Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40755667›Full record

ReviewCureus2025

Rockefeller, the Flexner Report, and the American Medical Association: The Contentious Relationship Between Conventional Medicine and Homeopathy in America.

Dana Ullman

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Dana UllmanFamily Medicine, Homeopathic Educational Services, Berkeley, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

This article examines the ideological and institutional forces that led to the marginalization of homeopathy in American medicine, despite its popularity among prominent figures, including John D. Rockefeller. Drawing on five previously unpublished reports written for Rockefeller by his philanthropic and business advisor, Frederick T. Gates, the article reveals how these internal communications criticized homeopathy while shaping Rockefeller philanthropic foundations' policy. Using early 20th-century archival materials, it places the foundations' decisions within the broader context of changes in American medical education and regulation. The resulting funding decisions played a critical role in medical education reform and the rise of "scientific medicine." The article also summarizes several strategies used by the American Medical Association (AMA) to marginalize homeopathy, including the "consultation clause" in its code of ethics, its collaboration in the writing of the Flexner Report, and its early advertising policies - an underexamined but significant factor in the AMA's consolidation of power and accumulation of financial resources.

Indexed as

consultation clauseflexner reportfrederick t. gatesgeorge h. simmonshomeopathy sciencejohn d. rockefellerjohn d. rockefeller jrrockefeller institute for medical researchwilliam osler

Identifiers

PMID40755667
PMCPMC12318542

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.