Robert Sears Baratz is an American dentist and skeptic who practices in

Braintree, Massachusetts Braintree () is a municipality in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is officially known as a town, but Braintree is a city with a mayor-council form of government, and it is considered a city under Massachusetts law. The populat ...

. Baratz has practiced dentistry since 1972 and

emergency medicine Emergency medicine is the medical specialty concerned with the care of illnesses or injuries requiring immediate medical attention. Emergency physicians (or "ER doctors") specialize in providing care for unscheduled and undifferentiated pa ...

since 1991. He was formerly the executive director of the

National Council Against Health Fraud The National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) was a not-for-profit, US-based organization, that described itself as a "private nonprofit, voluntary health agency that focuses upon health misinformation, fraud, and quackery as public health pr ...

(NCAHF).

Education and academic career

Baratz holds three

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

s (

M.D. A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...

D.D.S. A number of professional degrees in dentistry are offered by dental schools in various countries around the world. Degrees Dental degrees may include: Bachelor's degree * Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) * Bachelor's degree of Dentistry (BDS ...

, and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

). He is board certified in oral medicine, and completed his residency in internal medicine at the

Carney Hospital Carney Hospital was a small for-profit community teaching hospital located in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It was owned and operated by Dallas-based Steward Health Care. The hospital had its beginnings in 1863 in South ...

. He received his PhD from

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

in 1975. As of 2002, he was a faculty member at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

, as well as at

Boston University School of Medicine The Boston University School of Medicine (formally the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine) is the medical school of Boston University, a private university, private research university in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in ...

, where he has been a faculty member since 1976.

Views

Baratz has harshly criticized spending money on researching

alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...

. Baratz has also criticized include the use of the

Heimlich Maneuver Heimlich maneuver, also known as abdominal thrusts or Heimlich manoeuvre, is a first-aid procedure used to treat upper-airway obstructions (or choking) by foreign objects. American doctor Henry Heimlich is often credited for its discovery. ...

drowning Drowning is a type of Asphyxia, suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Submersion injury refers to both drowning and near-miss incidents. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where othe ...

victims, which he has referred to as "human experimentation" and which he says "violates the basic rules of medical ethics," as well as

insulin potentiation therapy Insulin potentiation therapy (IPT) is an unproven alternative cancer treatment using insulin as an Adjunctive therapy, adjunct to low-dose chemotherapy. It was promoted by a paper in the controversial and non-peer reviewed journal ''Medical Hypothe ...

. In addition, Baratz, along with the

American Dental Association The American Dental Association (ADA) is an American professional dental association. Established in 1859 and with over 159,000 current members, ADA is the world's largest and oldest national dental association. The organization lobbies on behal ...

(for which he is a spokesperson), believes dental amalgams to be safe and their alleged adverse health effects unproven. Baratz has also voiced opposition to

chiropractic Chiropractic () is a form of alternative medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially of the spine. It is based on several pseudoscientific ideas. Many c ...

, and appeared in an episode of Frontline called "A Different Way to Heal?" which questioned the scientific foundation of alternative medicine. In the episode, he said that "The chiropractic theory of manipulation as being curative of disease or in terms of diagnosing disease, is based on a false premise." The episode was harshly criticized by Daryl Wills, then-president of the

American Chiropractic Association The American Chiropractic Association (ACA), based in Arlington, Virginia, is an organization that promotes the pseudoscientific concept of chiropractic and its practitioners. Purpose and mission The stated mission of the ACA is to improve the ...

, who wrote in a letter to PBS that he "found it ironic that a program titled "Scientific American Frontiers" would completely ignore the scientific foundation of the chiropractic profession" and also questioned the NCAHF's neutrality with regard to alternative medicine-related topics. In reply, Baratz posted a response on the NCAHF's website in which he argued that "The fact that one does research on chiropractic does not make it "evidence-based." One can research scams and collect statistics on them. They are still scams." Baratz is also a scientific advisor to the

American Council on Science and Health American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

, and co-authored the book ''Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Decisions'' along with

Stephen Barrett Stephen Joel Barrett (; born 1933) is an American retired psychiatrist, author, and consumer advocate best known for his work combatting health fraud and promoting evidence-based medicine. He founded Quackwatch, a network of websites that cri ...

Harriet Hall Harriet A. Hall (July 2, 1945 – January 11, 2023) was an American family medicine, family physician, U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, author, Science communication, science communicator, and scientific skepticism, skeptic. She wrote about alterna ...

, William London, and Manfred Kroger. In 2006, Baratz filed a complaint about

Victoria Wulsin Victoria Elizabeth Wells Wulsin (born October 27, 1953) is an American physician and political candidate who specializes in epidemiology, and AIDS research among women in Africa. She has also been involved in politics, and in 2006 and 2008 ran as ...

's endorsement of malariotherapy as a treatment for

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

to the State Medical Board of Ohio; as of 2008 the complaint had been closed. In 2009, Baratz teamed up with Kimball Atwood,

Wallace Sampson Wallace Sampson (March 29, 1930 – May 25, 2015), also known as Wally, was an American medical doctor and consumer advocate against alternative medicine and other fraud schemes.Antiscience Trends in the Rise of the 'Alternative Medicine' Moveme ...

and Elizabeth Woeckner to write an article in the ''Medscape Journal of Medicine'' which harshly criticized the use of

chelation therapy Chelation therapy is a medical procedure that involves the administration of chelating agents to remove heavy metals from the body. Chelation therapy has a long history of use in clinical toxicology and remains in use for some very specific medic ...

as an alternative medical treatment.

Selected publications

* * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baratz, Robert Sears Northwestern University Dental School alumni Living people 20th-century American dentists American skeptics People from Braintree, Massachusetts Boston University faculty Northeastern University faculty American critics of alternative medicine Feinberg School of Medicine alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Health professionals from Massachusetts 21st-century American dentists