Quackwatch

Quackwatch is an American non-profit online provider of information and opinions on theoretical and practical approaches, including diagnostic and treatment procedures and medicines, which are predominantly attributed to alternative medicine. The name Quackwatch is derived from the English quack, which can be translated with the terms " quack " or " quack ". The operators understand Quackwatch as an international network of people "who are concerned about health-related fraud, myths, fashions, mistakes and misconduct".

Background

Quackwatch is operated by the Quackwatch Inc.. The initiator is Stephen Barrett, a retired American psychiatrist, who is supported by self-report of more than 150 exclusively volunteer authors from different health professions. Barret also one of the founders of the California Initiative National Council Against Health Fraud. His Quackwatch Initiative was founded initially as the Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health Fraud in Allentown (Pennsylvania) in 1969 and 1997, renamed " Quack Watch", due to the success of the operated since 1996 Quackwatch.org website.

Objectives

Objectives are:

• Fight fraud in the health sector with information
• Investigate claims about medical effectiveness of controversial remedies
• Illegal channels of distribution of medical products in the United States to disclose or to display them
• Offer subject to fraud help patients

Content

The websites include journalistic texts and opinions on various controversial remedies or medical diagnostic and therapeutic procedures as well as to the respective propagators and manufacturers. Many of the texts are from Barrett himself Quackwatch is working with other U.S. online services such as Homeowatch ( against homeopathy), Credential Watch ( against degree mills ), and Chirobase ( against chiropractic ).

Reception

Quackwatch is evaluated as useful and trustworthy source of information for consumers, for example, Ministry of Agriculture of the United States, the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, of The Lancet, JAMA, and other journals. Also, the general press, especially American journalists quote Quackwatch.com frequently as a reference.

Critics point to little scientific detail in the Quackwatch texts, focusing on a single main author, and the lack of a formal peer review.