By Rich Barrett, ND and faculty member at NCNM
Over the weekend of November 7-9th, The Gathering, a meeting sponsored by naturopathic medical students, convoked in Portland at the National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) campus. The Gathering is an annual meeting to celebrate naturopathic philosophy and was inaugurated in 2002 at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine (SCNM). Students invite elders from the profession to present wisdom gleaned from years of clinical experience and study.
Senior Helfgott researcher, Carlo Calabrese and NCNM Vanguard faculty members Dick Thom, Paul Kalnins and Rich Barrett were on a panel Sunday afternoon discussing the place of evidence based medicine (EBM) and research in the naturopathic paradigm. Doctors Andre Saine, Tish Dick, and Deborah Frances joined them. One impetus for the panel was an exchange that occurred a few years ago between Drs. Jared Zeff and Lorilee Schoenbeck in the Journal of Naturopathic Medicine that essentially pitted the values and traditions of naturopathic medicine against the standards of conventions of peer reviewed scientific medical literature.
The questions raised by this exchange served as a starting point for the panel.
The panel commenced with a few minutes of opening remarks about evidence based medicine. There was some time devoted to the quandary of fitting holistic naturopathic medicine, a round peg into the square hole of reductionist science. There was a wide range opinion about the state of the art of clinical research. Many felt the randomized control trial model was telling us more and more about less and less; compared to what our traditions tell us about treating patients. Other panelists held that well-designed trials that answer important clinical questions could change clinical practice for the better. Even with divergent opinions on the panel, civility and respect for one another were evident.
As the conversation evolved, a synthesis appeared to emerge from the panel. Everyone agreed that in order for research methodologies to do justice to naturopathic medicine (as it is practiced in the wild), whole practice methodologies will need to be designed and refined. Nearly everyone agreed that a feasible and initial step would be for naturopathic doctors to begin compiling case series. 
The role of the academics and researchers would be to develop research networks to facilitate the capture of this data.
There was a lot of interest amongst the audience around this topic. A long line of the students and alumni with questions and comments quickly formed at the microphone. This began a lively period of dialogue in the sold out venue, and the organizer of the event wisely chose to extend the panel by an extra half an hour. This will not likely be the last time we hear about the compelling conversation between naturopathic medicine and research methodology.