27 Facts About Edzard Ernst

Edzard Ernst was born on 30 January 1948 and is a retired British-German academic physician and researcher specializing in the study of complementary and alternative medicine.

Edzard Ernst was Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, the world's first such academic position in complementary and alternative medicine.

Edzard Ernst became director of complementary medicine of the Peninsula Medical School in 2002.

Edzard Ernst was the first occupant of the Laing chair in Complementary Medicine, retiring in 2011.

Edzard Ernst was born and trained in Germany, where he began his medical career at a homeopathic hospital in Munich, and since 1999 has been a British citizen.

Edzard Ernst is the founder of two medical journals: Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies and Perfusion.

Edzard Ernst's writing appeared in a regular column in The Guardian, where he reviewed news stories about complementary medicine from an evidence-based medicine perspective.

Edzard Ernst's father and grandfather were both doctors, and his mother was a laboratory assistant.

Edzard Ernst originally wanted to be a musician, but his mother persuaded him that medicine might be a good "sideline" career for him to pursue.

Edzard Ernst has received training in acupuncture, autogenic training, herbalism, homoeopathy, massage therapy and spinal manipulation.

Edzard Ernst learned homeopathy, acupuncture and other modalities whilst at a homeopathic hospital in Munich, when he began his medical career.

Edzard Ernst has over 700 papers published in scientific journals.

Edzard Ernst has said that about five percent of alternative medicine is backed by evidence, with the remainder being either insufficiently studied or backed by evidence showing lack of efficacy.

Edzard Ernst asserts that, in Germany and Austria, complementary techniques are mostly practiced by qualified physicians, whereas in the UK they are mainly practiced by others.

Edzard Ernst argues that the term "Complementary and Alternative Medicine" is an almost nonsensical umbrella term, and that distinctions between its modalities must be made.

Edzard Ernst spoke about the risk and dangers of alternative medicine, pointing to homeopathy and chiropractic as the most problematic areas within alternative medicine at the time.

Edzard Ernst was initially enlisted as a collaborator on the report, but asked for his name to be removed after a sight of the draft report convinced him that Smallwood had "written the conclusions before looking at the evidence".

The report did not address whether CAM treatments were actually effective and Edzard Ernst described it as "complete misleading rubbish".

Edzard Ernst was, in turn, criticised by The Lancet editor Richard Horton for disclosing contents of the report while it was still in draft form.

In 2008, Edzard Ernst sent an open letter urging the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain to crack down on high street chemists that sell homeopathic remedies without warning that the remedies lack evidence for claimed biological effects.

Edzard Ernst was accused by Prince Charles' private secretary of having breached a confidentiality agreement regarding the 2005 Smallwood report.

Edzard Ernst retired in 2011, two years ahead of his official retirement.

In 2001, Edzard Ernst sat on the Scientific Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products of the Irish Medicines Board.

Edzard Ernst is a Founding Member and on the Board of the Institute for Science in Medicine, formed in 2009.

In February 2011, Edzard Ernst was elected as a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

Edzard Ernst was editor-in-chief of the journal Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies which he founded in 1995 and which was discontinued in 2016.

In 2015, Edzard Ernst was one of two recipients of the John Maddox Prize, sponsored jointly by Sense about Science and Nature, for courage in standing up for science.