New Rand Research Report: The State of Homeopathic Research
Published by the prestigious RAND Corporation, The State of Homeopathic Research is an 83-page research report that critically evaluated the quality of recently published homeopathic research. The goal of this project was to develop recommendations for the future of homeopathic research to ensure higher-quality evidence on the most relevant uses of homeopathy.
An expert panel was convened to identify research gaps and focal areas, such as specific populations and illnesses appropriate for homeopathy treatment; suggest ways to improve research quality; and provide recommendations to address any deficiencies.
The report concluded that “the state of homeopathic research could be greatly improved in terms of internal, external, and model validity. Strict adherence to reporting guidelines, with attention to quality criteria during study design, would likely result in most of the needed improvement. However, there is also a need for the homeopathic community to decide where to focus future research in terms of conditions, populations, and types of homeopathy studied. These focus areas could take many forms and should align with the community’s research goals. An appropriate focus (or set of focuses) should also balance answering questions to improve homeopathic treatment with the requirements for coverage by payers and desired inclusion in the broader health care system.”
These findings and recommendations can guide the homeopathic research community, governmental agencies, and philanthropic organizations in how to best allocate research effort and fund quality and pertinent clinical research endeavors in the field of homeopathy.
Published Sept. 25, 2024, this research was funded by the Samueli Foundation and carried out by the RAND Research Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) Center within the Quality Measurement and Improvement Program in RAND Health Care. RAND is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and prosperous. Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. A copy of the report can be downloaded here: https://www.rand.org/search.html?q=state+of+homeopathy .