeopathy.
In the run-up to the meeting each participant got an information paper. The report dealt with the perception of homeopathy in the general public and in the media. Each of the five colleagues made a statement about Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT). On Saturday morning the basic document was deepened by three excellent presentations.
Edit Katona, Hungary, gave the first lecture about adversities against homeopathy in Europe and especially in Hungary.
Hélène Renoux, France, gave the second lecture and talked about SWOT. Because many problems are similar to veterinary homeopathy, I extracted relevant points and the conclusion was:
a) We are the white chess pieces! White steps first!
b) We don’t react, we act! (Initiation,no defence, no reaction).
c) Be popular, be clear, be funny
d) Be continuously present!
e) Don’t take part in interviews in radio or TV,
they have pure sceptics and savvy moderators, who knows, how to play with the discussion partners and how to discredit them.
f) We have to learn media suitability (training, courses etc.)
g) We have to use the social medias (Facebook, YouTube etc.)
h) We will create a positive attitude in public
SWOT – Strength
• Our patients • Our low costs
• Reproducibility of provings
• Low risk trials, no animals involved
SWOT – Weakness
• Lack of funding for research
• Lack of infrastructure
• Lack of personal investment
• Lack of public understanding
• Lack of PR advisors and communication
skills
• Religion-like behaviour
• Lack of support by the government, the
healthcare professionals
• Weak theoretical base, lack of statistics
• Critique of the repertories and case taking • Lack of human resources
SWOT – Opportunities
• Inform/educate the public about personalised medicine
• Alleviate side-effects of conventional medicine
• Improve PR globally: social media work, coordinated communications
• Good publications
• Lobbying, crowd funding
• Integrating with other medical professionals • Broader perspectives in basic research
• Shift the conventional medicine from
diagnosis to prognosis
• Making substantial clinical data available
SWOT – Threats
• Negative publicity, lies in statistics
• Withdrawal of government support
• Stringent regulatory controls: banning
remedies
• Inability to explain (insufficient method and
quality in homeopathic RCT)
• Lack of structure for homeopathic assessment • Poor quality remedies (online sale, ‘cheap’
homeopathy)
• Lack of harmonisation
• Lack of young members, discouragement
of members
• Problems with integrating the rules of
scientific trials
continued on p10