The purpose of the Dr. Rogers Prize is to highlight the important contributions of complementary and alternative medicine to health care. It is intended to recognize and reward people who have made significant contributions in the field, oftentimes in the face of doubt and criticism.
Many treatments and practices that we now consider to be commonplace – even common sense - have historically faced opposition and resistance. Many were initially considered preposterous and were ridiculed, rejected and dismissed.
Ideas like those of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, who in the mid 19th century documented that the practice of hand washing by doctors between patients reduced the mortality rate in obstetrics wards dramatically. The germ theory of disease had not yet been developed and his work was rejected. At the time, it was said to lack scientific basis and was dismissed as religious or superstitious. The evidence that hand washing was effective in saving lives was accepted after Dr. Semmelweis had been institutionalized and died. It was not until Louis Pasteur was able to develop and conduct experiments that clearly proved the correctness of the theory that it was widely, though not initially wholly, accepted as true.
In 1983 Doctors Barry Marshall & Robin Warren proved that Helicobacter pylori bacteria were responsible for stomach ulcers. This flew in the face of accepted wisdom that ulcers were caused by stress, spicy food and stomach acid. Also, everyone knew that bacteria could not survive in the acidic environment of the gut. The discovery was ridiculed. Dr. Marshall proved his point by experimenting on himself, ingesting the bacteria and developing ulcers, which were then treated with antibiotics. It has taken many years to change the established medical practice for treating ulcers (see timeline). In 2005, Drs. Marshall & Warren won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this work.
More recently in the news and most controversial is Dr. Paolo Zamboni's radically different approach to Multiple Sclerosis. Dr. Zamboni is the Director of the Vascular Diseases Centre at the University of Ferrara in Italy. His approach, chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI), suggests that Multiple Sclerosis is a vascular disease caused by a blockage or leaking of the veins that drain blood from the brain. The blockage of the venous drainage (CCSVI) may be the cause of excessive iron in the brain which leads to the symptoms of MS. His treatment - coined the "liberation procedure" - involves inserting stents or balloons to open the malformed and blocked veins. Research is underway internationally in an attempt to duplicate his findings. Meanwhile, people with Multiple Sclerosis travel far and wide to access the treatment.
Dr. Rogers cared for people with cancer who had been told that there were no further treatment options available to them and that they should get their affairs in order. His approach was centered around stimulating the immune system to recognize and deal with the cancer. He took this course of action knowing that the evidence had not yet been established but was adamant that these people had the ‘right to try before they die’. Dr. Rogers was committed to his patients, willing to challenge conventional thinking, daring to step outside the comfort and assurance of accepted practice in order to explore possibilities for people who had been relegated to palliative care. The idea of harnessing the immune system to fight cancer has caught hold and is now being researched by the B.C. Cancer Agency’s Dr. Brad Nelson, among others. The Centre Dr. Rogers established in the 70’s has evolved into InspireHealth, which offers integrated cancer care to an increasing number of patients.
In 2007 Dr. Abram Hoffer and Dr. Alastair Cunningham were awarded the first Dr. Rogers Prize. The panel of knowledgeable international jurors, Dr. James Gordon, Dr. George Lewith, Dr. Mary Ann Richardson, Dr. Simon Sutcliffe and Dr. Andrew Weil, had the challenging task of selecting a winner from a field of high achieving candidates. Adding to the difficulty was the fact of the backlog of unrecognized people in this field, many of whom were nominated. After lengthy and careful deliberation the Prize was split between Drs. Cunningham and Hoffer. Their respective bodies of work exemplified the courage, passion and trailblazing attitude that are fundamental to the commitment required to succeed in the face of doubt, opposition, and often blatant rejection. It is this type of groundbreaking, pioneering activity that the Dr. Rogers Prize is meant to reward, inspire and encourage.
In 2009, the Jury once again split the Prize, choosing two practitioners recognized as "agents of change' in the revolutionary movement toward an integrative approach to clinical medical practice.
Dr. Hal Gunn of Vancouver, a one time student of Dr. Rogers, took the fledging Centre for Integrated Therapy created by Dr. Rogers and evolved it into today's InspireHealth, looking after hundreds of cancer patients per year. The InspireHealth approach is a model for integrated cancer care focused not solely on the cancer, but on treating the whole person.
Dr. Badri (Bud) Rickhi was described as throwing away a promising psychiatric career in the late 1980's when he trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurvedic, Japanese and Tibetan medicine. He established the Research Centre for Alternative Medicine, now the Canadian Institute for Natural and Integrative Medicine (CINIM), and played a key role in establishing the Integrative Health Institute at Mount Royal College. Dr. Rickhi has been very successful in alleviating depression with his integrative approach and most recently has focused on teen depression.
The 2011 prize recipient, Dr. Marja Verhoef holds Canada's only Research Chair in Complementary Medicine at the University of Calgary. She has been a driving force behind the establishment of several Canadian networks promoting and enabling partnerships among those interested in complementary, alternative and integrative medicine. The most well-known of these is the IN-CAM network, a virtual organization sparking collaboration among researchers and practitioners in Canada, North America and internationally. She was the first President of the International Society of Complementary Medicine Research and has been a tireless advocate of appropriate research methods for the often multi-faceted approaches that fall under the umbrella of complementary and alternative medicine.
Funded by Vancouver’s Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation, the Dr. Rogers Prize is awarded biennially and is the largest of its kind in North America.
