Professional relationships in medicine tend to be genteel to the point of boring. Sure, disagreements and ego clashes occur all the time, but they are usually quiet affairs, rarely surfacing outside of hospital, laboratory and medical school corridors of gossip.
So, when two icons of American medicine toss off their white coats and go public with their feud, the issue is bound to be a sizzler.
In this case, it's alternative medicine.
The skirmish is launched in today's issue of the liberal opinion journal the New Republic, in which Dr. Arnold S. Relman, former editor of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, shreds the career of his onetime medical student from Harvard, alternative medicine guru Dr. Andrew Weil.
Weil has authored several bestselling books on alternative medicine, hosted a hit PBS special and appeared on the cover of Time magazine last year. Not to be cowed by his former teacher, Weil has posted a response on his Web site (http://www.drweil.com) and whipped off a rebuttal letter to New Republic Editor Chuck Lang.
And the debate between the two men over alternative medicine and its role in modern health care won't end there. Relman and Weil have tentatively agreed to a face-to-face debate in April at a medical ethics conference at the University of Arizona, where Weil teaches.
It's enough to make any scientist pull his or her nose out of a beaker and dash to the nearest newsstand.
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The clash comes at a time when many medical professionals are seeking common ground between conventional and alternative medicine. Indeed, the term "integrative medicine," which signals the blending of both fields, is now in vogue. The melding of the two approaches is apparent in the explosion of alternative benefits, including acupuncture and Chinese herbs, being added to insurance plans. And some of the nation's most prominent medical schools now offer alternative medicine classes to students.
It's that type of public acceptance that hard-liners on the issue, like Relman, may find so alarming. The feisty Relman is also known for his pointed criticism of HMOs and their influence on medicine.
"Here is Dr. Weil, who is extremely well-known but whose work raises significant scientific issues, and someone as responsible and well-known as Dr. Relman takes him on," Lang said. "It's a battle royale."
