S P E C I A L R E P O R T
Positive study on alternative medicine
surfaces after two years in deep freeze
Unpublicized report by Maryland Commission shows complementary treatments are generally safer, more effective and cheaper than conventional medicine
Here is the text of a 1995 letter to Maryland Governor Parris Glendening from the Maryland Commission on Complementary Medical Methods. The letter accompanied the commission's final report to the governor on the "costs, benefits, and risks associated with the use of complementary medical methods."
However, the report introduced by the December 1995 letter was never publicized, apparently because of the Commission's positive assessment of the complementary therapies they examined!
THE LETTER:
State of Maryland
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
The Honorable Parris N. Glendening
Governor
State House
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
Dear Governor Glendening:
On behalf of the State Commission on Complementary Medical Methods, I am pleased to submit our final report.
The thirteen member commission was appointed two years ago by then-Governor William Donald Schaefer for a one year period as mandated in House Bill 382. Senator Idamac R. Garrott was instrumental in extending the deadline an additional year through Senate Bill 246.
The charges of the commission were as follows:
-
to define which health care methods are complementary medical methods
-
to evaluate the costs, benefits, and risks associated with the use of complementary medical methods
-
to study how to allow the use of complementary medical methods by Maryland physicians with patients who wish to be treated with complementary methods for their medical conditions.
Without the support of the physicians in the State of Maryland, completion of this report would have been impossible. We thank the Legislature for allowing us to serve it and the citizens of the State of Maryland.
Sincerely,
Caril E. Price, Ed.D.
Chairperson |
