Over the past half dozen or so years I’ve seen far more physicians describing themselves as a “stem cell doctor” or a “stem cell specialist.”
Is there such a thing?
Are they just saying that to attract and reassure potential customers getting unproven stem cell shots?
What does Google think is a stem cell doctor?
If you search for “stem cell doctor” on Google you find starkly different results one after another.
First in the results from such a search (incognito mode) I see my own wonderful institution: UC Davis. We are doing loads of great stem cell research and UC Davis does have some CIRM-funded training related to stem cells.
But then there’s a stem cell clinic right after that in the Google search results.
Then we have the great Mayo Clinic.
Then another stem cell clinic is next in the results. And so on.
What’s going on? Things aren’t clear.
What is not a stem cell doctor
Seven years ago I proposed the need for residency training for physicians in stem cells and regenerative medicine. With only a few exceptions such training in a real, rigorous form, still does not exist.
Yet there are groups of physicians who seem to be aiming to project a sense of being in this space.
They put printed certificates of training courses on their walls. These courses sometimes literally are only hours long or maybe a golf weekend. And yet there on their office walls are these certificates from quickie courses next to their med school diplomas that they earned with years of hard work.
How should we define a stem cell doctor?
Ideally, we would only consider someone a “stem cell doctor” if they had extensive rigorous training somehow related to stem cells. The closest thing that is widely occurring is hematology/oncology (hem-onc) residency training for physicians. Hem-onc doctors’ training includes stem cell biology and transplantation. These physicians often do bone marrow and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with serious blood cancers. In my mind, these are stem cell doctors in at least part of their practices.
Should any other doctors qualify as stem cell doctors? It’s hard to say.
There are physicians out there who have been administering stem cells at clinics for a long time. They know a lot about stem cells and in some cases about transplantation. Still, oftentimes they are self taught, which raises the issue of who would train a stem cell doctor? You’d think it’d have to be another stem cell doctor, which again other than in the hem-onc realm don’t really happen much. Even the most experienced doctors at stem cell clinics may not get rigorous training in bioethics, FDA compliance, or other important areas.
Rigorous training
This all feeds back into the main point of this article that there is a dire need for training doctors in stem cells and regenerative medicine. Given the thousands of clinical trials going on, even if many fail, we are likely to see as much as a dozen stem cell-related therapies get approved in the next two decades. Who will be the doctors to do these procedures? Hem-onc doctors? What if the condition is not blood or cancer related? You can also imagine a team of doctors being involved.
Maybe some subspecialize or get a fellowship in stem cells or regenerative medicine?
I think that’d be a great thing if done right.
In my original 2014 article I recommended specific elements of such a training course which you can see in Box 1 above.
I hope we see more of such training.
References
- Doctors at many stem-cell clinics don’t have relevant training, Nature, 2019.
- Call for fellowship programs in stem cell-based regenerative and cellular medicine: new stem cell training is essential for physicians, Knoepfler, Regenerative Medicine, 2014.
- An example of hem-onc training at Columbia University that includes stem cells.
Dr David Karli or dr Centeno both are “stem cell” dr.’s no way you can say they are not. Both have been using BMAC since around 2005 and have treated thousands of patients. This is a bench scientist blog with only a PhD not an md don’t ever forget that.
Dr. Knoepfler. You, this blog as well as others keep referring to “Stem Cell Clinics.” I have been frequenting a Regenerative Medicine Clinic since 2014. The staff there consisting of MD’s DO’s, PT’s PA’s and RN’s do not refer to themselves as “Stem Cell Providers”. They engage many procedures and while on occasion they perform some stem cell therapies for their patients, stem cell procedures are decidedly in the minority of procedures they do. After all stem cell procedures are costly and time consuming. Stem cell procedures are somewhat invasive though not nearly as much as surgery. I’ve received EPAT therapy in this Regenerative Medicine Clinic which successfully treated my plantar fasciitis. Prolotherapy has successfully treated labrum tears in my shoulder and PRP has helped my knees following my torn meniscus back in 2012. In all my 7 years of frequenting this Regenerative Medicine Clinic I have yet to receive a single stem cell treatment.
Since you are concerned with rigorous training of these sorts of providers, why don’t you for starters check out Dr. Chris Centeno’s blog where he discusses his fellowship program for regenerative medicine specialists in depth.
I hope this helps.
Do the ND boards allow ND’s to administer stem cell products. I see that Neil Riordan has the Neil Riordan Center for Regenerative Medicine in Arizona. Is that a legal workaround he has found to be able to use his umbilical cord products in the United States without FDA a BLA approval.
There is no such thing as stem cells doctor , nothing is really FDA approved. Mesoblast is closest phase III trails and FDA is requiring more data for their 4 trials
Quacks will always be cons. The medical boards need to assert standards at least for MD’s. Unproven stem cell “treatments “ must be prohibited by both the med boards and FDA.
I think all doctors do not receive enough broad based training.
I think it is short sighted to stop Doctors using patients own stem cells as this falls into the category of “do no harm” I have come across many examples of patients who have received their own stem cells with remarkable results.
My neurologist said to me” would You like some pain meds? & if you collapse go to the ER. She said taking vitamin supplements won’t help you.” It felt like she was laughing at me It suggested there was no hope.
Peripheral neuropathy can be caused by genetic nutritional deficiency, absorption problems & anemia.
This was a specialist speaking to me I think she was a quack because she lacked knowledge, foresight & did not seem intellectual enough to be a neurologist… So, if you find a Dr who has done the research & is constantly exploring ways to make people well we should all be grateful & keep an open mind, do your due diligence, fact checking, research, qualifications, types of MD,s & facility setup.
I’m working on it….
I am hopeful.