[ Home ] [ About The Foundation ] [ Who's who ] [ Low Back Pain Project ] [ Acupuncture Safety Projects ] [ Acupuncture for Menorrhagia Project ] [ Acupuncture for Depression Project ] [ STRICTA Recommendations ] [ Chinese Herbal Medicine Safety Project ] [ Acupuncture for Chronic Neck Pain ] [ Acupuncture for Non-cardiac Chest Pain Project ] [ Irritable Bowel Syndrome ] [ Osteoarthritis of Knee ] [ Neuroimaging of Acupuncture Project ] [ Publications ] [ Presentations ] [ Links ]

About the Foundation

The Foundation is a small yet dynamic organisation committed to promoting high quality research into our understanding of acupuncture as well as evaluating its benefits, its cost effectiveness and its safety. Our primary goal is to develop and improve the practice of traditional Chinese medicine and to work towards a more central role for acupuncture within the UK's national health care system. The Foundation is involved in a number of research activities and projects. The largest project has been a pragmatic randomised controlled trial evaluating the clinical and cost effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of low back pain.  The evidence on the safety of acupuncture has also been an important area of research for the Foundation, including surveys of practitioners’ and patients’ reports of adverse events. A number of exploratory randomised controlled trials have been or are being conducted, including pilot trials of acupuncture for chronic neck pain, depression, irritable bowel syndrome and menorrhagia.

History of the Foundation

The Foundation was established in 1991 to provide an organisational base for promoting research into acupuncture:

 “The goal of the Foundation for Research into Traditional Chinese Medicine is to promote and conduct high quality research to establish a stronger evidence base for traditional Chinese medicine, with a special focus on research into acupuncture".

The first period of the Foundation's existence was focused on the professional acupuncture community and in particular on the need for acupuncturists to be engaged in research both for the benefits of patients and as part of a process of professionalisation. This position was clearly articulated by our first Research Director, Richard Blackwell (see publications: Blackwell, 1993).

The Foundation became more established with the appointment of Mike Fitter as Research Director in 1993. His first step was to survey the membership of the British Acupuncture Council and to elicit current attitudes and needs in the area of research. This survey (Fitter & Blackwell, 1993) led to a seminal short training programme in acupuncture research (known as the STAR programme) for acupuncture practitioners. In turn this programme led to a number of subsequent training activities with the participants subsequently conducting their own multi-centred outcomes project where variations in outcomes following acupuncture were investigated (MacPherson & Fitter 1999).

The first clinically based study involved a small feasibility project investigating the use of acupuncture in the treatment of low back pain (Fitter & MacPherson 1995). This project led to a subsequent pilot study where 20 patients participated in a more thorough investigation (MacPherson et al 1999). Based on this, the Foundation in collaboration with Kate Thomas of the Medical Care Unit of Sheffield University, set up the York Acupuncture Back Pain Project, funded by the NHS to undertake a pragmatic randomised controlled trial to evaluate the clinical and cost benefits of acupuncture for chronic low back pain (Thomas et al 1999, MacPherson 1999d). The results of this trial will be reported in late 2003 or 2004.

For acupuncturists, there is both an "inner” perspective on research where the aim can be more towards developing practice for the benefit of patients (improving acupuncture) and an "outer" perspective where the aim is to evaluate the clinical and economic impact for an external audience (proving acupuncture) (Fitter, 1997). Mike Fitter and Kate Thomas, in a seminal paper, have explored a number of methodological issues of importance for research into complementary medicine (Fitter & Thomas 1997, Thomas & Fitter 1997). Emerging themes for research include ensuring that the focus is on studying the therapy as it is actually practised (MacPherson 2000), that the integrity of the therapy is respected (Wheeler & MacPherson 2000), and that the outcomes of treatment are broader and more diverse than quantitative measures alone can demonstrate (Fitter 1996). In this context Alison Gould undertook her MSc on patient perspectives on outcome following acupuncture and this study has now been published (Gould & MacPherson 2000).

A major project for the Foundation was a collaboration with the British Acupuncture Council in setting up and running the Acupuncture Research Resources Centre (ARRC), which was co-ordinated from our offices in York by Alison Gould between 1994 and 1998. ARRC provided a national information service on acupuncture research and produced a national Directory of Acupuncturists in Research and an acupuncture database known as Arrcbase (Gould 1997b). With Foundation staff, ARRC also organised annual symposiums for researchers to gather and present the results of their investigations (Gould 1996b, Gould 1997a, Gould 1999). In 1998, the Acupuncture Research Resources Centre transferred to Exeter University and subsequently to Thames Valley University where it continues its important role in supporting research and providing information on acupuncture.

Richard Blackwell wrote an early paper on adverse events involving Chinese herbal medicines (Blackwell 1996). More recently the Foundation has focused on exploring the literature on adverse events associated with acupuncture (MacPherson & Gould 1998, MacPherson 1998, MacPherson 1999a, MacPherson 1999c, MacPherson & Lewith 2000). Subsequently we have worked with acupuncture practitioners analysing their reports of adverse events over a one month monitoring period (MacPherson et al 2001a, MacPherson et al 2001b, MacPherson et al 2002a and MacPherson et al 2002c). In a more recent prospective study, we conducted a national patient survey and published their reports of  adverse events. More recently we have also started exploring safety issues related to the routine practice of Chinese herbal medicine.

The Foundation has developed a number of good working relationships with other individuals and organisations in the field, including the Research Council for Complementary Medicine, and centres and/or staff at the Universities of Exeter, Glasgow, Sheffield, Southampton, Westminster and York. The staff of the Foundation have also participated in a number of national initiatives that involve promoting or developing the role of complementary medicine in the UK. Starting with the Labour Party's 1994 position paper "From Prescription to Facilitation", we have contributed to many initiatives, including those involving the Research Council for Complementary Medicine, the Prince of Wales' Foundation for Integrated Healthcare (FIHealth), and the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee on alternative and complementary medicine. In 2003 the Research Director was awarded a Post-Doctoral Fellowship by the Department of Health. He now has a joint appointment as both a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Health Sciences, University of York, and Research Director of the Foundation for Research into Traditional Chinese Medicine.