There are currently several postgraduate qualifications in the field of nutrition but none in the discipline in which the methods of allergy and environmental medicine are applied to the relief of chronic ill-health, the clinical discipline of environmental medicine. A large number of very common conditions respond to this type of management. In 2000, the BSEM initiated a training and accreditation scheme for doctors with the intention of issuing a list of accredited practitioners skilled in the practice of allergy, environmental and nutritional medicine.

In addition to attendance at the Society’s scientific meetings, trainees are expected to:

• attend the training course
• submit two long and four short case studies
• undertake clinical audit and satisfy the board of registration that they uphold the highest standards of practice.

The GMC has agreed in principle that, when revalidation comes into force, the BSEM’s board of registration will be the revalidating authority for doctors who practise this discipline.

Practitioners’ lists

The Society maintains two lists of ecomed practitioners. The higher grade is the register, which lists those members whom the Society positively recommends to the public. It is administered by Dr David Freed for the Society. To get your name on the register you have to (a) be in ecomed practice full or part time, (b) submit to the Society’s audit so that we can check that you get patients better using BSEM-approved methods, and (c) write up six case reports of your past or current ecomed patients explaining what you did and why, noting the outcome both short- and long-term. In addition you need (d) to be visited by a member of the Society’s board of governance to check your details and the practices of your clinic, (e) agree to and sign the Society’s regulations (which stipulate certain standards of conduct and practice), and (f) send Dr Freed an application form and fee (£100). Being on the register will almost certainly play a key part in revalidation when it happens, and that is why, with GMC approval, it was set up. If you aspire to being on the register, please get in touch with Dr Freed, who will guide you through the process.

The Society also maintains a list of practitioners going through registration, which simply brings your existence to the attention of the public but without any accreditation by the Society. To get on to that list, you simply have to send in your application form and fee (£100, payable to BSEM please), and attend at least two of our training sessions. You can get the application form from, and send your fee to, the Society’s Administrator. Please email info@ecomed.org.uk or call 020 7100 7090.

Good luck!

David Freed MD MIBiol

Registrar to the Board of Governance

Dljfreed@doctors.org.uk