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Pitts Lectureship to discuss alternative medical system The growing number of health care consumers seeking cures and comfort outside the medical establishment has raised issues of safety, efficacy, and the need for private or government regulation of complementary and alternative therapies. These issues and others will be addressed and discussed at the ninth annual Thomas A. Pitts Memorial Lectureship to be held on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 13 and 14, at MUSC’s Gazes Auditorium. This year’s lectureship, entitled “Alternative Medical Systems: Here to Stay, But on What Terms?” is supported by the Health Sciences Foundation and presented by MUSC, the Institute of Human Values in Health Care, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and the College of Medicine’s Office of Continuing Medical Education. “We’re expecting an outstanding program this year,” said Robert M. Sade, M.D., chair of the lectureship planning committee. “We’ll be looking at the philosophy that underlies the practices of complementary and alternative medicine and its relationship to the science of medicine.” Sade said that presentations, mini-debates, panels and open discussions will explore such issues as scope of practice and license laws, availability of practitioners, Food and Drug Administration regulation of dietary supplements and alternative therapies, and distinguishing between qualified practitioners and quacks and frauds. “There will be plenty of opportunity for audience participation after faculty presentations and during panel discussions on Friday and during open discussions in the Saturday morning session,” Sade said. In recent years, the Pitts Lectureship has grown to include a larger faculty with a broader range of expertise. “Our lectureship faculty have national and international reputations. We’re able to attract the best in whatever field the lectureship focuses on,” Sade said. He also said that now that the conference is held on campus, it is much easier for MUSC students, faculty and staff to attend either the whole event or just the parts that particularly interest them. For registration information and questions about the conference or the Institute of Human Values in Health Care, contact Robert Sade, M.D., or Sharon Kest at 792-5278 or at values@musc.edu.    Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.