Reflections on being a researcher-practitioner. By Mandy Brass
I am an acupuncturist working for Dimbleby Cancer Care, an integrative oncology department in Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. As part of my MSc from the Northern College of Acupuncture, I recently conducted a service evaluation, where I navigated the dual role of being a researcher-practitioner. For more insight into my project see … Read more
RCCM Conference 2023: Report
Summary of the RCCM 2023 Conference, by Ava Lorenc Karen Pilkington’s keynote on her adventures with evidence was fascinating and inspiring, and at some points laugh out loud. It was great to reflect on just how far the CAM evidence base has come since the early days of evidence-based-medicine, when innovations included a PC on … Read more
Could you be our new trustee?
We are sadly saying farewell to our trustee Simon Brasch this month, who is moving on to another charity. We are very grateful to Simon for all his support of RCCM over the years and wish him all the best. RCCM is therefore now looking for a new trustee with IT/website expertise to assist with … Read more
New trustee announcement
We are delighted to announce that Zetta Thomelin has joined RCCM as a trustee. Zetta is a Clinical Hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner, who is involved in the governance of Hypnotherapy as Chair of the British Association of Therapeutic Hypnotists (BAThH) and as a Director of the UK Confederation of Hypnotherapist Organisations (UKCHO) She runs her own … Read more
Why did we become a corporate member of RCCM?
I am in the interesting position of looking at RCCM from two perspectives, both as a trustee and also as a corporate member, I am the Chair of BAThH and as such, I could see the benefits available to us, so we joined in the vision that RCCM has for the future of complementary medicine … Read more
RCCM Conference 2022
The RCCM conference for 2022 was held on Monday 5th September, online. We had a great turnout with over 45 people logging in. RCCM was honoured to open our research conference with newly appointed Professor Felicity Bishop from the University of Southampton. Our research conference incorporated the CAMSTRAND research collective that has been hosted in … Read more
Long Covid Bowen study
Bowen Therapy Professional Association members Dianne Bradshaw and Jo Wortley have put together a study to look at Bowen therapy for long Covid. The attached paper gives all the details and they have a facebook group www.facebook.com/groups/covidbowenstudy. They are hoping to have some results available soon, which we will update here. long-covid-btpa-article
Barriers to CAM research
Yasamin Veziari, Saravana Kumar and Matthew J. Leach have just published a new paper on the barriers to CAM research for stakeholders. Although the study was conducted in Australia and New Zealand, many of the issues identified are important worldwide. They highlight some of the barriers that RCCM tries to help overcome, including: CAM practitioners’ access to … Read more
Informing NICE Guidance: Introducing NICE real-world evidence framework
RCCM trustee Lianne Aquilina outlines the importance of the new NICE Real-World Data Framework for complementary and integrative medicine. All research has core principles, from ensuring the correct design to answer a pertinent question, and utilising appropriate methodology along the way to minimise or eradicate risk of bias. A randomised controlled trial or systematic review … Read more
Ethics for the independent researcher
For our latest blog post we are privledged to have Karen Charlesworth from the Northern College of Acupuncture discussing the issue of ethical approval in CAM. At RCCM we often receive queries asking whether we can provide ethics approval -sadly this is beyond our capabilities, but hopefully here Karen can shed light on some of … Read more
Fascia Focused Manual Therapy Interventions-Proposed Treatment for Post-COVID Syndrome
RCCM member John Sharkey provides a comment concerning the paper entitled “Fascia Focused Manual Therapy Interventions-Proposed Treatment for Post-COVID Syndrome”. Clinical anatomists are trained in the management of human tissues as they are involved in cadaveric tissue donation. The role of the anatomist involves screening donations for communicable or transmissible infection both bacterial and/or viral. Taking … Read more
Request for collaborators on Biofield research
In this month’s blog, pharmacist and RCCM member Seema Bhattessa discusses her research interest in the electromagnetic and energetic field around the human body. My background is Pharmacy, Energy Medicine and Holistic Health. My research interest is on how prescribed medication influences the human Biofield (Meridian, Chakra and Auric fields) where a collaborative effort would be … Read more
Farewell to Hugh MacPherson, “Surfer of many kinds of wave”
It is with a heavy heart that we announce the untimely passing of Professor Hugh MacPherson. Hugh will be well known to many RCCM members. Hugh co-founded the Northern College of Acupuncture, and became the UK’s first Professor of Acupuncture at the University of York. He was a frequent attender of the RCCM’s CAMSTRAND conference … Read more
Why strategy and why now? A review on my participation in the RCCM seminar held on 21st October 2021
When I received the invitation to participate in RCCM seminar on strategy from our Chair I remember accepting immediately. The event was scheduled a few months ahead, and it felt like I’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this for years! When we hear words like ‘strategy’ or ‘research’ usually people think of businesses, business … Read more
Conference Report: Integrative Oncology UK inaugural conference. Whole person care for better patient outcomes. 15th May 2021
The British Society for Integrative Oncology (BSIO) worked with professional conference organisers Progressive Communications to initiate the first Integrative Oncology UK conference. The virtual event took place on Saturday 15th May 2021, with more than 380 delegates attending, across a range of disciplines from an impressive 27 countries. The conference was aimed at healthcare professionals … Read more
Complexities of acupuncture for heel pain
RCCM member Richard Clark talks about his interest in acupuncture and heel pain: “When I first set out to look up the evidence base for using acupuncture for plantar heel pain (PHP) I thought it would be simple and quick. Little did I know! One SR[1] and one CIS[2] later, I realised the extent, complexity and contradictory nature of … Read more