Looking at Stem Cells? Here's my checklist to evaluate clinics

Unfortunately, being quasi-black market, patients need to do heavy research before taking on experimental, unproven, expensive treatments.

Stem cells are getting big, and honestly, it’s dangerous financially and health-wise.

By no means does this checklist all of a sudden make a clinic legit, safe, or effective. I’m not a doctor, clinician of any sort, or anything but a dumbass on the internet. Talk to your doctor before taking on any sort of treatment, especially experimental. People have and will continue to die….

That being said, here’s my checklist when I’m evaluating clinics for these write-ups and my own potential stem cell treatment:

1 - I search Google for the clinic’s name, doctor’s name, find out the lab they use and search that too, along with the leading scientists at that lab if I can find it. I’ll look at the first couple of pages for anything outstanding, and check the Google News tab. This will usually yield some good stuff.

2 - I’ll also search those items above with “Regenexx” in the search, to see if Dr. Centeno has written any exposés on them. Often, he’s already done the investigation for you. I don’t always agree with him, and there’s often a conflict of interest, but I respect his opinion a lot. Here’s his blog https://regenexx.com/blog/

3 - I also add “FDA” to the search, to see if there have been any warning letters sent to the lab/doctor/clinic. Sometimes you find scary shit, sometimes you find FDA letters that don’t really bother me like the letter and subsequent court case with Regenexx about expanded bone marrow concentrate. They lost the case, but in my opinion they were fighting for patients.

4 - Lastly, I find out which states the doctor is licensed in, and check that state’s medical board to see if their license has any issues tied to it.

5 - I then check certificationmatters.org to find out if that doctor is board-certified. Note that if they aren’t, as long as their license is in good standing, this isn’t necessarily a requirement to practice medicine, and a lot of regenerative doctors don’t have it. Board certification means they’ve been evaluated by their peers for their skills, and regularly keep up with the best techniques. It helps with malpractice, insurance, etc. and certainly should be board-certified, but sometimes not. Up to your opinion on that. I’d love there to be a good board-certified neurosurgeon doing stem cells, but can’t find one.

Normally there would be a #6 and above which would outline how to find studies published by the clinic backing up their claims that they can cure everything from Lupus to Parkinson’s… but unfortunately, clinics typically don’t publish data, rather they’ll piggyback on existing literature. I believe, and don’t quote me on this, that they are afraid of triggering the “drug” label by doing this, which would require a lot more than evidence-based practice to apply their ortho biologics.

Hopefully that changes, but it won’t anytime soon.