Rufus Barker Bausell, Jr. (born 1942) is an American biostatistician and retired professor at the
University of Maryland, Baltimore
The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1807, it comprises some of the oldest professional schools of dentistry, law, medicine, pharmacy, social work and nursing in the United States ...
, where, from approximately 1999 to 2004, he was the director of their center for studying complementary and alternative medicine. He was also the co-founder of the academic journal ''
Evaluation & the Health Professions'', and served as its editor-in-chief for more than three decades. An expert on research methods, he is known for criticizing
alternative medicine
Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...
, saying that alternative medical treatments are little to no more effective than
placebo
A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like Saline (medicine), saline), sham surgery, and other procedures.
In general ...
s. He is the author of the book ''Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine'', published in 2007 by
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
. He has also written a book about teaching in the United States and how he feels it could be improved, entitled ''Too Simple to Fail''.
References
Living people
Critics of alternative medicine
University of Maryland, Baltimore faculty
Biostatisticians
1942 births
American statisticians
Place of birth missing (living people)
Academic journal editors
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