Lloyd B. Oppel, MD, MHSc
Founding Fellow
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Lloyd B. Oppel, MD, CCFP(EM), has been an outspoken defender of science-based medicine in Canada. He presently serves as:
- Chair, British Columbia Medical Association (BCMA) Council on Health Promotion, where he monitors alternative health practices for the BCMA.
- Chair, BCMA Allied Health Committee.
- President of Canadians for Rational Health Policy (CRHP). He and three colleagues formed Canadians for Rational Health Policy (CRHP) in 1998 because of concerns over the Canadian government’s newly created Office of Natural Health Products. Their aim has been to “promote science in the service of the public.”
- Chair, Scientific Evaluation Panel, Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.
Dr Oppel earned both his medical degree and master’s degree in public health at the University of British Columbia. He is a Fellow of College of Family Physicians of Canada in Emergency Medicine. He has been Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, since 2002 and a member of the University of British Columbia Department of Health Care and Epidemiology since 2005. He has experience developing and teaching a medical school biostatistics and experimental design course. He currently works as an emergency physician at the University of British Columbia Hospital. He is also a continuing medical education (CME) reviewer for the Canadian Family Practice College.
Selected Publications:
- “Health Canada allows 10000 unproven remedies onto shelves,” British Columbia Medical Journal, 2010 Oct; 52(8):411. “In a move reminiscent of a Kafka novel, the nation’s foremost health protection agency has decided to address the bottleneck posed by an already woefully lax screening process by simply exempting products from such review altogether for at least a couple of years.”
- “Allopathy—a term that diminishes the profession,” British Columbia Medical Journal, 2010 Mar; 52(2):91.
- “Dr Oppel responds,” British Columbia Medical Journal, 2007 Sep; 49(7):364-366. Letter re homeopathy.
- “Still concerned about CAM in undergraduate medical education” (with BL Beyerstein, D Hoshizaki & MC Sutter), Canadian Family Physician, 2005 Aug; 51(8):1069-1070. Letter.
- “Introducing medical students to CAM” (with D Hoshizaki, RG Mathias, MC Sutter & BL Beyerstein), Canadian Family Physician, 2004 Nov; 50(11):1495. Letter.
- “Doctors’ impressions of vaccine information from CAM providers” (with RG Mathias & MC Sutter), The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, 2004 Fall-Winter; 8(2):. [Abstract]
- “Patients’ interactions with family doctors and naturopaths,” Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2004 Feb; 50(2):223. Letter.
- “Investigating CAM,” Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2003 Jun 10; 168(12):1527. Letter.
- “St John’s Wort as treatment for depression,” Canadian Family Physician, 2002 Aug; 48(8):1290. Letter.
- “Is massage therapy genuinely effective?” Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2000 Oct 17; 163(8):953. Letter.
- “Publish critical reviews only, please,” Canadian Family Physician, 1999 Oct; 45(10):2286. Letter.
- “The cart before the horse” (with D Hoshizaki, M Herbert & K Edmonds), Canadian Family Physician, 1998 Sep; 44(9):1798-1799. Letter.
- “Evaluating unconventional therapies,” Canadian Medical Association Journal, 1998 Oct 6; 159(7):759. Letter.
- “Protecting patients against ‘quackery’,” Canadian Family Physician, 1998 Mar; 44(3):487-488. Letter.
In the News:
- “Integrative Energy Healing for medical professionals,” by Jesse Brydle, Skeptic North, 2009 Oct 2. “Let’s be glad that we’ve got people like Dr. Oppel and Mr. Beyerstein...fighting publicly for science and evidence-based medicine in our country.”
- “Thanks, Dr. Oppel, we need to see a lot more of this,” by Orac, Respectful Insolence, Science Blogs, 2009 Sep 7.
- “Medical group slams college’s energy-healing courses,” by Shannon Rupp, The Globe and Mail, 2009 Aug 31. “The British Columbia Medical Association is criticizing Vancouver's Langara College for training the public in therapies that are ‘medically useless’ and potentially harmful. [Dr Oppel] says that he has watched for a decade as Langara’s roster of holistic health courses has progressed from recreational classes to career training. … [He] says such classes defeat the purpose of education.”
- “Healing through your heels? Reflexology is a nifty de-stresser, but claims about cures are iffy,” by Elizabeth Bromstein, Now, 2006 Dec 14-21.
- “New group sets sights on herbal medicine,” by Barbara Sibbald, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 1999 Sep 7; 161(5):583.
The Online Lloyd Oppel:
