About the Longwood Herbal Task Force
History
The LHTF was organized in the fall of 1998 by faculty, staff and students from Children’s Hospital, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute to learn more about and teach other clinicians about herbs and dietary supplements.
Because oncology patients appeared to be the most frequent users of herbs/dietary supplements, the group began with systematic reviews of the six most common supplements used by oncology patients. Work rapidly expanded to include approximately 85 herbs and dietary supplements.
Development Proces
The compilation process includes:
- Searches of seven (7) databases (MEDLINE, Embase, Biosis, International Pharmacy Abstracts, Napralert, Micromedex and AltHealth Watch).
- Review of over 30 different books on herbal medicines, focusing primarily on those that cite original research.
- Writing a monograph using a standardized process review of the monograph by all members of the Task Force.
- Monograph revision.
- Final review by Dr. Kemper (Chair of the LHTF).
- Composing a summary for clinicians (Clinician Information Summaries).
- Composing a summary for patients (Patient Fact Sheets).