In September, the Pacific College of Health and Science and Lhasa OMS hosted a panel of experts to discuss the FDA-approved clinical trials at UCLA and UCSD: Chinese Herbs and Mushrooms for Covid-19

Speakers:  

PI Andrew Shubov, MD, co-investigator Lan Kao, DACM, LAc and Gordon Saxe, MD, PhD, MPH

Introduction by Dr. John Chen, PharmD, PhD, OMD, LAc

About this webinar:

Have you heard? A team of our brilliant peers, including John Chen and Gordon Saxe, have been working with UCLA and UCSD to design a clinical study to treat COVID-19 with a Chinese herbal formula. The project received approval by the FDA earlier this year, and recruitment is underway for people newly diagnosed with symptomatic COVID-19 in the Los Angeles and San Diego regions.

• Introduction by Dr. John Chen, PharmD, PhD, OMD, LAc
• Meet PI Andrew Shubov, MD , co-investigator Lan Kao, DACM, LAc and Gordon Saxe, MD, PhD, MPH
• Brief overview of the Chinese herb component of the Mushroom and Chinese Herbs for COVID-19 (MACH-19) trials
• Q & A panel discussion, also including Pacific College’s Dr. Z’ev Rosenberg

Primary focus:

• Explore the challenges investigators faced in study design, and the innovative solutions they developed to address Chinese medicine pattern differentiation in a large-scale randomized controlled trial
• Learn about the strict safety measures that were incorporated into the study, such as strict botanical drug quality control, exclusion criteria, safety monitoring during the study, and the inclusion of a Chinese medicine medical monitor
• Address how the investigators navigated the process and obstacles for FDA and IRB approvals in the US, as well as some of the roadblocks they overcame to implement the study
• Insights about possible options for streamlining the process and minimizing delays in the study approval process

About the Speakers:

ANDREW SHUBOV, MD
Integrative Medicine| Hospital Medicine | Acupuncture

Dr. Andrew Shubov is director of the inpatient East-West medicine consult service at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center. As part of the service, he and other East-West medicine physicians provide acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine diagnostic and treatment strategies to critically ill hospitalized patients. He also works alongside physicians in the outpatient extensivist clinic in Westwood to bring integrative East-West medicine to complex patients with multiple medical conditions, and he sees patients part-time in the Westlake Village East-West Medicine office. He is board certified in internal medicine and integrative medicine.

In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Shubov is an assistant clinical professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is involved in research on transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on acupuncture points for the treatment of chronic constipation and other disorders, and is also interested in research on inpatient conditions, such as advanced heart failure, autonomic dysfunction and chronic abdominal pain.

LAN KAO, DACM, LAc, National Diplomate of Oriental Medicine

Dr. Kao is a clinical specialist in Chinese medicine and acupuncture with over 21 years of clinical experience, expertise, and leadership in the field of Eastern medicine. Lan Kao is currently a clinical specialist and research associate at the Center for East West Medicine under the Department of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is also part of an integrative mental health team for UCLA Operation Mend Intensive Treatment Program for veterans and military service members with PTSD and mild-traumatic brain injury. Primary research interests in studying the utility and effectiveness of Chinese medicine and acupuncture for prevention and treatment of PTSD, and building resiliency.

As the first acupuncturist recruited by the Department of Defense in 2008 to work on an integrative pain management team, she laid the groundwork for the utilization of acupuncture within the military medical system that included development of treatment protocols, methods for long term self care, and recovery for service members and veterans. Success of the program led to the National Defense Act of 2010, a health policy which implemented comprehensive and complementary care for pain management into military health care systems and facilities throughout the U.S.

Her research in holistic medicine and health for chronic complex diseases such as autoimmune disorders and PTSD is published in peer-reviewed journals including Medical Acupuncture, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, FOCUS, and Global Advances in Health and Medicine.

JOHN CHEN, PharmD, PhD, OMD, LAc
Medical Consultant, Evergreen Herbs & Medical Supplies

A recognized authority on Chinese herbal medicine and Western pharmacology holding doctoral degrees from both USC School of Pharmacy and South Baylo University, he currently teaches at USC and other universities of traditional Chinese medicine. Chen actively participates in education and research, and lectures widely at conferences at local, state, national, and international levels. Dr. Chen is a guest lecturer at the Pacific College of Health and Science acupuncture school. He also appeared in a six-hour Discovery Channel documentary on complementary and alternative medicine in 1999. Chen is the author of three textbooks: Chinese Medical Herbology and Pharmacology, Chinese Herbal Formulas and Applications, and Chinese Herbal Formulas for Veterinarians.

GORDON SAXE, MD, PHD, MPH
Preventive and Integrative Physician, UC San Diego

Dr. Gordon Saxe is the Executive Director of the Krupp Center for Integrative Research, a preventive and integrative medicine physician, an epidemiologist, a founding member of the UC San Diego Centers for Integrative Health, and a national leader in the food-as-medicine movement. He serves as the FDA Sponsor-Investigator of the Mushroom and Chinese Herbs for COVID-19 studies and his current and past research has also focused on diet and endometriosis; diet and glaucoma; lifestyle medicine and cardiac disease; epidemiology of diet and cancers of the prostate, breast, and pancreas; diet and body-mind exercise to control progression of advanced prostate cancer; and diet and gene expression in prostate cancer. He received his MD from Michigan State University, his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan, and his MPH in Nutrition from Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.