Researcher gives lecture

Alternative medicine luminary comes to Styria

Edzard Ernst has conducted countless studies on globules and the like and established the world's first chair for alternative medicine.(Bild: Uta Rojsek-Wiedergut, Creative Commons)

The internationally renowned physician Edzard Ernst is coming to Graz as part of a medical congress. He is Professor Emeritus of Alternative Medicine at the British University of Exeter, known for his differentiated view of globules, acupuncture and the like - and has even fallen out with King Charles.

"Myths in so-called alternative medicine" is the title of the lecture with which the well-known physician Edzard Ernst is paying a visit to Styria. He can be heard on the opening evening of the 34th Graz Advanced Training Days of the Medical Association at Congress Graz (Wednesday, October 9, 7 to 7.45 pm). Next week's program includes 32 plenary lectures, five symposia, five "Meet-the-Experts", three morning lectures and 53 seminars and courses.

Son of a spa doctor
But who is this man? Edzard Ernst was born in 1948 in Wiesbaden, Germany, the son of a spa doctor. He completed his medical training in his home country and his career then took him to Vienna. In 1993, Ernst was appointed from his Chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Vienna to the University of Exeter in England, where he established the world's first Chair of Alternative Medicine. In doing so, he made history in this field.

Alternative medicine, but evidence-based
During his career, Ernst gave hundreds of lectures to alternative medicine practitioners to explain the placebo effect of homeopathy and acupuncture, for example. Among other things, he used a study with telescopic needles to prove that patients felt an improvement even if the needle did not actually go under the skin. He always wanted to show that alternative medicine must also be evidence-based - and was vocal about this in interviews and newspaper columns. As a luminary in his field, he even clashed with the British King Charles.

In Ernst's institute, alternative medicine was defined as "diagnosis, treatment and/or prevention that complements conventional medicine by contributing to a common whole, serving a need not covered by conventional wisdom or expanding the conceptual framework of medicine". He is therefore concerned with identifying effective alternative approaches and incorporating them into academic medicine. An exciting lecture is guaranteed - congress tickets are available for 85 euros.