Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
| Founded | 1985 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Neal D. Barnard |
| Focus | to promote non-animal methods in research and education (opposition to animal testing) and a plant-based diet (veganism) for disease prevention and survival. |
| Location |
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Members
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150,000 |
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Employees
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35 |
| Website | pcrm.org |
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is a non-profit research and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., which promotes a vegan plant-based diet, preventive medicine, alternatives to animal research, and encourages what it describes as "higher standards of ethics and effectiveness in research." Its primary activities include outreach and education about nutrition and compassionate choices to healthcare professionals and the public; ending the use of animals in medical school curricula; and advocating for legislative changes on the local and national levels.
The National Council Against Health Fraud has criticized PCRM as being "a propaganda machine" and the American Medical Association has called PCRM a "pseudo-physicians group" promoting possibly dangerous nutritional advice.
The Physicians Committee releases an annual report ranking the healthfulness of hospital food. The Physicians Committee also encourages hospitals to replace fast food with more healthful options. In January 2016, the Physicians Committee placed billboards that read “Eat More Chickpeas” near hospitals with Chick-fil-As. In May 2016, the Physicians Committee spoke before the board of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and erected billboards that read “Ask Your Local Hospital to Go #FastFoodFree.” In June 2016, Grady announced that its McDonald’s was shutting down.
When the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) announced in February 2015 that “cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption,” the Physicians Committee began working to keep cholesterol warnings in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
In March 2015, Dr. Neal Barnard presented oral testimony at the National Institutes of Health, stating that “for all its good work, the Committee made a scientific error on cholesterol and to carry this glaring mistake into the Guidelines is not scientifically defensible.”
In October 2015, the Physicians Committee placed billboards reading “#CholesterolKills” near the Texas home offices of Agriculture Committee chairman Rep. K. Michael Conaway. The Physicians Committee appealed to Rep. Conaway with the billboards and a letter after he convened an October congressional hearing over the Agriculture Committee’s “concerns with the process of developing the Dietary Guidelines.”
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