Homeopathy is quackery, and possibly the ultimate example of silly medical pseudoscience. Wife-and-husband team Youngran Chung and Robert Dumont push homeopathy. Thing is, though, that they aren’t merely promoters of homeopathy; they actually got real medical training as well – at least Chung’s a pediatric pulmonologist at Northwestern’s Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago; Dumont is an “integrative pediatrician” affiliated with the pseudoscientific Raby Institute for Integrative Medicine (and has been associated with the work of Anju Usman). One would think the training necessary for obtaining a position like Chung’s would give you some insights into how to assess evidence or test hypotheses in medicine, but – assuming basic honesty – apparently not. Chung and Dumont are deeply into all things woo (under the heading “integrative medicine”) and Chung even admits to being board certified by the American board of Integrative & Holistic Medicine (ABIHM) and having been trained/certified in medical acupuncture, homeopathy, and medical hypnosis. She also claims to be interesting in finding “effective ways to treat patients”, but not really.
Still, homeopathy is, to Chung and Dumont, not a side issue; apparently Chung uses it “extensively in her pulmonary practice, and has authored articles in medical journals as well as book chapters on the topic of homeopathy,” in addition to giving “symposiums and presentations on homeopathy at conferences in the United States as well as abroad.” And yes: Northwestern University has a genuine physician/homeopath on its faculty. You should probably be aware of what passes for acceptable medical practice at Northwestern University if you ever are in a situation where you need to assess the quality of your medical provider. At least Northwestern seems to remain somewhat wary of the Raby institute and Dumont.
To get an idea of what Chung and Dumont are up to, you could consult the abstract for their poster “Homeopathy, an Effective, Practical, and Safe Therapeutic Approach: Principles, Evidence and Examples of Practical Application”, which points out a striking number of times that “homeopathy is an extremely safe modality” (true, partially(!), since it’s water) but doesn’t even try to indicate that it is effective for anything whatsoever – which, of course, it isn’t.
Dumont, meanwhile, is also into autism quackery, having for instance given a presentation on “Use of Clinical Homeopathy in Autism Spectrum Disorder” (reality check: don’t) at the International Conference of Clinical Homeopathy in Los Angeles. He has also served as an expert witness for multi-billion quack company Boiron.
And what do they actually do? Chung is, perhaps surprisingly, open about some of her treatment suggestions. She has for instance described a case of a 14-year old with a sore throat including burning, stinging pain that was worse with warm food and drink but better with cold food or drink, and for whom she prescribed homeopathic APIS (bee venom), because like cures like and bee venom also causes a kind of burning and stinging pain. Yes, that’s the reasoning behind homeopathic treatments (and no, there is no evidence whatsoever for efficacy), and if it sounds too dumb to pass as treatment even in rural Medieval Europe, that’s because it is. Even though Chung is open about what she’s doing, at this level incompetence and malice are hard to distinguish. And yes: this comes from a member of the faculty of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Diagnosis: Complete fucktards and real threats to human safety and well-being.
Hat-tip: Respectful Insolence
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