Medical crowdfunding raises millions for dubious and dangerous cures
- A study found 1,000 campaigns that had raised US$68 million in three years
- Some of the treatments were free, some unnecessary and others dangerous
Online appeals to help sick people by raising money for unfounded and sometimes dangerous treatments and purported cures bring in millions of dollars each year, researchers say.
The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at crowdfunding activity from 2015 to 2017 and “identified more than 1,000 campaigns that raised nearly US$6.8 million”.
“This money is wasted at best and harmful at worst,” researchers wrote on the site healthaffairs.org.
Four crowdfunding sites, including the most well-known, GoFundMe, collected the money.
Researchers focused on homeopathic or naturopathic cancer treatments, hyperbaric oxygen therapy for brain injury, stem cell therapies for brain and spinal cord injury and long-term antibiotic therapy for chronic Lyme Disease.
The study was limited in scope by focusing only on these five treatments and four crowdfunding platforms.