The world homeopathic community was shocked and saddened by death of Dr Peter Fisher. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends at this sad time. They have lost a loved one, whilst medical homeopathy has lost a world leader. The untimely death of Dr Peter Fisher, President of the Faculty of Homeopathy, Director of Research at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine and physician to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, has produced an array of reactions around the world. These are a few of them in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian:
http://www.siomi.it/in-ricordo-di-peter-fisher/
http://homeos.org/fallecimiento-del-medico-homeopata-ingles-dr-peter-fisher/
https://www.homeopathie-francaise.com/images/SSH/SSH_Communique_de_presse_17_08_18.pdf
www.homoeopathie-online.info/in-memoriam-peter-fisher/ https://facultyofhomeopathy.org/
The ECH, in honour of his hard work and endless campaigning, is continuing, or even redoubling, its efforts to promote medical homeopathy.
A memorial service was held in St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, where HM The Queen was represented by Cristal Skaling-Klopstock, CEO of Homeopathy UK.
Several obituaries were published in the press, including in The Times.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dr-peter-fisher-obituary-dx7l6820z
A personal tribute
With shock and sadness I heard about Peter Fisher’s untimely death.
I have come to know Peter personally as someone with an unfaltering dedication to homeopathy. He had the rare gift of mixing this dedication with the mind of a critical thinker who is always prepared to test, and question, his assumptions.
My first contact with Peter was more than 30 years ago in 1986 when I was a student of epidemiology. At that point in time, research in homeopathy was still little known, and when stating that we need more research, a common answer was “Why do we need research, I see in my practice that it works”. This was however not the answer I got from Peter Fisher, instead he received me with open arms at (what was then named) the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital and over a beer at Queen’s Square we quickly agreed that we were going to work together on research projects in homeopathy. It heralded the beginning of a lifelong collaboration with him, both as a colleague and as a friend.
We first worked on the topic of electronic data collection in homeopathy in the late 1980s, but our most intense collaboration took place during my period as Deputy Director of Research at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital from 1995 to 2004. At that time, our joint dedication to advancing research in homeopathy came to full fruition. We conducted many research projects, not only in the area of homeopathy, but also in the domain of complementary medicine in general.
We also launched the international and highly successful conferences series “Improving the Success of Homeopathy”, which could be considered the predecessor of the current two-yearly “Homeopathy Research Institute” conference.
Our most cited joint publication (cited 635 times to date) is one that investigated the so-called ‘hawthorne effect’ in a trial of ginkgo biloba for the treatment of early dementia. It was one of the first papers which conclusively demonstrated that the attention received, and being observed, as part of the conduct of a clinical trial has clinically significant effects. The fact that this paper continues to be widely cited more than 10 years after its publication by both conventional and complementary medicine scientific journals alike, illustrates the wide-ranging and lasting effect of Peter’s work as a scientist.
As a colleague and friend, Peter was always open for new ideas and suggestions, and he welcomed criticism as a means of improving homeopathy and complementary medicine.
As Editor-in-Chief of the journal Homeopathy for more than 30 years, he was not only a worthy successor of great British Homeopaths of the turn of 19th century, he modernized and advanced the journal to be the leading, international peer reviewed medical journal dedicated to homeopathy. In the true spirit of critical thinking, he always felt strongly about publishing not only the successes, but also the failures of homeopathy, so that we can learn from the latter.
Peter Fisher was one of the most important critical thinkers of homeopathy in the 20th century. He was, and is, a beacon for the homeopathic community and will be sorely missed. Whilst it will be impossible for anybody to step into his shoes, I am consoled by the thought that he has inspired many, including myself, to continue investigating and improving homeopathy with unrelenting fervor.
Dr Robbert van Haselen
Director, International Institute for Integrated Medicine / World Integrated Medicine Forum
