One of the first homeopath physicians to create a consultation at the Lyon Teaching Hospital in 1990, Dr. Martin inaugurated an approach now followed by a number of his peers. “This consultation has a great many advantages”, according to Dr. Martin. “It is of interest for the world of homeopathy that thereby obtains a type of recognition. As far as I’m concerned, working with allopathic doctors gives me the opportunity to confront different points of view and find a place within a hospital team. In fact, the doctors have made a habit of referring some of their patients to me.”
In his twice-monthly consultation in Prof. Raudrant’s department, Dr. Martin more specifically treats the gynaecological aspects of menopause. This orientation – “It consists of treating what we know how to treat” – lets him better understand the correlation between hormone treatments and homeopathy, assess the best way to combine both of them when necessary and, above, all, be effective.
Thereby, the allopathic doctors in the department call on homeopathic medicine – and therefore Dr. Martin – in a great many cases: morning sickness, treatment of perimenopause and menopause, certain side effects of breast cancer treatments, menstrual disorders, etc. “We take the whole woman into account since a diathesis is often found behind a disorder ».

When did you begin to practice homeopathy at the hospital, at the same time as your private practice ?
Dr. Jean-François Masson: I began my homeopathy consultations in Prof. Vilcoq’s department at Institut Curie in 1985. It consisted of accompanying patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy for breast cancer in order to help them better withstand the adverse effects of these heavy although necessary treatments and make up for the lack of hormones due to the impossibility of continuing substitution hormone therapy. With the strict methodology developed by the statisticians at Institut Curie, over a three year period of monitoring, we found that the homeopathic treatment of the diathesis in a recently operated patient, reduced the frequency of recurrences or metastatic extension.
As regards the clinical approach, we place a great deal of emphasis on well individualising and personalising the treatments prescribed in order to go beyond a purely symptomatic approach, that in spite of everything, we do not neglect.
Moreover, the use of Apis mellifica helped avoid the frequent and sometimes long interruptions in radiotherapy due to burns. This is a concrete result that surprised our allopath colleagues who did not have a solution for this type of problem. This was important since, for hospital doctors, there was a direct and objective benefit for patients.

You now provide a gynaecology consultation at Hôpital Bichat in Prof. Patrick Madéléna’s department. How were you welcomed as a doctor practising homeopathy and what do you feel is the right attitude to have to be fully integrated in a hospital unit ?
Dr. J.-F. M.: Prof. Madélénat is very open and pragmatic and considers that it is important to allow patients to benefit from other types of treatment, provided they prove their efficacy. I was welcomed within the department with a great deal of tolerance. I intervene in the staff meetings where a number of heads of departments from the Paris hospitals meet and I am rather well accepted.
To find one’s place, it is necessary to avoid the splits resulting from overly passionate or intolerant attitudes and, on the contrary, build bridges that foster dialogue. I try with regards to my colleagues, some of them harbouring certain reservations with respect to homeopathy, to pass the message that we may be able to help them and we can do it at two different levels :
– by treating acute cases, more quickly and more cheaply than with allopathy (metrorrhagia, dysmenorrhoea, cystitis, herpes). Homeopathy has a great many drugs that act very quickly.
– by acting on the source of the recurrences of these disorders, that allopathy often fails to treat. This is really the original calling of homeopathy that is to go “upstream” from the different symptoms, taking into account behaviour signs and by defining the imbalance in the diathesis that feeds these disorders.
The homeopathic drug “restores the inner balance”. The original feature of this approach, that no only consists of replacing chemical compounds with granules, is a totally different view of the disease, that interests and arouses the curiosity of our hospital colleagues. Explaining our approach, demonstrating that it is complementary with theirs, relying on concrete observations are all conditions for a constructive dialogue. Broadly, we can say that they take care of the aggressor and we take care of the aggressed. Each one has his field of action!
It does not consist of one OR the other but one AND the other one. This is what I try to demonstrate every day at the hospital.
To complete you question about my reception at the hospital, the extraordinary success of the homeopathy consultation at the hospital should be noted. There is a six month waiting-period. This proves that this consultation is of value and corresponds to a demand, all of which does not fail to interest our hospital colleagues.

What encouraged your arrival in Prof. Madélénat’s department?
Dr. J.-F. M.: In the past, I already worked on “mastoses” with their train of mastodynias in collaboration with Dr. Juras, an eminent Paris radiologist specialised in gynaecology. We noted an objective radiological difference when comparing breasts treated with homeopathy and those that were not.
With Prof. Madélénat, we thought that it would be interesting to use homeopathy in sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes, vaginal yeast infections, Chlamydia or recurrent bladder infections, for several reasons. First, in allopathy, we are rather helpless when confronted with the chronicity and recurrence of these diseases. However, in homeopathy, we are trained to approach the reactive diathesis of the patients, in this case the sycosis. We go upstream from the symptom to try and understand the “inner conflicts” that accompany or generate the illness. We take into account the emotional aspect which is not anodyne in the recurrence of these disorders. A reduction in the frequency and intensity of the attack, or even rendering them exceptional, are all assets that allow us to make a major contribution to the care of these patients.
In addition, the comparison of the cost of allopathic and homeopathic treatments should be emphasised. For example, an acute attack of herpes may benefit from cheaper homeopathic treatment with fully satisfactory efficacy. Above all, the elimination of problems of recurrence also results in savings.

Do you have any hospital projects ?
Dr. J.-F. M.: Two projects interest me greatly. The first is to contribute to the development of a methodology adapted to homeopathic practice with the help of hospital statisticians. It consists of leaving the limited “double blind” protocol. The purpose is not to develop a perfect methodology – it does not exist – but to provide sufficiently strict results to be taken into account and foster a dialogue. Given this, as my department head noted, a single observation can give us food for thought!
The second one: in the Spring, at Hôpital Bichat, organise a multi-disciplinary day allowing different speakers such as homeopaths or acupuncturists an opportunity to explain other approaches to hospital practitioners. Here too, it consists of fostering constructive and lasting dialogue.

In Great Britain, homeopathy developed thanks to its success during the epidemics that devastated the country in the 19th century.  During the famous cholera epidemic that struck London in 1854, the rate of mortality at the London Homeopathic Hospital was 16%, while the average rate at the neighbouring non homeopathic hospitals was 60%. In the country, there is a long tradition between the royal family and homeopathy. Thereby, the London Homeopathic Hospital, part of the National Health Service, became the “Royal” in 1947 and Dr. Peter Fisher, medical director of the hospital was named as personal homeopath physician to the Queen in November 2001. Launched in 2002, a project plans for the full restructuring of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital (RLHH). The new hospital will include premises devoted to teaching and meetings, a dispensary open to the public, a public information centre as well as clinical rooms and day hospital installations for homeopathic treatments and other forms of complementary medicine. In addition, the number of beds (currently 8) will be increased. In 2002, the RLHH merged with the University College Hospital Group, an internationally renowned teaching hospital, which will allow it to develop its teaching and research activities in view of its integration in the general system. This counters its current status as “alternative” or “complementary” medicine. Today, the RLHH employs 30 doctors, 5 pharmacists and other health professionals.

It also develops its training activities in homeopathy and a research platform that is an authority in the field.
«The Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital will provide holistic care, treatment for the mind and body as well as the application of classic and complementary medicines. It will also associate academic work with patient care so that the research remains as close as possible to the daily practice of the doctors. It will try to develop and perfect effective models for the provision of integrated care. In the aforementioned areas, I know that the new Centre will build on what is already a first achievement: the development of service models at the primary, secondary and tertiary level and the creation of very appreciated research, according to what I’m told. The opinion of its specialists is requested by directors and commentators from a great many countries and has become an international source of reference.”
HRH the Prince of Whales, on 28 January 1998, described the extension of the new Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital in Scotland in these terms in order to provide patients requiring intensive care or treatments combining several therapeutics in an “integrated” department, that is, a coherent system of health care to which “patients may have access in a practical and safe manner.”
This project, led by Dr. David Reilly, a researcher whose articles published in The Lancet are famous and recognised in the world homeopathy, has become a reality since January 1999.
500 patients per year are now admitted to the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, double the number of admissions ten years ago. The length of hospitalisation has been shortened over the same period. In addition, about fifty patients come for out-patient consultations at the hospital every week. Moreover, it neighbours the Gartnavel Hospital and there is a great complementarity between the two structures: the doctors can intervene on both sites. The whole medical team is able to obtain homeopathic drugs on the site. A documentation centre and a bookshop complete this structure.
Another specificity of the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital is that it combines clinical practice with research and teaching. A great many clinical trials are carried out there. The most important ones have been published in The Lancet. It also develops training activities in relation with the universities, for example, the U.K. Faculty of Homeopathy whose training programme includes the Primary Health Care Exam in Homeopathy, and stirs up interest from European and American universities.
This is how the establishment was acknowledged as an example in the medical field, integrating different complementary therapeutics and placing the patient-doctor relationship at the centre of its priorities. It has been recognised as a top level platform for clinical research.

« The Nehru Homeopathic Medical College & Hospital was founded in 1964 by Padam Bhushan. He was succeeded by Dr. Yudhvir Singh, former Delhi Health Minister. A collection also helped launch a homeopathic medical college in 1967. The latter allows participants to obtain a diploma after five years of study. Since 1992, this establishment has been affiliated with Delhi University. The hospital has 100 beds and is equipped with a good medical infrastructure. 500 out-patients are seen every day for dermatological, respiratory, rheumatological, gynaecological, and other problems. The medical team and the students, encouraged by the patients, are satisfied with the homeopathic treatment of a great many common disorders such as dyspepsia, asthma, eczema, gastritis, kidney and gallstones, anxiety, etc. The hospital also treats cancer patients. In these cases, homeopathy accompanies the usual treatments.
Faced with the strong demand for homeopathy, the central government in Delhi opened nine homeopathic clinics located in hospital structures. There are also 58 homeopathic dispensaries in the outskirts of Delhi. »