Future directions for research in homeopathy – results of an expert meeting

The Karl and Veronica Carstens-Foundation hosts an interdisciplinary expert meeting dealing with the question: “Which research does homeopathy need?”. It will take place on the 18th of February 2017 in Berlin. The list of participants includes experts in clinical and basic research of homeopathy, but also non-homeopathy-affine scientists from disciplines such as pharmacy and biochemistry will attend this meeting.

The scope of topics to discuss ranges from methodological details of clinical trials for models, for the mechanism of action of potentized substances to general epistemological considerations. Possible questions arising from the debate are:

• Which high quality randomized controlled trials of homeopathy are most appropriate for independent replication?

• Which theory of the active principle of homeopathic remedies is the most promising by means of empirical evidence?

• Is research in homeopathy integreable with modern academic life at all, facing the current paradigms of evidence-based medicine and the natural sciences?

• Minding the last question, should the scarce resources better be channeled onto the areas of homeopathy-internal research (revision of the materia medica, improvement of repertories etc.)?

The desired result of this expert meeting is a general roadmap for future strategies regarding research in homeopathy, which will help scientists to plan and coordinate their efforts in this field. The presented lecture depicts the process and its possible outcome.