| Home | Study may shed light on effectiveness of alternative medicine treatments posted 8-9-97 A long-term study on clinical outcomes associated with alternative medicine may finally give nurses, physicians, industry leaders, and consumers solid data about its effectiveness. Oxford Health Plans Inc., the first major HMO in the United States to cover alternative treatment by credentialed therapists, announced plans to launch the study by Aug. 1 in cooperation with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, one of the leading U.S. research centers for alternative medicine. The study relies on the alternative medicine program already in place at Oxford. Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School, will examine patterns of use, clinical and perceived outcomes, cost, effectiveness, safety, and satisfaction in relation to alternative treatments Oxford enrollees receive. Initial results of the project are due in early 1999. The number of patients who participate in the study depends on how many of Oxford’s 1.8 million members opt for alternative services over the next few years. Since 1995, over one-third of Oxford enrollees have received alternative treatment alone or in conjunction with conventional medicine. Oxford’s members are in Eastern states, as well as Tampa, Fla., and Chicago. According to David Eisenberg, MD, director of the Center for Alternative Medicine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess, the opportunity to study findings for such a large population "enables us, for the first time, to rigorously assess the best uses for these treatments." Oxford’s willingness to publish the results of the study will benefit patients, clinicians, and policy makers, Eisenberg said. In 1993, Eisenberg directed a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed a growing public demand for alternative therapies, and Oxford’s own later survey indicated that 75 percent of its membership would use alternative medicine if services were included in healthcare packages. Last January, the HMO began covering yoga, massage therapy, acupuncture, naturopathic and chiropractic medicine, homeopathy, and nutrition.
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